There is a recipe for the Hindi masala entertainer these days. You take a pan, heat it at a high flame of chiselled masculinity, pour some ‘no-brainer’ oil, let a hero trying to escape his past sizzle in it, add a villain who is more of a comic relief, garnish it with some pun-ny dialoguebaazi and then pour the whole thing on the audience’s head. Heropanti 2 is served..
Tiger Shroff is Babloo again. After fighting the patriarchy by punching men in his debut film Heropanti, this time, he is a tech-savvy hacker who can control the lights in his room with his mobile. Not just that, Hacker Babloo can manically type a ‘reverse code’ to access the CBI’s internal systems while warding off the advances of two women. In the process, he encrypts the file of the audience’s brain cells. Hacker Babloo lives with his mother, played by Amrita Singh, in London. Mother (who doesn’t even have a name) spends her time either praying for his safety or being kidnapped by the limp wrist villain Laila (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).
Laila is a magician who has many tricks up his sleeve, just that all of them end up blooming flowers out of objects. He is planning a cyber heist. On March 31, when everybody in India will be in a horde to file their taxes, he will hack the systems of all bank accounts and sweep the money. In his words, it will be India’s ‘April Fool’s Day’. How far will you go to not file your returns?
His sister and Babloo’s love-interest is Inaaya, played by Tara Sutaria. Inaaya is the sort of girl who splashes water at you for being two minutes late on the first date and then doesn’t leave.
Tiger’s action scenes are like dance moves we have seen before (director Ahmed Khan was previously a choreographer.) There are no stakes. Tiger will survive henchmen, swords, guns, Lamborghini cars, and even multiple grenade blasts (courtesy, mother’s prayers). Nawazuddin has fun with his character in the first half, then he bursts into a laughter fit of overacting. The screenplay dangles freely and the dialogue is just a play on words or abbreviations, especially if they are for expletives. The film’s visuals seem like out of a mobile racing game and the direction is dizzying.
The only respite is the music. AR Rahman’s techno melody Miss Hairan is groovy. Pooja Tiwari’s voice in Jalwanuma has a certain pain. But all in all, Heropanti 2, will even make little girls (read choti bachchi) laugh at its plot. Just, dafa kar.
Heropanti 2
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tara Sutaria, Amrita Singh
Directors: Ahmed Khan
Rating: 1.5/5