If you believe in the extant Hollywood adage "every movie is better than the one before it", this one’s for you. If you have taken the bait one time too many, you can choose to skip this one depending on whether you have better things to do.
First things first. The movie left me a bit disappointed. Sure enough, it picks up right from where it left us in Part 1 but hardly half an hour into the first half and you’ll realize something’s amiss. For one, I was expecting a lot from Nawazuddin Siddiqui. And even though he wasn’t that bad (bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils and what have you), he never shone through as much as I expected him to. To be fair there might not have been much scope left for him, the tone having been already set by Manoj Bajpayi earlier and the thunder stolen & secured. But I like to think he’s a far better actor.
Huma Qureshi teases only to disappoint. Tigmanshu Dhulia doesn’t have much screen presence and he looks jaded when he does. Maybe its because he supposed to have grown old :-P Richa Chadda pitches in with her trademark tart tongued one-liners now and then, but thats barely sufficient to keep our eyes and mind riveted. Rest of the star cast just flit in and out, much like the batsmen in the Indian cricket team on a bad day. It looked as if the entire cast was in a hurry to get over with the shooting. Not only the cast, even AK looked off color what with so many anachronistic errors having crept in (Nawazuddin smoking Gold Flake Lights in 2002-2003 and Tata Indica Vista being used in 2005-2006 !!).
The PLOT - Ah the plot ! Having watched Part I if you are expecting a "plot", I’m afraid you’ll only be expecting too much. If you were a bit uncomfortable with the dose of violence/kilings in Part 1, you’ll only grow tired of it by this time. Just too many characters all baying for each other’s blood. Violence can be used to good effect but only to set the tone of the movie. You can’t run a 5 hour movie purely on violence, no matter how stark, how crude, how "basic", how Tarantino-esque or how Leonesque it is. By this time, we all know the characters are good with their guns, we know that they are into the habit of shooting first and asking questions later but surely we are looking forward to other things as well. How about a bit of the traditional "muted" screen presence, a bit of body language, a bit of character building, a bit of eye contact, a bit of "pith". There’s just so much of focus on violence that there isnt much else for actors/actresses to do. When you take this into account you’ll probably appreciate why the movie doesnt deliver upto its expectation despite a good cast. Maybe Manoj Bajpayee held the story together in Part I. Come Part 2 and it all starts to drag with too many pointless characters and subplots. Clearly this would have been better off being a 3.5-4 hour movie.
In a nutshell, things are a bit "toned down" in Part 2. More than a bit actually. Not everything to bad effect though. Violence/bloodshed and the much dreaded "cuss words" are all there but compared to Part I, they are a lot subdued. But this also means a lot of other things that made Part I appealing, namely crude humor, dialogue delivery, screen presence, catchy lyrics, etc, are all subdued in more or less equal measure.
Sadly, Part 2 somehow doesn’t match up to Part 1 in its tone and appeal. And this comes as a surprise primarily because the movie is basically made in one go and shown abroad in a single sitting. Its bifurcated into two parts for its commercial release in India. But Part 2 would have you think otherwise. Don’t get me wrong. Its not that Part 2 is unwatchable. Far from that. There’s a lot going for it. A good script, a few "punchy" "under the belt" dialogues, potshots at the maudlin songs of the 90s (Teri Meherbaniyaan Teri Kadardaaniyan, Bharo Maang Meri Bharo, etc). Old tunes like "Ek Taraf Chand Hoga" and "Kehke Loonga" reprise themselves while "Kaala Re" seems to be the pick of the lot from Part 2. "Saiyaan kaala, haathi kaala, koyla kale, yeh kaaala, who kaala…." - a fantastic tribute to all things Black. At one point though, it looked as if they were about to include references to many other black-colored "taboo" things too. Thankfully they desisted.
I don’t like the idea of abandoning a book/story/movie midway so I try my best to complete it. If you share this habit of mine, watch the movie and get over with it. Else you can give it a skip especially if you can’t stand long movies.
Rating 2.5/5