Raid 2

The bug of sequels hit mainstream Hindi cinema over a decade ago and it has remained till now and there is no reason why it would disappear in the near future. The latest to join the bandwagon is filmmaker Raj Kumar Gupta’s Raid 2, a sequel to its interesting and well-made Raid (2018). Although there has been a long list of sequels, most of them have not been able to justify their existence. Raid 2, thankfully, isn’t one of them. The corrupt minister Rameshwar Singh aka Tauji (Saurabh Shukla) is sentenced to jail after being exposed of corruption by the honest Income Tax Commissioner Amay Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) at the end of the first film. Raid 2 starts seven years later in 1989. By this time, Patnaik has faced numerous transfers for troubling the powerful. He is now posted in a town in Rajasthan where he exposes the royal Raja Kunwar (Govind Namdeo).

Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta of Raid and No One Killed Jessica, much was expected from the film, but it remains surface level. The twists and turns expected from the thriller atmosphere are missing mostly in second half. Like the previous film, this too is reportedly based on real incidents with fictional characters where an Income Tax Department officer uses every trick possible to track down white-collar criminal and bring him to justice. Led by Ajay Devgn as Amay Patnaik IRS, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax and Riteish Deshmukh as Dada Manohar Bhai. Raid 2 begins with Ajay Devgn’s Amay Patnaik taking on a Raja with other government official. However, things don’t go as planned when the royal family refuses to cooperate and starts attacking the team. But Patnaik had ready for that too, he waits at the other end of the palace to make sure he finds the money when its being moved around. After confiscating everything he asks for Rs 2 crore as bribe to let go of the money, gold and the charges.

Whether or not a film is crying for a sequel is decided by its box office success or an actor’s desire to return in a role promising sure shot glory. Audiences rarely have a say in these matters. When Raid, Rajkumar Gupta’s moderately budgeted tribute to the income tax department’s unsung heroes came out in 2018, it offered a welcome change of pace from Ajay Devgn’s brooding, bashing heroes. Watching him peacefully pursue the path of justice in a tax-defaulting MP’s home along with a battery of officers, while the mood continually shifted between humour and hostility, rendered Raid an unshowy strength. A muted Devgn is back on the fore as the 1980s’ IT star Amay Patnaik in Raid 2 with bigger targets in mind. Though he is as nonviolent as ever, there’s little originality by way of script, which is a classic case of more of the same.

The income-tax officer who covered himself in glory in Raid gets his knickers into a twist in Raj Kumar Gupta’s follow-up to the 2018 hit. But, as is his wont, he does not stop fighting. He hits a rough patch and then schemes to find a way out of the bind. The conventional narrative arc does Raid 2 no good. Irrepressible income tax officer Amay Patnaik’s latest adventure adds up to a leaden-footed rigmarole that struggles to find its way out of the plodding grind that it quickly turns into. Raid 2, riding on the star power of Ajay Devgn, buttressed by the presence of Riteish Deshmukh as the antagonist, is a maze of facile contrivances. The outcome does not match the film’s ambition and the performances, commendably restrained as they are, fail to offset the drudgery.