Review: Awarapan 2

The best reason to watch Awarapan 2 is the one everyone already suspected: Emraan Hashmi hasn't lost a step with this character. Nineteen years on from the 2007 original, he plays Shivam Pandit older and more weathered without ever softening the mix of menace and heartbreak that made the role a cult favourite in the first place. Whenever the film is content to just sit with him, brooding, wounded, dangerous, it works.

The trouble is everything built around him. The plot, Shivam drawn back into a child-trafficking ring in Bangkok after bonding with an orphaned girl, plays out in beats this genre has used many times before, and Nitin Kakkar's screenplay rarely finds a way to surprise. Disha Patani makes a strong impression in limited space, and Shabana Azmi is typically excellent, but the writing keeps circling the same emotional notes rather than building past them.

The trouble is everything built around him.

It's a film held up almost entirely by its lead. Fans who spent nineteen years wanting exactly this, more Shivam, will likely leave satisfied. Anyone hoping for a script worthy of the performance may find themselves waiting through the familiar stretches for Hashmi to walk back on screen.