Race 2

Colorful frames, irrelevant songs, exotic locations, lady leads for skin show, attitude dialogs and some twists which worked in the 90’s. These fundamental components of the RACE franchise are definitely there for you in the sequel of RACE – RACE 2. With abundant amount of colorful upper class life and fantasy money spitted mind games, it will surely entertain you if you have enjoyed the first segment.

The plot this time has the main antagonist Armaan Malik, who owns Casinos around the globe. Chief protagonist Ranvir Singh helps Armaan in an impressive way by cheating Armaan’s business rival in a tricky play and thus Armaan gets the 5 casinos owned by his rival. There begins the association of Armaan and Ranvir and the story moves forward when Ranvir reveals his real intentions to RD. With a hero who is already in the RACE and a villain who is crooked and powerful to make money, RACE 2 repeats its flavor in a bigger frame.

Well the basic problem with Race is it’s so called unpredictability which is quite predictable. Whenever a crucial scene or moment comes, we are certain that it will either have a twist or the same scene will be shown in another angle after sometime. Abbas- Mustan have done so much of these kind of thrillers and if you are someone who looks at the name of the director before watching a film, RACE 2 won’t surprise you for its making style or story.

On screen, Saif is cool in his husky hunk avatar as Ranvir. John is a satisfying antagonist in the form of Armaan Malik. Deepika does not have much to do in this race. Jacqueline surprisingly gets some screen space.  Anil Kapoor held in the film just to justify the franchise and Ameesha Pattel in a totally useless character as RD’s assistant to spit some non veg jokes. Ameesha was in the film under the Special Appearance tag and the screen time was almost equal to the other female protagonists.

In the making, no big surprises from men in white Abbas – Mustan in terms of treatment and content. Shiraz Ahmed has written things in a way that suits the franchise. Pace is there for the screenplay but the pace literally takes away the bonding between characters. Dialogs are cool and smart in rendering but still outdated in many ways. The components used to narrate the story will remind you the Dhoom series and the tactics aren’t that super cool. Stunts designed by Peter Hein looked nice in trailer, but when it came to the film the cuts spoiled the fun big time. Colorful frames are there, but there were a few scenes in the movie where the camera had no focus, can’t believe such an error in a big bang bollywood flick.  Art direction is cool. VFX wasn’t that cool. Music of Pritam is peppy and the BGM of Salim-Sulaiman duo is appealing.

Overall, Race 2 is an average package. An even mix of illogical incidents, cool attitudes and cliché Abbas-Mustan twists. I am giving it a 2.5/5. There is nothing much there in the film to impress or surprise you. One time watch.