Raid 2 Movie Cast/Actors: Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Vaani Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Amit Sial, Govind Namdev & Others
Raid 2 Movie Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Raid 2 Movie Production House: T-Series Films & Panorama Studios
Raid 2 Movie Release Date: 1st May, 2025
Raid 2 Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Netflix OTT Platform)
Raid 2 Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Raid 2 Movie Runtime: 2h 30m
Raid 2 Movie Critic Review:
Raid Raj is back, i.e., director Raj Kumar Gupta returns with a sequel to his 2018 hit.
Seven years later, Taoji (Saurabh Shukla) is still in jail, throwing his weight around and waiting for his parole.
IT Commissioner Amay Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) continues to be the tax hound, this time sniffing the trail of political heavyweight, cabinet minister and much adored Dada Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) of Bhoj, Rajasthan.
Amay is on the verge of celebrating a diamond jubilee of transfers. But he arrives in Rajasthan as the tainted officer who took a bribe of Rs 2 crore from Raja Saheb (Govind Namdev).
Four writers (Aditya Belnekar, Ritesh Shah, Karan Vyas, Jaideep Yadav) collaborate with Gupta to weave a rather well-thought-out conspiracy that’s brought Amay to Dada Bhai’s doorstep.
Equally shrewd is the opponent who springs his own surprise on the IT Commissioner. An open challenge is thrown: catch me if you can, says Dada Bhai. Amay picks up the gauntlet.
What ensues is an elaborate series of raids. This time too, Gupta plays with ‘Who’s Amay’s informer?’ And comes up with not one but a couple of insiders who tattle on the powerful.
But it’s not easy to capture the fresh flavour of the original.
The good is that Patnaik and Dada Bhai are cerebrally well-matched to keep the see-saw moving. One round to the Commissioner, another to the Minister.
Bachelor Dada Bhai makes his entry chanting a shlokh as he washes the feet of his doting mother (Supriya Pathak). Oedipus is alive and wicked in this instalment. His Jan Kalyan hides many a nasty secret, Amay’s here to unearth them.
Last time, there was a charming old Amma in Taoji’s mansion who brought on the chuckles in the midst of a serious raid.
This time, Lallan Sudheer (Amit Sial) provides relief with his obvious obsequiousness as he bows before Dada Bhai and accepts that he’s ‘gira hua’.
There’s a marked footwear fetish all through, footwear is like a character by itself. Amay Patnaik is introduced with a glimpse of his chappals, the first sign of a crack in Dada Bhai’s social goodness is at a chappal store and the minister’s rise has much to do with a chief minister who made him carry slippers on his head. At the end too, there’s a shot of chappals as Dada Bhai’s mother drives off.
The not so good is that there’s such an overdose of raids, some of it patchy, that by the time it gets to a climax of emotionally stirred public support for Dada Bhai, the mayhem’s evident in the screenplay too.
The characterisation of Dada Bhai as a cool social worker and cabinet minister who escorts Amay to safety through a bhavuk janta, begins to disappoint as the canny man of master moves peters into the usual villain driven by naukri-chokri-zameen aur paisa. A local level womaniser, a devious land grabber and a thug who personally carries suitcases of cash as bribe money.
Technically, Sudhir K Chaudhry’s camerawork alternates between long crane shots of cars moving, then trucks moving, then cars again. The BG score is also the kind that doesn’t unobtrusively contribute but yells, ‘Hey, get excited, another high point coming up’.
The music and moves of item girl Tamannaah Bhatia don’t excite and BG songs accompanying sequences (the delights of Rajasthan, the rituals of Holi et al) have become a done to death tool.
Ajay Devgn’s strong screen presence never deserts him but the grim, unsmiling hero is getting to be repetitive. Riteish Deshmukh is able to provide balance for Devgn’s Patnaik. Shruti Pandey as IT officer Geeta has a more interesting role than Vaani Kapoor who plays a vapid, supportive wife.
Raid 2 Watch Or Not?: It has its interesting turns but chaotic with too many characters, this is not a worthy sequel to the original.
Raid 2 Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Raid 2 Official Trailer:
credits: T-Series
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