Force 2 Movie Review: A Brawny End to a Flimsy Plot

Debu C

November 18, 2016

Movie Review

Release Date: November 18, 2016

Starring: John Abraham, Sonakshi Sinha, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Genelia D’Souza, Paras Arora, Narendra Jha

Directed by: Abhinay Deo

Produced by: Vipul Amrutlal Shah, John Abraham, Viacom Motion Pictures

Cinematography: Imre Juhasz, Mohana Krishna

Duration: 2:07 hours

Genre: Action Thriller

Censor Rating: U/A

About Movie Force 2

Force 2 is a sequel to Force, a film that was released in 2011 and received a good response from fans who loved to see a RAW agent take on the big bad world of crime and spies. It is a season for sequels and Bollywood seems to have struck a formula where if a movie does reasonably well at the box office, a sequel seems to be an unsaid expectation.

In Force 2, the Director Abhinay Deo has tried to bring out the larger question of why spies should be left unclaimed and unrecognized in case of death on duty, while soldiers get due recognition as martyrs if they die on duty. Good question, but the profession of spying is always carried out in total secrecy and often requires local laws of a foreign country to be broken. And each recognition of a spy may compromise a larger objective of the nation. So, spies remain in the shadows of geo-political intrigue.

The original film Force was a remake of a Tamil hit film called Kaakha Kaakha and with the response received for Force, Viacom Motion Pictures saw business sense in developing Force as a franchise.

The film has some slick action scenes performed by John Abraham and is backed by Sonakshi Sinha, his boss and colleague in RAW. Force 2 comes at a time when India is having to contend with a hostile Pakistan and tensions are running high between the two countries.

The movie tries to give RAW a CIA kind of avatar, where its agents take direct action in foreign lands; which, in reality, is quite contrary to how RAW operates. But the film does fulfill a conscious desire of Indians to see one of their own go out and hit back in a foreign land, something they keep hoping for.

From that perspective, Force 2 does make RAW look good and aggressive. Fans will recall a similar attempt with Baby, where Indian RAW agents go out to get the terrorist Hafeez Saeed any which way they can.

In the film, John Abraham plays ACP Yashvardhan, a RAW operative and is supported by Sonakshi Sinha who plays Kamaljit Kaur aka KK, his boss and colleague in RAW. Shiv Sharma, a low-level staffer at the Indian Embassy in Budapest and who is now an enemy mole and leaking national secrets about RAW operatives, is played by Tahir Raj Bhasin.

The enemy mole is reminiscent of the real life Madhu Jain, who, too, was a low-level staffer at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad and worked as an enemy mole for Pakistan. She was later arrested and spent several years in Tihar Jail.

Plot

The movie begins with the death of three RAW agents in China, one of them being ACP Yashvardhan’s friend and colleague in RAW. Just before dying, he informs Yash about a larger plot in the making and this sets off Yash to go after the enemies.

The journey takes the audience to the Indian Embassy in Budapest, where the hunt for the mole begins. The movie continues with Bollywood’s love for action films — only now that Indian films are beginning to catch up with those of Hollywood in finesses and cinematography of action scenes.

Performances

John Abraham does a great job in portraying the tough, no-nonsense, heavily-muscled RAW agent and his action scenes do justice to his physique and athleticism. He will continue to retain his fans and will probably gain some more after Force 2.

Sonakshi Sinha underwent a lot of physical training to keep up with an in-shape John Abraham as she gets into the role of KK. Sonakshi is good in patches and has been let down by her character that she was given to play.

In today’s times where gender gaps are being spoken about, the story could have been handled better with a stronger character of KK matching up to that of ACP Yash, and how they then together work each other’s strength to get to their common goal. Some great cinematography has been let down by a weak story that fails to do justice to it.

If India has to create a local version of Jason Bourne, then besides slick action, a good story and script a la Kahaani, would certainly help.

Tahir Raj Bhasin playing the Indian staffer, Shiv Sharma, at Budapest, has delivered yet another strong performance after his earlier one in Mardaani.

Force 2 Music

The movie thankfully comes with few songs. The remix version of Kaante Nahin Kat-te runs with the film. Music lovers will be disappointed with the lack of music, but about time Bollywood also experimented with films without its quota of mandatory 4-5 songs.

Details of songs in the movie Force 2

Koi Ishaara

Singer(s): Armaan Malik
Song duration: 2:53 min

O Janiya

Singer(s): Neha Kakkar
Song duration: 2:30 min

Neha Kakkar comes out with a refreshing remix version of Kaante Nahin Kat-te. Music fans will find this foot-tapping version as good as the original.

Rang Laal

Singer(s): Dev Negi, John Abraham
Song duration: 3:42 min

What’s good?

The action! That’s what Force 2 is about and that’s what the Director has delivered. The filming of action scenes along with John doing his car lift is good as is the timing and overall pace of the movie.

What’s bad?

All action and weak story. Just as Skyfall, the James Bond franchise film, was presented as a more realistic than the usual James Bond films, RAW needs to be portrayed closer to what it is rather than a fantasy version of CIA. And it will need a stronger story and suspense line. Both of which have let this film down.