By intermission, my incredibly expensive nachos were over, and so was my interest in Heropanti 2. If I wasn’t there to review the movie, I’d have taken a nice, long nap in the perfect AC temperature of PVR Plaza.
See, nobody is taking their brains to the cinema hall when they buy Heropanti 2 tickets, but there’s a limit to the amount of PJs, nonsensical plots and ordinary dialogues that you can expect your audience to enjoy.
In the movie, Tiger Shroff plays Bablu, an ace hacker chased by the Central Bureau of Investigation while Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Laila, a magician-cum-joker-cum-criminal mastermind. There’s Tara Sutaria, whose character Inaya is more annoying than Kareena Kapoor’s Tina in Mujhse Dosti Karoge, and Amrita Singh plays the quintessential Bollywood maa.
The plot is convoluted so I am going to try my best to untangle it since the writers of the movie didn’t bother to. Laila wants to hack into all of India’s bank accounts on 31 March and steal the money, thereby destroying India’s economy. The CBI wants to stop it, so they contact ace hacker Bablu, but Bablu isn’t the most principled man and becomes a double agent.
Backstabbed, Laila is out to kill Bablu who has been hiding in England. Laila’s sister, Inaya, is Bablu’s love interest. This helps Laila locate Bablu and the action begins.
The plot is too ambitious, because of which it falls short. Any crime other than shutting the Indian economy down could’ve made the movie believable. Moreover, some of the scenes make absolutely no sense. For example, Laila’s men track Bablu and Inaya down, thanks to the hidden GPS in Inaya’s bag. When Bablu faces hundreds of men sent by Laila, he says, “Mai hacker hoon, kya mujhe pata nahi hoga ye GPS tracker hai? Maine tum logon ko yahan bulaya hai.”
Okay, Mr Hotshot Shroff, you apparently deliberately attracted an army of mercenaries and dropped this bomb dialogue, but what’s the plan now? How have you one-upped them? You’d be a ‘chhota bachha’ if you think you’ll get an answer.
Heropanti 2 is action-packed, but we are sort of done watching Tiger Shroff’s air splits. There’s one scene where Shroff is suspended in the air and takes support of a car in free fall. That was kind of awesome.
But in a lot of scenes, he comes out unscathed because all that the ‘villains’ manage to do is tear his shirt and reveal his abs. Were they after his life or looking to disrobe him at every opportunity?
All of this makes me want to ask the makers of Heropanti 2: Chhote Bachhe ho kya?
Also read: Ajay Devgn’s ‘Runway 34’ doesn’t take off. Screenplay is its worst enemy
Performances
Tiger Shroff heavily ‘borrowed’ from Shah Rukh Khan in dialogue delivery, but fails to copy SRK’s comic timing, because of which most of his jokes never land.
Then there’s Tara Sutaria as Inaya, whose screeches pierce your ears. If I was streaming the movie, I would have muted all of her dialogues. She plays this gullible, mean, short-tempered, unlikeable sister of a mastermind, and then acts as if she didn’t know what her brother was up to.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a skilled, sadistic magician-cum-don who likes to jump on people and stab them. But in trying to make him scary, the makers of Heropanti 2 give him a comical touch. He wears clothes inspired by Schitt’s Creek’s Moira Rose and laughs and acts like Joker. But Siddiqui was genuinely funny and scary at the same time. Anytime I heard laughter in the hall was after his dialogue.
The climax of the film, where Bablu is trapped by Laila in a magical labyrinth, Spiderman style, is well produced, directed, and executed — the only part of the movie I enjoyed. But I was largely enjoying it because I knew this torture was coming to an end.
(Edited by Prashant)