'Ab Tak Chhappan 2' review: A sequel we could have done without

Director: Aejaz Gulab
Cast: Nana Patekar, Vikram Gokhale, Ashutosh Rana, Raj Zutshi, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Mohan Agashe
Rating: *1/2

What it's about: The return of noted encounter specialist Sadhu Agashe (Patekar) to active duty, thanks to a short talk by his son. My dad is a policeman, not a fisherman, he says. So Sadhu returns, irritating the likes of aggressive cop Suryakant Thorat (Rana) and gangster Rawale (Zutshi). Does he manage to clean up his city or are there more sinister aspirations underfoot?

What's hot: The fact that the producer and director convinced actors as good as those mentioned above to be a part of this film. And that writer Nilesh Girkar convinced his director that putting the words 'system' and 'force' in every second line would be the way to go. That the actors actually mouthed those words. That DOP Siddhartha More's 'finished' work actually is this film. It's amazing, isn't it?

What's not: We know politicians in the movies always have an agenda, that they're always playing both sides. So yeah, tell us something we couldn't figure out for ourselves. Also, we're sometimes so taken in by the courage in coming out with a sequel to the original landmark film and by Nana Patekar's deadpan demeanour to this whole outing, that we fail to ignore that Ashutosh Rana has made an artform of playing a unidimensional character with Suryakant. It's so easy to detach ourselves from each character's flaws here, because by the end of it you just don't care

What to do: Eleven years too late, Shimit Amin-less, this is one sequel we could have done without.