Khuda Hafiz 2 Review

Director: Faruk Kabir

Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Shivaleeka Oberoi, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Sheeba Chaddha

Runtime: 150 minutes

Storyline: Sameer and Nargis' lives are restarted when a young Nivedita enters their lives. When the infant is taken, Sameer embarks on a perilous mission to find her and protect his family.

About Faruk Kabir

Faruk Kabir (born 18 March 1983 as Faruk Kabir) is an Indian film director, writer, and producer best known for his work in Hindi films. Kabir began his career as an assistant director, working on films such as Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Asoka. In 2006, he made his directorial debut with the short film The Awakening, starring Ajay Devgn. He gained to prominence after directing and acting in Allah Ke Banday.

About Vidyut Jamwal

Vidyut Dev Singh Jammwal (born December 10, 1980) is an Indian actor, martial artist, and film producer who works primarily in Hindi films. He is also a Kalaripayattu practitioner. He is most recognised for his parts in the Commando film series, for which he has received multiple awards, including a Filmfare Award. In Telugu, he made his debut with Sakthi, in Hindi with Force, and in Tamil with Billa II, all in negative characters. His first leading part was in the critically acclaimed picture Commando. He later appeared in films such as Anjaan, Thuppakki, Baadshaho, Commando 2, Junglee, Yaara, Commando 3, and Sanak.

About Shivaleeka Oberoi

Shivaleeka Oberoi (born July 24, 1995) is an Indian cinema actress who has appeared in several films. Yeh Saali Aashiqui (2019) and Khuda Haafiz (2020) are two of her early acting credits.

About Divyendu Bhattacharya

Dibyendu Bhattacharya is an Indian actor who has appeared in Hindi and Bengali films as well as web series. He is most known for his roles in Dev D. and as Layak Talukdar in the 2019 Hotstar Web series Criminal Justice. Mirza, his forthcoming Bengali film, would be released on Eid 2023.

About Sheeba Chaddha

Sheeba Chaddha is an Indian actress who has appeared in films, on stage, and on television. She was nominated for a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the 2022 films Badhaai Do and Doctor G, and she won for the former.

Synopsis of the Movie

Faruk Kabir, writer-director of the franchise's first installment, creates a thrilling action drama that is not devoid of socio-political issues. Khuda Haafiz 2 - Agni Pariksha is mostly set in Lucknow and functions as a convincing piece of pulp fiction that sells on mofussil railway stops in the countryside. In the first part, software engineer Sameer Chaudhary (Vidyut Jammwal) returned home with his wife Nargis (Shivaleeka Oberoi) after she was inexplicably kidnapped by drug lords in a fake West Asian sultanate. The sequel opens with the pair struggling to manage their relationship, as Nargis battles with the emotional trauma of her physical suffering as a captive.

Circumstances bring Nivedita, an orphan, into their lives, but the 5-year-old is kidnapped by the grandson of Thakur ji (Sheeba Chaddha), a prominent man in the city of nawabs, before the wounds of the past can be healed. The guys had their sights set on an older woman, and Nivedita becomes collateral damage for Thakurji, who only wants to safeguard her own. It gives the film a cause to exist and allows Vidyut to unleash his talent for decimating the opponents.

Vidyut, as expected, is electrifying in action scenes. The action scene pieces in a jail and an abattoir stand out for their sheer rawness and visceral appeal, propelled by ruthless force and stained with blood. The aesthetic flare is evident in the way the standard components, such as rain during the combat sequence and verdant farmlands during the hunt for the girls, were photographed. However, it appears that Vidyut has finally heard or learned that he cannot act when it comes to emotions. As a result, he has begun 'acting' too much in every frame, often equating cinema with pantomime.

Here, he is spared by the screenplay, which almost convinces the spectator that an eye for an eye is the protagonist's only alternative. Both Bollywood and Hollywood have a long history of such harsh stories in which the hero becomes Ghayal (dangerous) when he is wounded and the circumstances, both good and bad, combine to help him. Tailang, modelled after a senior journalist, gives weight to stories as a diligent journalist. The ever-reliable Sheeba, as Thakur ji, seeks to underplay the ethically and sexually ambiguous villain in a high-pitched setting. It works for a time, but it soon becomes apparent that Thakur ji was a male character on paper, and hence there is generation lost during the gender shift.

Part two is a little more layered and includes comments on the criminal-police nexus in Uttar Pradesh, an area that hasn't been covered much in popular Hindi movie, as opposed to the strait-jacketed first part, which was difficult to invest in. But much like the pulpy novels, the film does exactly what it complains against. It comments on the voyeuristic gaze of electronic news but finds it hard to eschew it itself. It wants us to ponder on the social shaming of survivors of physical assault and on action against juvenile perpetrators of rape, without munching on the consequences of taking the law into one's hands. That's some Agnipariksha, a test by fire. The last page of the chapter suggests that the next part will address it.