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War 2 is an Indian action film with a lot of double-crossing and globetrotting, plus a smattering of Bollywood, because when your enemy is getting on your tits, what’s better than to dance them into next week?
Either way, I understood this was way too loud in IMAX screens, but I saw it on a regular screen, albeit with a laser projector, and basically: Say goodbye to your eardrums!!!
Looking like a choreographed perfume advert, it opens with resolving a situation between two rival gangs: India and Japan, as Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) behaves like a mix of John Wick and Uma Thurman’s Bride, as he casually strolls into a Japanese temple where an old man is celebrating his 75th birthday.
Alas for him, he’s a baddie, and despite having a ton of henchmen at his disposal, it seemingly takes nothing for our hero to slice and dice them all away, before chasing the birthday boy and taking care of business… even though, Old Father Time would probably do the job in a few years, anyway.
Just as this film’s love interest, Kavya (Kiara Advani) graduates from Wing Commander school, her ex and the aforementioned hero of the hour, Kabir, is offered a new job by a big conglomorate known as Kali, who make all the decisions, and are just shown as a sea of faceless images whenever there’s a hologramic conference call across all of those nations. Oh, and every time they arrange one of these, never a glitch, and NEVER a “You’re on mute!”
Jeez, my Freeview can barely manage a whole programme of anything without breaking up at least once!
Unfortunately, for all concerned, Kabir’s forced to kill Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) in the course of his job, but this is the man who was his mentor AND Kavya’s Dad, so that can’t happen, surely? This is getting a bit ’24’. It’s also going to be a bit awkward around the Christmas table next time, too.
Coming into the fray before too long is Vikram Chelapathi (NT Rama Rao Jr – aka NTR), whose task is to pursue Kabir even more relentlessly than the Terminator, thus leading to a long drawn-out tit-for-tat battle between the pair, and goes on far longer than it needs to. In fact, War 2 runs for 183 minutes, including the ten-minute interval… and even if you don’t need the toilet in the middle, just be glad of the leg-stretch!
On the downside, this has some dodgy dialogue, such as:
- Kabir: “I won’t make it personal”
Vikram: “It IS personal!”
On the other hand, there’s a hugely enjoyable car chase between the pair, with Kabir having to drive backwards, then ending up on a train’s roof, even though at the point of jumping off the bridge, he would have zero knowledge that a train was actually coming. Still, such trivialities.
Despite the running time, there’s still enough in there to enjoy for the most part including a number of amusing action scenes with crazy CGI overload, but the point remains: who keeps making these films run so bloody long?!
As an aside, lead Hrithik Roshan looks like an Indian Ryan Gosling, and since everything they do is all “India First”, can you imagine Ryan being all “America First”? Hmm…
NOTE: There are two mid-credits scenes. Check out the video below.
War 2 is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 173 minutes (plus interval)
Release date: August 15th 2025
Studio: Yash Raj Films
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic /i Scope, ARRIRAW (4.6K))
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Screenplay: Shridhar Raghavan
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Cast:
Kabir Dhaliwal: Hrithik Roshan
Vikram Chelapathi: NT Rama Rao Jr (as NTR)
Kavya Luthra: Kiara Advani
Colonel Sunil Luthra: Ashutosh Rana
Vikrant Kaul: Anil Kapoor
Vilasrao Sarang: Varun Badola
Ruhi Sahni: Arista Mehta
Gautam Gulati: KC Shankar
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.