Khuda Haafiz Chapter 2 is far better than Chapter 1

So you thought sequels sucked. Most of the time they do. The one sequel that proved better than the first film was Lage Raho Munnabhai .

Here is another. The second chapter of Khuda Haafiz — and there is a clear indication of a third chapter coming up — is way ahead of the first. The writing is a bludgeoning riff of pain and brutality amassed into a well-orchestrated riot of anger and vindication.

Initially, the film is ominously quiet. We get to know that Sameer Chaudhary’s wife ( Shivaleeka Oberoi , neatly effective) is suffering. Commendably writer-director Faruk Kabir doesn’t jump the gun to put his action hero into a violent deep dive, until the right moment. This slow-burn thriller that gets your attention with such devilish stealth , you don’t even know you have been swallowed into the vortex of a violent power play of the kind we haven’t seen in a very long time.

This is a killer of a thriller, direct and devastating in it brute force. For those who are in this for the action, the wait is well worth it. Vidyut Jammwal playing a common man pushed to the brick wall takes time to explode. But when he does get into the mood for serious mayhem, there is hell to pay.

The first major fight sequence comes post the mid-point. Two little girls one aged 15 the other just 5, are raped and murdered by a bunch of privileged juveniles, the kind who get away with extremely criminal behaviour because, as their shameless defence lawyers would argue, they know not what they do.

This taut tense thriller, handsomely shot by cinematographer Jitan Harmeet Singh with the climax in Egypt scoring especially high, moves surely and violently beyond the law when the film’s hero Sameer reaches his breaking point. The first major action sequence in the courtyard of a prison with heavy rains pelting down on the pounding fists, is so adeptly choreographed it feels almost unreal and yet so like an unrehearsed eruption of pent-up violence.

As actor Danish Hussain, brilliant as an influential jail inmate says, there is nothing more dangerous in this world than a man who has nothing to lose. Jammwal plays that man with a one-note performance. Danish is one the many brilliant supporting actors who give the narrative a ferociously feral aura. While Vidyut Jammwal falls short in the emotional scenes (he looks uniformly stricken when asked to react to an emotional stimuli) the actors around him don’t allow the drama to slacken for even a moment.

Toweringly infernal in her vile methodology to remain powerful, is the film’s arch villain Thakurji, played by the astounding Sheeba Chadha . Thankfully a director has finally shown the presence of mind to cast this powerhouse actress in a central role. While the film would have worked with any other action hero in the lead, I wonder if the plot’s devious edifice would have sustained itself without Chadha.

In the key dramatic sequences Sheeba Chadha’s face expressed many shades of evil all at once. This is the best female antagonist I’ve seen since Shabana Azmi in Godmother . Sheeba’s Thakurji seems inspired by Shabana’s Godmother , eager as they are as mutinous mothers to protect their son at any cost from the law.

The film’s pitch-dark conflict is never lightened with diversionary tactics. The songs—incidentally this a rare instance of a contemporary action film where the songs make sense — push the narration forward into the blind alley of revenge and justice without looking anxiously over their shoulders to see if the audience is tapping its feet in approval.

One of the film’s song lyrics speaks of protecting all women from violence, be it Razia or Sita. I think the country needs to look beyond narrow interests if peace is to be restored. Rajesh Telang playing the only honest journalist in Lucknow speaks of Ram Rajya being restored in the country. If only wishes were vote banks.

Khuda Haafiz Chapter 2 takes a long leap towards justice to land elegantly on its legs. The climax in Cairo features a charming local Egyptian actor who bursts into an Egyptian version of Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale Duniya Le Jayenge song.

“Everyone loves Shah Rukh,” says the Egyptian. True. But there is a world beyond the bright vivacity of Shah Rukh Khan ’s world that seldom gets explored in the right (dark) light. Khuda Haafiz gets the revenge drama right for once. It is that surprise film of the year which comes with zero expectations and sweeps us away.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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