Hindustani 2: A Grand Comeback That Misses the Mark

This hashtag trend is instrumental in bringing back our Hindustani Dada, twenty eight years after killing his own corrupt son and escaping to Taipei. By the end of Hindustani 2, the trending hashtag changes to "Go Back Indian" and sorry to say, that is exactly the audience sentiment as well regarding Shankar's overbloated overkill of a sequel!!

Corruption has been a recurring theme in Shankar's illustrious repertoire like Gentleman (1993), Indian (Hindustani in Hindi) (1996), Nayak (2001) and Anniyan (Aparichit in Hindi) (2005). Only here, he goes overboard cramming in every element of corrupt practices in to multiple subplots, which drags Hindustani 2 for an exhausting three hours runtime.

The screenplay is a downer with overlong scenes stretching needlessly for ten to fifteen minutes. The narrative jars with randomly assembled sequences. The climax itself, lasts for around forty minutes and culminates into a further sequel expected next year. Phew!!

The villains appear as buffoons. Be it a Mallya inspired Gulshan Grover playing a live turtle on a firangi model's navel or a Gujarati richie rich (Zakir Hussain), whose entire house including commode, is made of pure gold. The way Hindustani Dada eliminates them is more funny than vigilante!!

On the positive, the technical aspects are first rate. Siddharth as the Youtuber activist, is a standout. Watch the scene where he laments over his mother's death!! Rakul Preet looks gorgeous in her small role. Shankar's direction is top notch as always. Unfortunately, it is the script which fails him.

Finally, Hindustani 2 rests on Kamal Haasan's able shoulders and he is simply fantastic as the freedom fighter turned vigilante Senapathi. Using his 'Varma Kalai' technique to kill hundreds of bozos in one go, Kamal is the only reason you may want to risk this over the top movie in a theatre!!

Ratings on some key aspects* :
1. Acting : 4.5/5 (Kamal Haasan)
2. Direction : 4/5
3. Music : 2/5
4. Story, Screenplay and Dialogue : 2/5
5. Cinematography : 4/5
6. Editing : 2/5
7. Costume Design : 3.5/5
8. Special Effects and VFX : 4/5
9. Action : 3.5/5
10. Production Quality : 4/5

#SNRating for #Hindustani2 : 2 & 1/2 stars out of 5.

- Sumeet Nadkarni

Also Read: Bappi Lahri as a special judge on Dil Hai Hindustani 2