Khuda Haafiz: Chapter II – Agni Pariksha movie review: Rape is just an excuse here for a gory Vidyut Jammwal fest

Language: Hindi When _Khuda Haafiz: Chapter II – Agni Pariksha_ opens, Sameer ( Vidyut Jammwal ) and his wife Nargis ( Shivaleeka Oberoi ) are in her therapist’s room. Those who saw _Khuda Haafiz_ in 2020 will recall how in that chapter, Nargis was abducted and repeatedly raped in a fictional Gulf country called Noman, and Sameer went on a rampage to rescue her. While it was good to see Muscle Man Jammwal trying to explore a character’s gentler side in _KH1_ , the unfortunate truth is that like so many mainstream Indian films about a woman in distress, this one too was focused entirely on the man who sets out to save her and marginalised the woman herself. The writing of Nargis and of the Sameer-Nargis relationship in that film was as thin as a potato wafer. So in 2022, when the curtain rises on KH2 with the spotlight on Nargis’ emotions and trauma, there’s a glimmer of hope that this sequel will make amends for the mistakes of _KH1_ . That hope fades in the first half following a gruesome double rape in KH2 – or should I be referring to it as KHC2AP? – and Nargis leaves Sameer, telling him she will return only after he avenges those crimes. Read: the Hapless Maiden challenges the Knight. As if it is not bad enough that such a regressive conversation found space in this script, writer-director Faruk Kabir does one worse by making lesbianism an aspect of the lead villain’s villainy. (Aside: much later in the film, the Hapless Maiden makes what I assume Faruk thought is a feminist assertion, but the course correction comes too late and is too slight, Kind Sir.) KH2 travels from India all the way to Egypt, as Sameer and his cohorts commit murder after murder. They kill at night in the fields of Uttar Pradesh, they kill in a filthy prison on a rainy day, they kill in a butcher’s establishment on Moharram, they kill amidst the Pyramids of Giza. The location shifts, the sun rises and sets, the weather changes, but one thing remains constant: the in-your-face gore accompanied by a raucous soundtrack and unpleasant sound design. Scissors stabbing stomachs, sharp metal running slowly across a neck, the camera moving up close as a fellow’s face is smashed into a wall and then dragged across its rough surface leaving a trail of red wetness in its wake, guns, knives, fists – KH2 leaves no stone unturned to highlight the bloody havoc Sameer wreaks. It is hard to watch, but not infuriating like the presence in the script of a Ravish Kumar-like journalist (Rajesh Tailang) who obliquely justifies mob justice and, thereby, Sameer’s actions while speaking on his television channel. (Spoiler alert) Before that, as if under the impression that the viewer is ignorant of the mechanics of rape, the camera moves down a child’s body to ensure that we see the blood on the part of her dress between her legs after we are already aware that she has been brutalised. (Spoiler alert ends) The psychology of sexual violence itself is not examined in KH2, the impact of assault on a woman is explored minimally through the opening conversation between Nargis and her doctor ( Rukhsar Rehman ) and then forgotten, two rape survivors in KH2 have no voice at all. And don’t get me started on the miraculous overnight cure the script serves up for depression. I hear you: what was I thinking expecting a serious examination of the issue of rape and mental health in a Vidyut Jammwal film? Well, the thing is, initially KH2 was at least trying.

Neither is the violence in KH2 handled any differently from a million other such films made on the planet, nor does the story say anything new. The final killing happens in a way that suggests the director thought he was building suspense leading up to it. In truth, it can be seen coming from a mile and anyone who does not, perhaps deserves this film. KH2’s idea of innovation seems to be that Jammwal skips his signature move here: he does not strut his shirtless body before the audience. For the record, the director is too afraid to go the whole hog even with that decision, so he has Sameer removing his top to bathe in prison while the camera gazes at him. The closest thing to entertainment KH2 offers is the pace of the attack in a rapist’s hideout in a desert, and to a very limited extent, the car chase that ensues across the open sands. But these scenes come towards the end, and the preceding plotline is so generic, the violence so gross and purposeless, that it is beyond redemption and salvation by then.

I used to think Jammwal has acting potential that is getting lost in a storm of physical stunts and body display in films of the _Commando_ variety, but it is time to revisit that assumption. In KH2 and its predecessor, he struggles to pull off every scene in which he is required to convey strong emotions on his face. Oberoi had nothing to do in KH1 beyond look dazzled by Sameer and dazed by her captors. In this film, she is given a marginally more substantial role and comes off seeming like she might be worth tracking. The only actor who is somewhat arresting in KH2 is Sheeba Chadha playing the partially interestingly written, wicked, vicious Thakur ji. It is, however, hard to get past the question of why a thinking artiste accepted a role that perpetuates existing misconceptions about the LGBT+ community and the widespread prejudice at least in India that homosexual individuals are intrinsically sexual predators. Considering how flat _Khuda Haafiz Part 1_ was, it is amazing that a Chapter 2 has been made at all. This one’s ending, centred on Sameer emerging as the new “baahubali” of Lucknow and Malihabad (as one character describes him), implies that there will be a Chapter 3, maybe even 4 and 5. Stranger things have happened in this cosmos. Rating: 1 (out of 5 stars)

This review was first published in July 2022 when Khuda Haafiz: Chapter II – Agni Pariksha was released in theatres. The film is now streaming on Zee5.

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial Read all the  **_Latest News_** _,_  **_Trending News_** _,_  **_Cricket News_** _,_  **_Bollywood News_** _,_  **_India News_**  and  **_Entertainment News_**  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._