Movie Review - Aksar 2 - An Engaging Thriller Despite Some Unbelievable Twists

Rating: **1/2

Ok, so first things first. If you are looking for a popcorn affair where you enjoy playing a guessing game and don’t really mind an element of predictability at various junctures too, Aksar 2 does fill in the slot to a decent extent.

The moment film opens with the setting where a super rich 70 something lady (Lillete Dubey) is surrounded by a governess (Zareen Khan), an investment banker (Gautam Rode), a lawyer (Sreesanth), and a housekeeper (Mohit Madan), you know there and then it is going to be a devious game about everyone planning to get hold of their share of her property. It is a matter of time before a game of one upmanship begins and double cross followed by triple cross are the order of the day.

Add to the mix another mysterious man (Abhinav Shukla) and it is all about the two women (Zareen, Lillete) taking on a bunch of men in their own playground. Mystery deepens, drama follows, plot thickens, twists are borrowed from Abbas-Mustan territory and in the entire first half you do stay hooked on to the screen. Yes, the erotic element that was supposed to be the driving force of the genre doesn’t really succeed but you actually let that part go since the story by itself is engaging. Moreover, each of these actors plays his or her part quite convincingly and for the film’s genre it turns out to be largely sufficient.

This is the reason why the second half begins well too as the suspense is revealed soon enough and now it all turns out to be how rest of the plot would unfold. The entire ‘will’ episode is handled well too and once everyone is exposed on the arena, you really want to know what would happen next. Ideally, this should have turned out to be the most exciting part of the film. However, this is where the film begins to take some unbelievable twists and turns and you wonder if this was the best possible execution of the core plot. Bodies begin to pile up and the narrative takes a course of convenience.

Thankfully, director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan brings it all back on track during the last 15 minutes and you are back in the zone where even though predictability sets in, it is satisfying at the least. The culmination is just right and though there isn’t much to remember about the film, it still turns out to be a fair watch.

Aksar 2 is actually a fair suspense thriller that does engage you for most part of its two hour narrative.