Baaghi 2 Review - The Tiger Whimpers

Baaghi 2’s biggest asset is Telugu film Kshanam. The 2016 hit was smart, taut and intriguing. ‘Action designer’ (that is what he’s credited as in the film) and director Ahmed Khan takes the Telugu film’s story and creates a frame-to-frame copy but changes it to suit the new-age Bollywood persona (chiseled body, patriotic flag bearer and big muscles). This mould is fitted by Tiger Shroff. So what do you say about a movie that’s most profitable aspect is the film it’s attempting to recreate? Not much.

The film starts off with a ‘kidnapping’ sequence. I say that in quotes because it is absolutely ridiculously shot. Disha Patani takes some leaves and sprinkles them out the window of her lavish car (almost the Bollywood holy and pure version of throwing away your cigarette butt). Neha (Patani) is attacked and we later find out that not only her car, but her daughter in the car have been taken away. Neha, in a desperate attempt calls her ex-boyfriend, Ranveer Singh (not Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff), also known as ‘Ronny’. It’s up to Ronny to save Neha’s daughter, Rhea, and look killer while doing it. There could not have been anyone to deliver lines such as ‘Jo tera torture hain, wo mera warmup hain.’ better on God’s green earth than Shroff. His shirt is always off and his abs on display. The camera caresses Tiger’s six pack abs as much as Ahmed Khan has an obsession for grainy footage to show landscapes and action sequences (the quality with which he shoots is pixelated and ends up giving the film an amateur vibe). Unlike the quintessential Salman Khan/John Abraham film, Baaghi 2 attempts to inject emotion into this quite frankly done to death story.

In spurts, Khan and his writers succeed. Especially in the first half. The film flashes between college and the grim action seamlessly. The tone of the film changes professionally, and somehow the cliched Rahul-Anjali love (basketball) never seems outdated. That is the testament to the sizzling chemistry between Shroff and Patani. The two of them have an innocence that plays out on screen and makes you want to root for them. That is, surprisingly, the part of Baaghi 2 that works. The reasons that Neha leaves Ronny ultimately are illogical but the two actors skilfully patch up the bumps in the narrative. However, in the second half, after a twist unfolds, Khan loses his grip on the original content, Kshanam and his grip on the viewers. The film turns from intriguing to absurd. 100 minutes into the film, everyone is either a bad person or dead. Ultimately, the film goes into free fall mode. It seems like the ‘jungle sequence’ where there is a farmhouse in the middle of what seems like the set where Jumanji was shot, was made up right on the spot. There’s a 15 minute climax that just beat me into submission. Because, to producers Sajid Nadiadwala and director Ahmed Khan, I beg you. When you know you’ve got an illogical script, get some lesser actors to portray your characters.

Because the way in which Deepak Dobriyal, Randeep Hooda and ESPECIALLY Manoj Bajpayee are portrayed absolutely haunted me. Dobriyal plays a car-dealership owner with a limp, who spoke the same lines as his Pappi from Tanu Weds Manu except in a darker tone. Randeep Hooda looks like he’s having great fun as LSD, the cop. (Get it, LSD?). But the biggest offender of these three is Manoj Bajpayee, a once seasoned actor who was brilliant in February’s Aiyaary but now just becomes monotonous and repetitive as the film proceeds. Tiger Shroff does what he needs to. He kicks ass, bares his muscle and lets the camera feel his six pack abs. There is no acting and while spurts of emotions in the script are required, he remains bloodless. I wish that Disha Patani’s role had been taken up by someone like Alia Bhatt or Parineeti Chopra (but those two wouldn’t take such a role, ever). She is strictly a prop and disappears (spoiler alert) in the entirety of the second half).

But the biggest offender in these proceedings is Jacqueline Fernandez and her rehashed Ek Do Teen that is absolutely awful. In the cinema where I was, the song that played when Fernandez displayed her human-defying abs was actually different than the Shreya Ghoshal remix that has been trending on YouTube for hours. It’s almost like Khan and Nadiadwala decided to switch up things at the last minute and change Ghoshal’s vocals, which are the best part of the remix. Its awfully regressive dance moves and almost criticism of the Madhuri Dixit-classic is a hard thing to witness.

I have criticisms about Baaghi 2, but I particularly liked the first half and the sense of mystery it had. I can’t recommend that you watch the sequel of Baaghi (it is a step up from the Sabbir Khan directorial, however), but I have to applaud the first half of the film. Practically no action scenes (except one patriotic fight in the Panaji Police Station) and pure emotion and suspense was what Kshanam required. I wish Khan had gone about the film the same way in the second half. Before I give my rating, I have to say that the film’s action sequences were nothing to brag about and were hideously outdated. I hear Baaghi 3 is coming and I hope my comments will be taken into consideration in the third instalment. Till then, I’m going with 2.5 stars out of five for Baaghi 2.