‘Vadh 2’ movie review: An emotionally resonant thriller where restraint is over-stated

Over the years, carceral imagery has been an important creative device for shaping tales of confinement and social control. This week, Shambhunath Mishra (Sanjay Mishra), a prison guard struggling with financial burdens and personal isolation, forms an unlikely bond with Manju Singh (Neena Gupta), an inmate serving a life term for crimes she may not have committed. The intimacy amid isolation gets a jolt when one night a politically-connected predator disappears from prison, triggering an investigation. As a determined officer, Ateet Singh (Amitt K. Singh) takes charge, and elements of caste dynamics and power struggles surface, involving a strict but prejudiced superintendent (Kumud Mishra) and a perverted inmate (Akshay Dogra).

If you have watched Vadh and the trailer of its spiritual sequel, you can pretty much guess the who and why of the thriller in the first few minutes. It deliberately reunites the lead actors and retains their screen names, shifting the narrative from the original’s domestic thriller to a prison-set story rooted in the moral complexities and systemic flaws of the criminal justice system. Murder with a moral, which became a rage with Drishyam, is the connecting link. One could see that the same thought is being reimagined from a distance, and the makers want to underline it.

As a result, the narrative structure of this slow burn doesn’t hold many surprises until the efficiently concealed final twist, which leaves us amazed with a timely tweak to the karmic theory. You don’t have to wait for rebirth to pay for your sin.

The film questions the idea of justice as writer-director Jaspal Singh Sandhu judiciously weaves the realities of caste, confinement, and entitlement. Sapan Narula’s cinematography and Sidhant Malhotra’s production design create a space you can believe in. Neena and Sanjay once again bring quiet intensity and emotional depth to the performance without making the suffering dreary. While Sanjay brings his whimsical style to Shambhu, Neena imparts grit and grace to Manju. But it is Kumud who lights up the layers in the scenario as the surname-hunting superintendent Prakash Singh, whose righteousness is undone by his bias.

However, Sandhu spends too much time establishing the obvious good and bad, leaving the grey to go underappreciated. The modus operandi of removing evidence is carried out with a heavy hand, and the role of call details in the investigation is conveniently forgotten. In a thriller, if the supporting characters wear their intent on their sleeves, the emotional drama leading up to that big revelation becomes laboured even in two hours.

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More importantly, the uneven treatment of the second act exposes the carefully curated restraint of an unrushed thriller with middle-aged actors. A self-conscious Amit K Singh doesn’t fit the film’s tone. As the investigating officer, he seems to be using the opportunity to audition for a Bollywood biggie.

It is irritating to see the director allowing the character to flaunt his body in bed and strike a pose with a cigarette in a film where artistes such as Neena, Sanjay, and Kumud play on a different plane. If the idea is to bring a little more colour, it doesn’t work. Eventually, it is like a well-intentioned sentence with punctuation all over the place.

Vadh 2 is currently running in theatres