August 18, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Ayan Mukerji
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2024, in India and various other countries, the action film “War 2” (a sequel to the 2019 film “War”) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A mercenary, who has a background as an undercover government agent, gets involved with an international crime cartel and encounters an influential person from his past.
Culture Audience: “War 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the first “War” movie, and action films that are long on mindless spectacles and short on interesting stories.
“War 2” aims to impress with an overload of globetrotting and bombastic stunts from the movie’s main characters. But this awful sequel is really just another over-priced, idiotic and soulless action flick about double-crossing mercenaries. All of the fight scenes are so over-the-top unrealistic and the dialogue is so vapid, “War 2” is just like being force-fed junk food for 173 minutes, which is the total running time for this horrendous and bloated cinematic trash.
Directed by Ayan Mukerji and written by Shridhar Raghavan, “War 2” is a direct sequel to 2019’s “War.” Hrithik Roshan returns in the starring role as Kabir Dhaliwal, a rogue agent for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of the Indian government. “War” was directed by Siddharth Anand, who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Shridhar Raghavan. The cast members of “War 2” are almost entirely different from “War.”
“War 2” (one of India’s highest-budgeted films of the year) also cost a lot more to make than “War.” The production budget for “War 2” reportedly ballooned to a range of ₹300 crore to ₹400 crore (about $34 million to $46 million in U.S. dollars), compared to the reported ₹170 crore (about $19.5 million) for the production budget of “War.” Despite this increase in the production budget, the visual effects in “War 2” still look tacky.
In “War 2” (which takes place in India and several other countries), it’s 2024, and Kabir has established himself as a mercenary for hire. In the beginning of the movie, he kills a crime boss (played by Kwon Soon Young) in Japan, and then Kabir goes to Berlin to collect his payment for this assassination job. Instead of getting paid, Kabir is unknowingly drugged and brought back to India.
In India, Kabir wakes up to find himself in the secret lair of an international crime syndicate named Kali. Seven countries are represented in this crime syndicate: India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, China, and Myanmar. The Kali leader for each country is shown speaking to Kabir on giant video screens where their faces are obscured.
The Kali leaders tell Kabir that he must now work for Kali. Kabir is immediately told to murder Kabir’s former RAW boss Colonel Sunil Luthra (played by Ashutosh Rana, reprising his role from “War”), in order to prove that Kabir really is the type of criminal mercenary that Kabir really seems to be. Kabir tracks down Colonel Luthra, who is the leader of RAW. And that’s how it’s revealed that Kabir really isn’t a mercenary but is actually still working for RAW as an undercover agent sent to infiltrate Kali.
Kabir tells Colonel Luthra about this assassination assignment and says he doesn’t want to do it. However (and this is one of many stupid things that happen in the movie), Colonel Luthra tells Kabir to murder him because Colonel Luthra says it’s the only way that Kabir can gain the trust of Kali. “Death before dishonor,” Colonel Luthra tells Kabir before Kabir shoots him to death. Kabir also makes a video of himself committing this murder to prove to Kali that he did it. After this death, Vikrant Kaul (played by Anil Kapoor) is appointed as the new leader of RAW.
Colonel Luthra’s willingness to be murdered by Kabir looks even more foolish, considering it’s possible for government officials to fake their own deaths in elaborate sting operations. And then, it really makes no sense when it’s revealed before the murder that Colonel Luthra has a daughter. Colonel Luthra apparently wasn’t thinking much of her when he approved his own execution.
Colonel Luthra’s daughter, who is in her 30s, is Kavya Luthra (played by Kiara Advani), a wing commander in the Indian Air Force. She sees the video of Kabir murdering Colonel Luthra. And she predictably wants revenge. But in a horrendous movie like “War 2,” Kavya also was Kabir’s love interest in the past (as seen in the movie’s many flashbacks), and then she falls in love with him again. This isn’t spoiler information because the “War 2” trailer already reveals this part of the plot.
While undercover as a Kali assassin, Kabir continues to go to various countries to murder enemies of Kali. There’s a subplot about Kabir trying to protect his adopted daughter Ruhi Sahni (played by Arista Mehta), who is about 16 or 17 years old and is a student in Spain. While in Spain, Kabir encounters Major Vikram Chelapathi (played by N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), a special unit officer for RAW.
Kabir and Vikram have a ridiculous and long fight on the top of a moving train. This fight would kill anyone in real life, but Kabir and Vikram keep going without any serious injuries. “War 2” makes all the stunts look like superhero stunts. But the problem is “War 2” isn’t a science fiction or fantasy movie. The characters in “War 2” in this movie aren’t supposed to have superhuman powers, so the movie’s unnatural fight scenes just look stupid.
About halfway through the movie, Kabir and Vikram end up fighting on an airplane that’s in flight. Bikram kicks Kabir out of the moving plane while Kabir isn’t wearing a parachute or any safety goggles. It’s another moronic stunt scene that insults viewers’ intelligence. Kabir survives, of course, because there would be no “War 2” if Kabir died halfway through the movie.
Before it’s shown how Kabir survived, there’s a series of flashback scenes to 1999, when Kabir (played by Manthan Darji) was a 15-year-old orphan runaway living on the streets. He meets another teenage street urchin named Raghu (played by Hearty Singh), who teaches Kabir how to survive on the streets. The two teens become best friends and thieves. And at one point, they get arrested together.
“War 2” is such a sloppily made film, it flubs noticeable details. The adult Kabir has distinctive hazel green eyes. But in the flashback scenes to Kabir as a teenager, he has brown eyes. It wouldn’t have been hard for the actor portraying teenage Kabir to wear hazel green contact lenses that look like adult Kabir’s eyes. But apparently, that’s too much common sense for “War 2.”
The movie drags on with yet another assassination scheme: killing India’s defense minister Vilasrao Sarang (played by Varun Badola) and his family. “War 2” clumsily throws in some song-and-dance numbers where the only thing memorable about them is that they look out of place. And the love story in the movie is flat and hard to believe.
Needless to say, the cast members performances are unimpressive because they’re generic or just plain cringeworthy. The movie’s screenplay and direction are atrocious. “War 2” tries to have sentiments about loyalty and friendship, but these sentiments don’t fully ring true when this long-winded and unimaginative film makes all the characters look like video game figures instead of relatable human beings.
Yash Raj Films released “War 2” in U.S. cinemas and in India on August 14, 2025.
