War 2 Movie Review: ‘Kauldron’ Of Spy Dust

War 2 Cast/Actors: Hrithik Roshan, Junior NTR, Kiara Advani, Anil Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana & Others

War 2 Movie Director: Ayan Mukerji

War 2 Production House: Yash Raj Films

War 2 Movie Release Date: 14th August, 2025

War 2 Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Netflix OTT Platform)

War 2 Released/Available In Languages: Hindi, Telugu & Tamil

War 2 Movie Runtime: 2h 53m

War 2 Critic Review:

This was the nadir YRF was fast plummeting to when Saiyaara lifted it temporarily. It’s a thud back to Thugs of Hindostan times.

Around halftime, the thought was, so far so bad. But it got worse.

We’d walked with a wolf, sparred in Japanese, fought an army of samurais, had car to car, bonnet to bonnet confrontations, travelled from Berlin to Delhi to the Somalian seas and the Himalayas, had coffee in Spain, got introduced to forced acronyms like MICE and LDBD, met Kaul (Anil Kapoor), the new RAW chief, saw Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) the old chief die with ‘India First’ on his lips, and we met Kabir (Hrithik Roshan), Vikram (NTR Jr) and Kavya (Kiara Advani) with ‘Aavan jaavan’ playing in the background.

But, and it’s a big but, we hadn’t moved from where we’d begun.

Have you ever had the feeling of jogging for miles but finding that you’re still in the same spot?

That’s the story by Aditya Chopra with a ‘scream’play from Shridhar Raghavan and dialogues credited to Abbas Tired-wala.

A global force named KALI must be brought down. A cabinet minister from India must be outed. Who’s the real hero? Kabir or Vikram? Not Wing Commander Kavya Luthra for sure who’s around for three brief scenes and the brief doesn’t refer to the size of her bikini.

Director Ayan Mukerji whose southward trek began with the incomprehensible Brahmastra takes a big leap on the escalator going down by substituting a taut spy narrative with a series of showdowns (seen before, all of it). On bikes, in cars, on trains, in mid-air, yup speed boats too, in picturesque locations fit more for a honeymoon than an action misadventure.

Throw in Davos, an attempt on the Prime Minister of India, our hero (es) working in the shadows (no medals, guys), zero romance, listless music from Pritam and a BG score that has gibberish going on while the guys fight or chase each other.

There’s a verbal showdown too between the boys, as dull as a politician’s promise, delivered by Kabir and Vikram with a distinct absence of energy.

The big disappointments are Hrithik himself who’s not at his animated best and NTR Jr who’s at his unimpressive worst.

Before we go home, not having moved from where we began, Ayan goes globe-trotting again, gives snatches of Moscow, Islamabad, China, Myanmar and Sri Lanka besides bringing in the Japanese word kintsugi. But it would require more than kintsugi, the Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery, to fix the RAW cauldron that Kaul has stirred this time.

War 2 Watch Or Not?: Watch the 2019 Hrithik-Tiger War instead.

War 2 Review Score Rating: 1.5 out of 5 (i.e. 1.5/5)

War 2 Official Trailer: