Raid 2, Raj Kumar Gupta’s follow-up to Raid sets the incorruptible and dauntless Income Tax officer Amay (Ajay Devgn) a new-old target.
In Raid (2018), Amay’s war on corrupt fiefdoms led to the downfall of the politician Rameshwar (Saurabh Shukla). Seven years later, Rameshwar is behind bars and Amay is trying to get Union Cabinet minister Manohar (Riteish Deshmukh) to join him there.
Manohar, known as Dada Bhai, is too good to be true – a virtuous son to Sushma (Supriya Pathak), a benefactor to the residents of his hometown Bhoj, a politician who is worshipped by his constituents. Amay’s effort to uncover Dada’s ill-begotten wealth runs into a seemingly unsurmountable hurdle: the suave, canny and unflappable Dada himself.
In terms of plot, Raid 2 isn’t too different from its predecessor, with some scenes even staged in the same way. While Raid was inspired by an actual incident, the new film has no such constraints, thereby free to invent situations and dial up the implausibility.
Apart from Raj Kumar Gupta, Raid 2 has been written by Ritesh Shah, Jaideep Yadav and Karan Vyas. Amay’s challenge this time is slightly more complex – it’s like he has progressed in a quiz to a more advanced level. The game of wits between the men is equally poised until Dada inexplicably hands Amay the equivalent of a loaded gun – a clue that sets Amay on the right path to Dada’s destruction.
A love for needless verbal bombast is clearly the main culprit here. Raid 2 has some memorable lines, earthy humour and a worthy adversary to Amay. Both films were fuelled by the joys of comeuppance, of seeing bundles of crisp notes being hauled out of their hidey-holes, honest officers winning the day despite the odds.
But the latest movie’s similarity to its predecessor is inescapable, just as Amay’s campaign against Dada takes forever to get into gear and eventually stretches credulity. Apart from predictability, Raid 2 suffers from a relative lack of strong sparring moments between a powerful politician and duty-bound government officials.
While Ajay Devgn’s Amay is in rinse-and-repeat mode, Riteish Deshmukh’s Dada is a convincing villain, controlled in his menace and venality. The returning secondary characters include the delightfully slippery Amit Sial as Amay’s co-worker Lallan. Vaani Kapoor replaces Ileana D’Cruz as Amay’s wife Malini, but the most memorable female character is Amay’s fangirling colleague Geeta (Shruti Pandey).
Saurabh Shukla’s Rameshwar frequently pops up to offer his comments on Amay’s latest mission. Apart from being an entertaining distraction, Rameshwar is yet another reminder of the first Raid, and why it was better.
