Awarapan 2 Movie Review | Anupama Chopra | THR India

Nineteen years after Awarapan turned Shivam Pandit into a cult figure, Emraan Hashmi returns to the role in Awarapan 2, directed by Nitin Kakkar and produced by Vishesh Bhatt. Anupama Chopra writes that Shivam is back in savior mode, but this time the task is multiplied — he must rescue a group of children who are about to be sold, and save a brother and sister placed under siege by their own unhinged, coke-snorting younger brother. Set mostly in Bangkok, the film is stuffed with gang rivalries, moles, a semblance of a love angle and too many villains. As Chopra puts it, more isn't always more.

The sequel leans hard on nostalgia — dialogue and songs from the 2007 film return, doves and Buddhist monks reappear as symbols of grace and divine intervention, and Chopra singles out the monastery sequence as the best scene in the film. She admires Nitin's unapologetic commitment to a high-decibel tone, and finds Shabana Azmi's gangster queen Nafisa a hoot, but writes that Puran Gabbi's Zorawar is a one-note baddie next to the real menace of Ashutosh Rana's Malik, that Disha Patani's Zara is unable to summon emotion, and that the brilliant Suvinder Vicky is reduced to a sidekick. Emraan rises above the bumps, instilling panache into this zakhmi parinda who has a purana rishta with dard — but a strong hero and old tunes can only take you so far. Awarapan 2 would have benefited from a tighter run time and less generic and predictable writing. And that is the THR Bottomline.

Awarapan 2 is playing in theatres now.

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