Race 2

The director duo of Abbas Mustan have been in the industry for more than 2 decades now and have been making films in only one genre..Entertaining thrillers. Of course not all of their films have been good but Race, which was released way back in 2008, had seen tremendous success and appreciation because of its racy pace, nice plot with ample of twists and turns to keep audience thrilled to the fullest. The makers now come up with next installment of Race trying and expecting to outdo the first one. While the first half meets the expectations, the second half brings it down badly.
The film is about Ranveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) who wants to take revenge of the murder of his love Sonia and comes to Turkey for that. There he meets Armaan Malik (John Abraham) who is mafia king, his half sister Elina (Deepika Padukone) and his girlfriend (Jacqueline Fernandez). And of course, there is RD (Anil Kapoor) with his fruits and a new secretary (Ameesha Patel). And then starts the tale of friendship, love, deceit, big money and revenge with twists waiting at every corner.
The films starts off very well with an engaging and entertaining first half….brisk and smart introduction of all the characters, beautifully shot exotic locations, exciting casino games, a fine sword sequence, a brilliant chase sequence and a thrilling build up of twists towards the interval. While there are obvious flaws in the narrative, the pace of first hour overshadows it.
But the second half brings the tempo down and narrative strays from a revenge tale to robbery, club fights and few irrelevant scenes. The ease with which robbery of a shroud worth billions takes place is so amateurish that it’s funny. A long fight sequence involving John Abraham, a romantic track of Anil Kapoor, all this seems forced only to increase their footage. The twists also die down here and the ones that come are too predictable. The lack of pace, disjointed story and plenty of flaws in the story in this second hour spoil the fun with a not so thrilling climax.
In terms of performances, Saif Ali Khan and John Abraham are good and they look stylish. Deepika Padukone is at her glamorous best with lot of skin show. Anil Kapoor is ok offering nothing new from last edition and Jacqueline and Ameesha try to do their best which of course remains barely average. Music and choreography of songs is in line with the mood of the film…racy and peppy.
With running time of two and a half hours, the film is little long. And if only the overall story between both halves had remained consistent with edge of the seat thrills, it could have been equally good as the first Race which unfortunately is not the case.
Cinema Analyst's Take – Average. It doesn't bore for most parts but it doesn't have enough to force people to Race towards the multiplexes.