Many of you might be wondering why there is a Baaghi 2 at all, to begin with. Those might be the people that would have seen Baaghi and hence would be wondering where a sequel could possibly be derived from that. You lot should have nothing to do with the movie, or any word in this space that comes after this sentence.
Whatever Baaghi was, Baaghi 2 is, too. Hence, if nothing else, it is aptly named, with the title perhaps being a sufficiently long enough review of the film.
However, what it doesn’t do is start off from where the first one ended. This is a parallel dimension, but one where Ronny Singh (Tiger Shroff) not only exists with the same ante, but also many of the same fighting moves – many have been enhanced to make him Ronny 2.0 just like the film itself.
As far as the storyline itself is concerned, it’s not really much of an upgrade on Baaghi. If anything, it’s a downward spiral, for the original had at the very least some semblance of coherence, or the intent for it.
It is evident that the storyline isn’t the priority for director Ahmed Khan: even as all he had to do was to lift the Telugu movie Kshanam’s script and transform it into a believable excuse for all the action and masala that Baaghi 2 was going to be stuffed with. Lift he did, transform he did not.
Army Officer Ranveer Pratap Singh (Tiger Shroff) gets a call from his ex Neha (Disha Patani), asking for help in tracing her daughter Rhea who has been kidnapped. Ronny stumbles upon many things, except for clues to Rhea’s whereabouts – or existence – in his bid to trace her and return her to Neha.
The build, which takes up the first half in its entirety, is dedicated to this mystery and setting up of the stage, wherein Ronny would go hell bent for leather on. That he does, as he – and of course, more importantly, the audience – get the pieces of the puzzles thrown at them absolutely randomly, to a point where even if the jigsaw was completed, it wasn’t really easy to figure it out.
It is evident that the storyline isn't the priority for director Ahmed Khan: even as all he had to do was to lift the Telugu movie Kshanam's script and transform it into a believable excuse for all the action and masala
But yes, the story was always a pretext – albeit a bizarrely unconvincing one – to put together a string of action and dance sequences, which often overlap necessarily with one another and make Baaghi 2 seem like a channel-browsing crossover between an action video game and a dance karaoke playlist – neither of which the audience has any control over, of course.
And while the music fails is matching the level needed to lead a film that does not have a script to stand on, it’s the action that is the be all end all of Baaghi 2.
In that regard, and that alone, the film achieves what it sets out to do: throw in pulsating action, with a relentless onslaught of fight sequences that have indeed been shot with the needed impact. Tiger Shroff lives up to his billing as the growing action superstar of his generation, and takes his own dynamism up a few notches in many of the action sequences.
He does as good a job in acting as one could expect of him. But unfortunately what Baaghi2 does is waste acting talents as diverse as Manoj Bajpayee, Randeep Hooda, Deepak Dobriyal and Prateik Babbar, all of whom – especially the former two more established stars – are a complete misfit in a film that was designed and executed as a one-man show.
A couple in real life too - Disha Patani and Tiger Shroff star in this new release
That one man does all he’s asked to do, and so does the woman. Disha Patani is there to add the glamour and emotion – often at the same time – whenever the film finds a gap in the muscle-fest. That gap, however, doesn’t provide much respite from everything mindless that the film brims over with.
And this is not even counting the glorification of the human shield amidst the Kashmir setting, which considering the fact that the film has nothing but commercial ambitions, was always going to be criminally lopsided.
Baaghi 2 is not meant for counter-narratives and nonconformists. It is strictly for action buffs, Tiger Shroff fans, especially – and this can’t be stressed enough – those that extricated something worth watching in the original. And there might be further good news for you all, for Baaghi 3 is officially in the works as well
But for those averse to violence, Tiger Shroff or films without a tangible enough script, all the film has to offer is a baaghi without brains.
