Race 2...has one too many twists!
It was but natural of me to walk into the cinema and hold some sort of expectations for duo Abbas-Mustan's sequel. Where the first edition of Race went onto become a box office success in 2008, it's time to review whether Race 2 can quite do the same...
To share with you each nit and grit of the story is not quite an easy task, given the fact there are far too many twists and turns that keep churning out one after the other! But in a digest, Race 2 is Saif Ali Khan's film all the way, in which his character- Ranveer Singh, is seeking revenge for the murder of his pregnant wife Sonia (Bipasha Basu). Set admist in beautiful locales of Turkey- Istanbul, Ranveer, quite oftenly referred to as 'hero' in the film somehow finds out about the men that were behind the murder of his beloved. So his task, as the hero that he is, is to simply destruct these guys off too!
Not quite so simple, however, when his battle of vengeance is up against two of the biggest and richest tycoons of the country! Yet, within a matter of short time as the the 'hero' that is, Ranveer manages to bring one of these two men down, as his sells off 5 casino's to the other culprit- Armaan Malik. Yes, John Abraham's character- Armaan Malik is the key man behind the demise of his wife, and Ranveer sells off these 5 casinos to him in order to gain his trust.
Deepika Padukone's character- Alina, plays the role of Armaan's sister, and Ranveer's new love interest. Whilst she has always supported her brother, she soon finds out Armaan no longer wants her around because he wants the empire they built together for himself. Jacqueline Fernandez's character- Omisha plays a rather negative role, who steals others possessions for a living and stands by Armaan because of his riches. She acts as Sonia's sister to gain Ranveer's trust, however, puts up the act to find out all the real information of why Ranveer is being so friendly with Armaan, so Armaan can ruin Ranveer off before he does.
Whilst the ladies play somewhat of a significant role in the film, the story is infact based primarily around the two protagonists- Armaan and Ranveer. Overall, the story in itself is quite obviously different to that of Race, which means audiences can enjoy a new experience. However, there does come a point in the film where you begin to start asking yourself 'why does this lack the same flavour that was readily appreciated in the first edition of Race?' Whilst the first Race was 100% involved in unravelling the depth of the story, the second edition was sadly 40% involved in making audiences uncomfortable with the distasteful sexual- fruit related jokes shared between RD and Cherry, and 60% involved in dolling and glitzing up the visualisation of the film, where everyone wears designer shades, has briefcases stacked with money and exclusive outfits, that it becomes increasingly difficult to appreciate what exactly the story is about!
Indeed, all of the four key actors- Saif, John, Deepika and Jacqueline, looked absolutely amazing and respectively played their roles extremely well. Whilst John, Deepika and Jacqueline were new editions to the sequel, Saif reprised his role as Ranveer like no other, making Race 2 a worthy watch against the odds. Anil and Amisha on the other hand, had a very mediocre impact on the film itself. In saying that, I don't think one would would have missed their presence even if they weren't in the film all together, as their jokes between them could have been left without!
Overall, Race 2 is not live and kicking with the Abbas-Mustan flavour that was originally there in Race. With a lack of passion in the story, far too many twists and turns, and a poor ending picturing a car staying afloat in the air thanks to four parachutes coming to the rescue, you can almost excuse Race 2 to be some sort of science fiction and not quite the action film one might have expected! Oh and did I mention the sunglasses with super powers?
Ratings: 3/5
Kin x
