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A look at the 2025-2026 scenario shows clearly that, besides the Dhurandhar franchise, the films that have truly done great business are almost always multi-star films, nationalistic movies, comedies and horror comedies. But there is one more genre, and that is dark romance! While Saiyaara globally earned over Rs. 57.5 billion, Ek Deewane Ke Deewaniyat and Tere Ishk Mein did average business and were enthusiastically declared “hits.”
What was common to them all? Dark themes and darker, brooding heroes. Seemingly, this is the new magic wand for success. Not that such subjects were never there in Hindi films. For starters in discussion here the Vishesh Films’ repertoire has a significant amount of such films, from super-hits like Jannat to disasters like the first Awarapan (2007), which mysteriously became cult later. But Awarapan 2 is yet another example of a trailer and the brand catching audience fancy to the extent that its box-office collection (Rs. 20-plus crore) on Day 1 has surpassed the lifetime collection of its prequel (Rs. 12 crore then, which can work out to about Rs. 20 crore now)!
Story-wise, despite a different director and writer, this is a true sequel, which means that the original story is taken forward. I normally do not connect with such stories’ tones, but I will frankly admit that I completely loved the pre-interval parts of this film, unlike the movies I have mentioned in the first paragraph here: and note that Mohit Suri, who specializes in dark(er) movies, was common to Saiyaara and Awarapan.
There was a strong emotional connect with the way Shivam Pandit (Emraan Hashmi) is devastated with his love, Aaliyah (Shriya Saran)’s death at the end of the first film, and his finding an abandoned newborn near the grave of the former. He hands over the child to an orphanage, and names her Aaliyah too.
Soon, the child is adopted by a caring couple. Reluctant to leave Shivam, who visits her frequently, Aaliyah takes a promise from him that he will visit her whenever she calls him. And it is after this that Shivam comes to know that the ‘couple’ is a part of a child trafficking gang that is smuggling children to Bangkok.
An Interpol agent, Samarth (Atul Kumar) who is aware of Shivam’s past, accosts him and apprises Shivam of this, and of two rival narcotic gangs operating there, one of which has begun this new ‘business.’ The bigger gang is headed by Nafisa (Shabana Azmi). Shivam rushes there, mainly for Mission Aaliyah.
The lesser gang is headed by Amrit (Barun Chanda), whose son, Zorawar (Puran Gabbi), murders him when Amrit objects to their entering the child-trafficking business. Zorawar is also seemingly fond of his autistic brother, Sikandar (Aniruddh Rawal) and music-crazy sister, Zara (Disha Patani). Shivam inveigles himself into the setup by an engineered plan and reports to Samarth periodically.
Twists upon twists follow. These involve family skeletons pertaining to Amrit’s dead wife Namrata (Rukhsar Rahman), a traitor in the ranks who is Nafisa’s informer and the revelation about Amrit’s murder. As Shivam desperately looks for the consignment of children, multiple things happen, while a rapport develops between Zara and him. The climax is bloodied but there is no closure for Shivam’s darkness and despair. There is a hint of Awarapan 3 and one sincerely hopes that the film, if and when it is made, will have that happy end for this beleaguered character.
My issue here thus lies with the second half. One can surmise (predictably) the way things will turn out but there are too many absurdities, illogic and even excessive and graphic violence en route. And that is why the charm of the pre-interval Awarapan 2 gets heavily diluted in the second part, while the case should have been reversed: a second half should score heavily over the first.
Also, frankly, there is even less emotional quotient pervading in the final sequences when the kids are rescued than in the recent Ohh My Dog, in which dogs were being trafficked! Maybe some lessons from Delhi Crime 3’s climax too would have helped in infusing feeling there instead of leaning too much on the violence shown.
Emraan Hashmi, needless to say, gets into Shivam’s character with intensity, but the fact that his expressions are the usual non-smiling, stony ones could have been varied a bit after so many years (his breakthrough came with Mukesh Bhatt’s Murder and debut a year earlier with a supporting role in Footpath). Still, remove him and the movie is a disaster even with the same script.
This week sees a Shabana Azmi double-bill (Batwara 1947), and here, she is a diametrically opposite role in character and even faith. She is a tad underused but does well as the seemingly-genial Nafisa, whose character too has an unusual twist in the end.
Disha Patani is strictly okay. Puran Gabbi as Zorawar impresses in the beginning but dwindles to irritating gimmickry later. Aniruddh Rawal’s face is barely seen and he is decidedly underused. Navya Jinmesh Chitankar as young Aaliyah is a charmer. Atul Kumar, Suvinder Vicky as Jaideep and Vijayant Kohli as Mehmood are effective. The rest of the cast is okay.
Vishnu Rao’s cinematography is superb, come Rajasthan or Bangkok. But the music is a sheer disappointment. Tera mera rishta and To phir aao are “re-imagined” (the new term for “re-created”) from the prequel and sound nice. The newer songs simply cannot match up. This is a dangerous sign of the times that we have seen in many a contemporary film, like Gadar 2, Sooryavanshi and many more.
Overall, one hopes that the fervor for the film (which is on a high until Independence Day weekend—at least!) is maintained, for the sake of the film’s makers and for Emraan Hashmi. Nitin Kakkar’s sixth film, hopefully, will be his first hit. Otherwise, I have never cared for such dark, brooding fare as value-for-money and worth my time and effort.
Rating: *** (Almost, and only because of the first half!!)
Vishesh Films’ Awarapan 2 Produced by: Mukesh Bhatt & Vishesh Bhatt Directed by: Nitin Kakkar Written by: Vishesh Bhatt, Bilal Siddiqui & Sanjay Masoom Music: Wasif Ahmed, Jeet Gannguli, Amaal Mallik, Akhil Sachdeva & Mithoon Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Shabana Azmi, Disha Patani, Shriya Saran, Atul Kumar, Suvinder Vicky, Puran Gabbi, Aniruddh Rawal, Rukhsar Rehman, Jukgrid Kamdee, Barun Chanda, Richa Jain, Navya Jinmesh Chitankar & others
