Race 2 Hindi Movie
It's been a while for the official Men In White of Bollywood Abbas-Mustan to have tasted success at the box-office. Their last film Players turned out to be quite a turkey at the ticket windows. The makers bet their hopes this time around on the sequel of their 2008 action thriller Race. Whether this film matches the success of its predecessor or not let's find out.
Race 2 takes off with Ranveer Singh's (Saif Ali Khan) girlfriend's murder and his hunt of the killer in order to avenge her death. He starts off first by conning Vikram Thappar (Rajesh Khattar), the owner of five casinos, who works for Armaan Mallik (John Abraham) a street fighter turned casino king with the help of his step sister Elena (Deepika Padukone). Armaan values money more than anything and can go to any lengths for it. With an interesting money swindling proposition, Ranveer then approaches Armaan through Robert D'Costa aka RD (Anil Kapoor) and Armaan doesn't waste time in allying up to him. Together they plan a major heist that to flick the Shroud of Turin. However, Armaan doesn't know that the master of double crossing Ranveer has a different agenda altogether.
Race 2, just like its predecessor, moves ahead between umpteen twists and turns that make it hard for you to keep your eyes off screen. But unlike Race the thrill doesn't grip you right till the end. Filmmaker Abbas-Mustan follow similar pattern in Race 2 as well and courtesy that lose the steam as soon as the predictability of the events starts to sink in. From interval onwards, you easily slip into the nature of the film and start guessing, very correctly in this film's case, the turn of events the follow. Also that's where the monotony comes about which only makes you bored towards the end. The stretched run time towards the climax brings about the lull in the film.
If you think we have written off the film already wait for the filmmaker duo excels in various other departments. The film true to its franchise stands tall in the grandeur of it all. With generous amounts of expensive Audi convertables and Lamborghinis along with expensive localations of Italy, Turkey, Cyprus among many other places, Race 2 comes out as a highly stylized film. Above all, the filmmaker also adds dalops of oomph and glamour in the name of Deepika Padukone and Jacqueline Fernandez.
Even the filmmaking is highly international with brilliant works on the edits. The music however, much unlike the previous offering, doesn't grow on you and only adds as a deterrant to the goings on.
Abbas-Mustan make the right choice in retaining Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor in the sequel as the two add value to the film. While Saif Ali Khan not only set the screen on fire with his dashing looks, his act of a vengeful lover is also perfect. Anil Kapoor on the other hand forms the highlight of the film and is also the solo factor of many a laughs. His one-liners throughout the film have you in splits and its amazing how effortlessly he pulls of his character. The new entrants to the Race team don't quite have that impact. John Abraham completely loses the steam the moment he opens his mouth. He may just have his act right but he falters completely in the acting department. Deepika Padukone does a fair job while Jacqueline completely gets wasted. The little said about Ameesha Patel, who plays RD's sex-starved bimbette secretary, the better.
To sum it up, Race 2 has enough masala to satisfy the masses. The high octane action, glamour and grandeur cover up the flaws of the film.
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