Opened: 25 January 2013
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ameesha Patel
Directors: Abbas-Mustan
Producers: Sidharth Roy Kapur, Ramesh Taurani, Ronnie Screwvala
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Rating: ★★

Race 2 was touted as one of the big films of the year. I seriously hope though, that it doesn't set the bar the standard of films in the months to come. Even if you discard all sense of reason and try and enjoy the film for what it is, you can't help but feel that Abbas Mustan's thriller is all style and no substance.

The plot unfolds in Turkey where Ranveer Singh (Khan) befriends a street fighter turned crime lord Armaan Malik (Abraham), who's consistently on the lookout for ways in which to pocket wads of cash and expand his empire. With Ranveer's help he manages to swindle rich businessmen, pull of heists and steal historic artifacts. They're ably supported by Armaan's half sister Elena (Padukone), Omisha (Fernandez), a wily and corrupt ex cop (Kapoor who returns from the first film) and his dim witted assistant Cherry (Patel). Unknown to Armaan however, Ranveer has a score to settle and the way he goes about this forms the crux of the story.

Race 2 has been shot on a lavish scale no doubt, but if only they'd spent half of that budget on a coherent script. The writing is mostly sloppy with yawn inducing, ridiculous dialogue. Sample these:

"Oh Armaan you can be such a kamina" or "Men are men... Money is money" or the most cringe worthy dialogue of all, "Cherry, I want to pop your cherry..." Really? I've enjoyed most of Abbas-Mustan's previous works but seriously, how did they let this script pass?

Pritam's music is not a patch on the original either - none of the songs stay with you and seem to have been placed in the film merely as fillers.

Flaws aside, there's plenty of eye candy both in terms of the women and exotic locations to keep frontbenchers entertained and the camerawork is especially fetching. 

The special effects though are tacky - especially in the climax.

I'm going with a very generous two stars for Race 2. While the first one was far fetched but extremely enjoyable, it's sequel has been stretched incessantly. It's better packaged for sure but ultimately turns out to be soulless, forgettable fare. A big letdown.