Produced and Written by Sajid Nadiadwala
Director: Ahmed Khan
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tara Sutaria, Amrita Singh and Zakir Hussain.
Rating: ****
Tiger Shroff made his debut with ‘Heropanti’ and he has come a long way from the bylanes of Haryana to go global with the second instalment of the film.
Helmed by choreographer-turned-filmmaker Ahmed Khan, who has successfully taken the movie to a whole new level from the previous one, the film from Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment has an international vibe with massive sets, impressive locations (yes, that is the desert vista of Al Ain you see in the film’s climax) and stellar music composed by AR Rahman.
An ambitious hacker, Babloo Ranawat (Shroff), doesn’t really care much about the consequences when he tricks people online with his digital scams. And he finds himself romancing Inaaya (Tara Sutaria), who is the sister of international digital fraudster Laila (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).
Laila is a genius, who develops an app called Pulse, which steals the bank details of its users, but he needs someone who can help him pull off the biggest heist in history. Babloo comes in handy and the duo soon come to an understanding that dating Inaaya comes with certain conditions, namely, working for Laila and helping him pull off the heist with his app on March 31, the last day of the financial year, when everyone has bank accounts loaded with cash.
Everything goes as planned until Babloo finds himself developing a conscience as he encounters a helpless victim of his own crime, played by Amrita Singh. She takes to Babloo and the duo develop a mother-son bond that takes on the might of Laila.
With an impressive ensemble cast, decent budget and amazing stunts, the film holds your attention and the issue of digital fraud is addressed subtly.
Shroff and Siddiqui hold the film on their shoulders and deliver superbly. Sutaria does what she is hired to do, add the romance angle and turn on the waterworks when needed. It is a shame really that action movies of this type keep the focus solely on the testosterone and women are reduced to arm candy. One just has to look the ‘Fast and Furious’ film franchise to see that women can easily go toe-to-toe on the action.
Criticism aside, Bollywood is known for making heist movies, but never before has anyone attempted to make a smart digital heist action drama on this ambitious scale.
Rahman’s score adds to the urgency of key moments and Shroff keeps the adrenaline pumping.
The film, despite a few holes in the storyline, is a rock-solid family entertainer over the Eid long weekend. — with staff inputs
Don’t miss it!
‘Heropanti 2’ is out now in UAE cinemas
