None of the last six films of Bollywood star hero, Ajay Devgn, worked well at the box office. Even the critically acclaimed, Maidaan, also failed to leave a mark at the ticket window. At a point in his career where he was looking for box office success desperately, he teamed up with the director, Raj Kumar Gupta for a sequel to their hit film, Raid (2018). The film was released in theatres today with decent expectations. Did Ajay Devgn deliver the much-needed commercial success at the box office? Did the director, Raj Kumar Gupta, repeat the magic of Raid yet again? Did the lead actress, Vaani Kapoor, finally score her second hit film after Hrithik Roshan’s War in 2019? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

Amay Patnaik(Ajay Devgn), Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, India, in his career’s seventy-fifth case, raids the house, trust and offices of Central Railway Minister, Manohar Dhankar alias Dada Manohar Bhai(Riteish Deshmukh) but fails to identify unaccounted money and eventually gets suspended for raiding a Central Railway Minister house without any substantial evidence. How did the suspended Amay Patnaik eventually prove Dada Manohar Bhai, guilty of tax evasion and money laundering? How did Dada Manohar Bhai use his position as minister and earn a lot of acres of land? How did Dada Manohar Bhai launder crores of money using his charitable trust? Forms the rest of the story.

Raid 2 is one of those films where the lead actor and supporting actors save the film with their acting prowess. Barring Vaani Kapoor in the role of Malini Patnaik, almost all other actors made their presence felt using their experience. Ajay Devgn in the role of Amay Patnaik did a good job, just like he did in the first part of the Raid franchise. His screen presence and dialogue delivery were commendable, as always.

Riteish Deshmukh, in the role of Dada Manohar Bhai, delivered a very mature and subtle performance. The real show-stealers of the film are Amit Sial and Shruti Pandey. Both the actors delivered very good performances and managed to generate a few laughs as well. Saurabh Shukla, in the continuation of his role, Rameshwar Singh Aka Tauji from the first part, did a good job with his performance, as usual.

Supriya Pathak as mother to Dada Manohar Bhai made her presence felt with her mature performance. There is not much scope for Rajat Kapoor to perform in the role of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax. He did a good job within the limitations of the role that was offered to him. Tamannaah Bhatia and Jacqueline Fernandez appeared and danced in two special songs.

The biggest positive of the film is the background score by Amit Trivedi. His foot-tapping and energetic background score worked so well in the first half and made the routine proceedings in the second half a bit engaging. There were four songs in the film, including one song during the end credits. None of the songs worked and especially the two songs in the first half worked as speed breakers to the proceedings.

Sudhir K. Chaudhary’s cinematography is standard. He delivered what was required. Editor Sandeep Francis did a good job in the first half but he should have done a better job in the second half. Let’s discuss the director and the writing team in the analysis section.

1.⁠ ⁠First Half
2.⁠ ⁠Background Score
3.⁠ ⁠Actors Performances
4.⁠ ⁠Dialogues

1.⁠ ⁠Predictable Twists
2.⁠ ⁠Routine Screenplay
3.⁠ ⁠Lack of Freshness
4.⁠ ⁠Three Unnecessary Songs

When the first part of the franchise was released in 2018, the audiences liked the freshness of the script, the interesting screenplay around income tax raids and the engaging cat-and-mouse game between the protagonist and antagonist. In an attempt to replicate the success of part one, the director Raj Kumar Gupta and his team of writers used the same screenplay technique as part one. Due to this, the entire second although partly engaging, gives a sense of Déjà vu. Yes, most of the income tax raids in real life follow almost a similar pattern but when it comes to movies, the director and his team should be a bit more imaginative in writing and screenplay to hook the audience instead of showing the same things once again in a new film.

The director, Raj Kumar Gupta, did a good job in the first half. The set-up and the racy screenplay worked well up until the intermission. The backstory of the Dada Manohar Bhai, Amay Patnaik’s prep work before the raid, the confrontation sequence between the antagonist and protagonist and the eventual raid, unfold one after the other with gripping narration and engage the audience well.

The actual issues with the writing and execution start in the second half. Amit Trivedi’s background score and, the actor’s performance, especially the performance of Amit Sial, made the second half watchable but it should have been much better. Both the twists that unfold in the second half are very predictable. The cat-and-mouse game between protagonist and antagonist and the execution of raids appear pretty ordinary. The director even copied and used a sequence from the Telugu film ‘Race Gurram’. Also, there were two unnecessary songs in the first half between Ajay Devgn & Vaani Kapoor. Both the songs should have been edited to make the first half of the film even more engaging.

Overall, Raid 2 has an engaging first half, good performances from almost all actors and a very good background score but the routine and predictable screenplay in the second half made the film strictly decent. You can watch the film along with family when it is released on a digital platform but visit a theatre to watch the film only if you are fine with predictability.

Rating – 2.5/5

Tags Movie Review Raid 2