First things first – Raid 2 is a lesser product than Raid 1 by atleast a couple of notches. And one thing that distinctly sets the two films apart, us its setting. While the first film almost entirely unfolded in a single setting of a house that is raided by the income tax department, in what turned out to be one of the longest raids ever in the country, the second film has a very scattered setting. The intimidating and claustrophobic setting of the first parts makes way for a scattered location-jumping narrative that doesn’t necessarily typify a raid in the purest sense. The raid itself unfold in isolation, while being loosely connected by a thread that is manipulative, and designed to resemble a Race franchise. People are looking to outwit one another, and then another, and then another – and quite honestly, that remains the trajectory of the film.

The opening sequence comprising of a blaring BGM, nicely warms the viewers by air-dropping them in the middle of a raid that is about to take place. Yet, with power dynamics being exercized the raid also halts until a slow-mo introduction shot of Amay instructing his peers with a glance of his head, is inserted. The motives of the protagonist aren’t necessarily revealed immediately, almost creating a facade of being corrupt more than anything else. As per him, his integrity has outlived his duty of 14 years (the drama takes place 7 years after the events of the first film; it is a natural progression in a way given that Raid 1 was out in 2018). But this unpredictability of the opening act is used as a template throughout the film, something that immensely makes the drama predictable.

One of the biggest roadblocks of the film remain the songs that appear out of nowhere, and stall the flow of the drama. At a point, a happy song in integrated in the narrative almost like a road song that felt like a contrived version of ‘ABCDEFGHI….’ from Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999). It remained odd because the scene prior to it involved Amay’s daughter confronting him for being transferred for the 74th time, citing that she doesn’t have any friends. A few scenes ahead, another song is inserted – this time at a Diwali party, that has no significance to the screenplay. What this does is, suck out the momentum from the drama even when you are introduced to the sweet-talking antagonist Dada Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) to begin with. In a scene, he really seems to be luring, offering Amay and his wife (Vaani Kapoor) a tour around his property.

Amay remains a fascinating character from the start – someone who is the the darling of the masses, and loyal to his mother whom he often serves by washing up her feet. It is also interesting to note that his mother is oblivious of his ‘crimes’, almost to a point of being sly. The dynamics is an interesting one, even as Amay is hell-bent on reopening the files and exposing the ‘lord’. This contributes to some interesting moments in the first hour, particularly when the discreet investigation is on coupled with the motives of Amay that circles back to the start of the film. The interval block is indeed tense and it does amp up the stakes in the drama during an interesting confrontation that transpires between the worked up protagonist and the calm and calculated antagonist.

But this is where everything starts going south in the second hour which is immensely convoluted, something that just wasn’t needed when all lines are already set. The issue for me was that of the writers trying too hard to take the drama ahead by incorporating twists that are quick and don’t always land. In a scene, even the character of Geeta (Shruti Pandey), a fan-girl of Amay working under him and having a diary of his previous cases, asks him to slow down by saying that her head was spinning. Here, we are witness to two ongoing scams – one that of black money (which is in sync with the title of the film), and two, a case of exploitation of females, a plot-point that had no real business to be in this setup. It was manipulative to a point of turning one character against the other at the end, something that did not land for me. At a point, the game of one-upmanship also resembled the characters of Jewel Thief from last week. New (actually old) characters were introduced only to create an illusion about their motivations before making a flip. The entire sequences were positioned to work for the sheer unpredictability of the plot-points, but because this was used as a template, it all became far too predictable.

The cat and mouse game between the protagonist and the antagonist also wasn’t too different. It refused to settle into the plot and form its core, almost too inclined for the two individuals to continue to outwit one another. Everything felt too cliched, everything was too convenient in a path designed to make the protagonist win (if you think this is a spoiler then you are woefully disillusioned into thinking that the film will end in any other way). There were a few moments of intrigue with the raids being carried out, but this is what the issue of the setting continued to be – the raids never worked outside the isolated space. Even the incorporation of a yesteryear’s number ‘Paisa Yeh Paisa’ is inserted at such a wrong moment, that deviates from the tone of the drama. It almost made the sequence a part of Dhamaal 4 rather than Raid 2, before ending on such a shoddy note with the ‘other’ issue of exploitation catching up. On a side note, the portions involving the character of Rajaji (Saurabh Shukla) out on parole and offering life advice, was a film that Raid 2 should have been! The screenplay here remains a mixed bag while leaving a lot more to be desired.