May 5, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India (mostly in the cities of Bhophal and Bhoj), in 1988, the action film “Raid 2” (a sequel to the 2018 movie “Raid”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A deputy commissioner for the Indian Revenue Service contends with a powerful home minister who is suspected of financial crimes, including hiding an untaxed fortune.
Culture Audience: “Raid 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the 2018 “Raid” movie, but “Raid 2” is an example of a sequel that is very inferior to the original movie.

“Raid 2” is a long-winded and preachy misfire trying to sell a fantasy that tax officials are supposed to have a Robin Hood mentality about the distribution of wealth. A cringeworthy scene toward the end of the movie embodies this film’s annoying stupidity. Most fans of the 2018 action film “Raid” will be probably be disappointed by this crummy sequel.
Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, “Raid 2” was written by Gupta, Ritesh Shah, Jaideep Yadav and Karan Vyas. “Raid” was directed by Gupta and written by Shah. “Raid 2” having more screenwriters than “Raid” did not result in improvements but made the screenplay worse. “Raid 2” is full of contradictions and plot holes. Considering the seven-year gap between the release of “Raid” and “Raid 2,” that should have been plenty of time to come up with a good story, but the 138-minuted “Raid 2” falls very short and is just one misstep after another.
“Raid 2” (which is set in India) takes place in 1988, seven years after the events of the first “Raid” movie. Amay Patnaik (played by Ajay Devgn) is still a no-nonsense deputy commissioner for tax for the Indian Revenue Service. As the title indicates, his specialty is leading raids of properties of wealthy people who are suspected tax evaders. A running “joke” in the film series is that Amay’s raids are so controversial because of the fortunes he uncovers and the powerful people he disrupts, he has to be transferred to a new city after each raid.
In 1988, Amay has been working for the Indian Revenue Service for 14 years. He is happily married to Malini Patnaik (played by Vaani Kapoor, replacing Ileana D’Cruz, who had the role in “Raid), and the spouses have a daughter named Mini (played by Pritisha Srivastava), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. In the beginning of the movie, Amay has led a raid in Jaiphur and extorts the raided official who has been taken into custody. Amay says that he’s no longer going to be an honest government worker. Amay demands ₹20 million to make the official’s criminal charges go away.
However, Amay ends up getting charged with bribery. He is transferred for the 74th time and has to relocate with Malin and Min to Bhoj. This part of the movie makes no sense until a not-so-surprising “plot twist” is revealed. Amay’s supervisor is Kaul (played by Rajat Kapoor), the IRS chief commissioner of income tax. In Bhoj, Amay’s closest colleagues are buffoonish Ashok Kumar (played by Sanjeev Jhori) and enthusiastic Geeta Devi (played by Shruti Pandey), who are both underdeveloped characters.
Amay’s next raid target is Manohar Dhankar (played by Riteish Deshmukh), also known as Dada Manohar Bhai or Dada Bhai, a wealthy politician in Bhopal. Dada Bhai uses philanthropy and other charity work to cover up his dirty deeds. The movie gives a brief summary of how Dada Bhai rose to power.
Dada Bhai started off as a the owner of a shoe shop. When he sold the business, he had enough money to donate food to needy people. This charity made him very popular with “common folks,” many of whom worship him like members of a cult. Eventually, Dada Bhai created a charity foundation named after himself.
An unnamed chief minister (played by Sushil Dahiya) became jealous of Dada Bhai’s popularity and began to public disparage him. But when the chief minister had a re-election campaign, he came to the conclusion that he needed Dada Bhai’s support and endorsement, so the chief minister made a public apology to Dada Bhai.
Dada Bhai took advantage of the chief minister’s weakened power by making the chief minister give Dada Bhai the position of home minister. Dada Bhai then abused his power n the home minister position to secretly commit crimes that are eventually detailed in the movie. Dada Bhai has fooled a lot of people into believing that he’s a humble “good guy” when he is just the opposite.
Amay finds out some information that leads him to believe that to Dada Bhai has hidden a fortune in untaxed cash. Amay convinces his skeptical boss Kaul that a raid needs to be done on Dada Bhai’s mansion home. The raid involves Amay and about 30 officials storming over to mansion. Members of the public who hear about the raid gather outside the mansion. When the raid officials arrive, Dada Bhai appears to be such a loving son to his widowed mother Amma (played by Supriya Pathak), he’s washing her feet.
Dada Bhai is a bachelor with no children, but he has a large family of siblings, nieces and nephews, who are all at the house during the raid. Dada Bhai maintains an image of politeness by introducing his family to the raid officials. Dada Bhai also has a sycophantic assistant named Chhote (played by Tarun Gehlot), who doesn’t do much in the movie but take orders from Dada Bhai.
Because the movie shows from nearly the beginning that Dada Bhai is the chief villain, there is no real mystery or suspense. When his secrets are uncovered, they are not surprising. Disgraced politician Rameshwar Singh (played by Saurabh Shukla), also known as Ramji or Tauji, who was the chief villain in the first “Raid” movie, is out of prison in “Raid 2.” Rameshwar is mostly shown following and commenting on news of what Amay is doing and has a big grudge against Amay.
“Raid 2” isn’t the type of movie that is awful because of the acting. Most of the acting is solid or mediocre. The problems with “Raid 2” mainly have to do with the screenplay and direction. It’s a long movie because it is often unfocused, as it goes off on various tangents and raises questions that the movie never bothers to answer. For example, after Amay discovers a very dark secret Dada Bhai, Amay’s wife Malini, who is not part of the investigation, suddenly and inexplicably appears in a scene as a self-appointed advocate for the victims.
“Raid 2” makes the same mistakes that a lot of sequels make. By trying to outdo the first movie in the series, “Raid 2” becomes overstuffed with unnecessary subplots and irritating new characters. One of these aggravating new characters is Vinay Bakaya (played by Brijendra Kala), an attorney who works for the IRS and who goes undercover in a ludicrous part of the movie. Vinay is also the character who does the most unrealistic thing in the movie that no IRS attorney in real would ever do.
The action scenes in “Raid 2” are not impressive. The movie also sends confused messages. It keeps pounding the idea that Amay is a diligent IRS official seeking accountability and justice for tax crimes. And yet, there are too many scenes where Amay and his colleagues deliberately do illegal things that are direct contradictions of their purpose and goals. There’s no point in trying to explain all these contradictions. The only explanation is “Raid 2” is just bad filmmaking.
Panorama Studios released “Raid 2” in U.S. cinemas and in India on May 1, 2025.