Raid 2

Raj Kumar Gupta’s Raid 2 is a sequel of its own 2018 crime thriller Raid and continues the story of Amay Patnaik, an IRS (Indian Revenue Service) officer who still operates with a rigid sense of duty in a system that rarely rewards it. The movie ends with more surprises and twists than one would expect from a movie about tax raids and corruption. Let’s dive into the plot of Raid 2, its ending, and learn all about its cast, release date, and more. Ajay Devgn returns to play the role of Patnaik. This time, he comes face to face with a politician called Dada Manohar Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh), who is something of a darling of his constituency, Bhoj. Initially just a humble shoemaker, he rose in power thanks to popular support as first a state minister and then a cabinet minister. Patnaik, when he is transferred to Bhoj, suspects something is not right despite a feeling of general goodwill towards Dada and happiness suffusing the town. And indeed — spoiler alert — Patnaik is proven right. But even with ample evidence, can he really touch somebody as powerful as Dada Bhai? Not only does he have the state machinery at his disposal, but he is also a darling of the masses, and as we see in the movie multiple times, they would not hesitate to form mobs to sabotage any law enforcement action against him.

There are two ways to process a movie like Raid 2. First, relatively — as the latest star vehicle in a mainstream Bollywood landscape gasping for air, originality and audiences. The bar is lower than working-class spirits on a dry day (Raid 2 releases on Labour Day). By this yardstick alone, the film is alright. It’s not bad. Watchable, even. The sequel to Raid (2018) — which continues the retro adventures of painfully honest IRS officer Amay Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) — sticks to the basics: a colourful supporting cast (to offset a stiff hero), Amit Sial and Saurabh Shukla in full form, a bad guy (Riteish Deshmukh) pretending to be a messiah, a pulpy score, a raid-redemption-rise story, loads of money and gold and gotcha grins and one-liners.

Ajay Devgn isn’t the worst star-actor in Hindi films today, but he’s the most boring. Nowadays he tends to play unflappable types who either take on powerful adversaries or have to get their families out of a jam. And he does so in such a dour, bland way that you have to wonder if he gets any joy out of acting anymore. There’s a moment at the end of Raid 2 when his character’s carefully laid plans have come off perfectly. But Devgn’s face says, I’m tired and vaguely annoyed. You’ll be tired and vaguely annoyed by the end of Raid 2, a film that badly needs an agile, alive performance at its centre. Devgn reprises the part of Indian Revenue Service officer Amay Patnaik from the first film (2018), which was also directed by Raj Kumar Gupta. I’d written then: “The qualities that (presumably) make Patnaik such an excellent officer are the same ones that make him a taxing movie lead.” This is still the case, as Patnaik goes from posting to posting scowling and sighing at everyone else’s incompetence and greed.

Relentless Patnaik (Devgn) is a thorn in the lives of the corrupt. He is the party pooper of the privileged who think they can evade law and hence, the chemistry and conflict that unravel once he goes digging has a comic-thrilling element to it. One does not expect efficiency or honesty from public servants let alone heroism and hence the anomaly makes for an interesting watch. The second time around, Raj Kumar Gupta mounts his crime drama on a bigger scale. A brooding Patnaik dressed in formals, enjoys Singham like slowmo entry, glamour and clout. He can be transferred or suspended but he is always in power much against the odds. Ritiesh Deshmukh makes for an interesting no-nonsense, white collared antihero Dadabhai. He is a prodigal son, revered philanthropist and a powerful political leader. He is too good to be true and that leads Patnaik to go sniffing after his massive empire and assets. The two outsmart each other in a series of deceitful activities but only one can emerge victorious.

Nothing spells crisis for an industry louder than a film encouraging the reading of being better than what it is. The conclusion stems from both perception and positioning. How one looks at a film is largely coloured by what came before, and where it fits into the larger scheme of things. Currently, Hindi cinema is so riddled with adrenaline and frothing at the mouth with propaganda that Raj Kumar Gupta’s Raid 2, cautious at best and frustrating at worst, might end up as one of the bearable films of the year. But this would be a misreading — and misleading — because Gupta’s new film is as politically inert as it comes. The toothlessness undermines the premise of Raid 2, which, much like its predecessor, follows a government employee standing up to a corrupt politician. If an anti-establishment tone is inherent to the setting, the film unfolds by refusing to acknowledge it. In the filmmaker’s books, a hero is created by the system, and heroism is defined as a compliance with the state apparatus — a blind spot that shapes the parochial narrative.