Manoj Bajpayee and Prachi Desai-starrer ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’ isn’t a film with just a long title.
However, thanks to the hunch that ACP Verma has, he finds out that there is a deeper racket involved.
Watch the trailer here:Aban Bharucha Deohans has written and directed ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’.
Manoj Bajpayee’s ACP Verma feels like Srikanth Tiwari with less quirk.
2.5 out of 5 stars for ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’.
Manoj Bajpayee and Prachi Desai-starrer ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’ isn’t a film with just a long title. With close to 2 hours and 40 minute run-time, the film also veers towards being a dud show with very melodramatic treatment. At the centre of it is ACP Avinash Verma (played by Bajpayee), who reiterates how Amitabh Bachchan says ‘No means no’ in Pink before beating up goons and can play out murder scenes with his vivid imagination.
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He is a poet at heart who simply delivers philosophical lines in the middle of an investigation, ponders often and quotes Ghalib. This man, along with his team, is out to catch a killer, who has murdered 10 people in a bar. However, thanks to the hunch that ACP Verma has, he finds out that there is a deeper racket involved.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
The racket that we are speaking about is a human trafficking racket. With a slow start, the story slowly progresses towards finding the culprit, not just behind the shootout but also the one operating the racket.
At the centre of it is a mad artist, Arjun Chauhan. He is shown as an elusive character who only a few have met. The mystery unfolds, little by little, over the next 160 minutes. While the film picks up pace, it is very sporadic. The pace keeps being unsteady, and the melodramatic treatment does not help the case.
(SPOILERS END)
What is worse is the climax and the revelation of the criminal. What follows is the motive provided. Thanks to the final sequence, it looks like the audience has very successfully wasted their time.
Watch the trailer here:
Aban Bharucha Deohans has written and directed ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’. The writing could have been much crisper, especially at times when very craftily-made crime thrillers are aplenty. Even as a director, he loses his reign over the film quite a few times. The execution does not help.
Manoj Bajpayee’s ACP Verma feels like Srikanth Tiwari with less quirk. The actor tries to incorporate the swag that he has in the Raj and DK show, but keeps stuck in philosophy. The lines given just make the character farcical at times. He tries to play ACP Verma with sincerity, but the script does not do justice.
Prachi Desai is a wasted opportunity here. The actor, who has spark and talent, doesn’t have much to showcase in the film. It also makes us wonder why makers are not doing justice to her.
There seems to be a poor parody running throughout with dialogues like ‘kuch toh gadbad hai’ (something is wrong), reminiscent of ACP Pradyuman from CID or ‘iss khel ka nirdeshak Arjun Chauhan hai par iss drame ka antim scene hum likhenge’ (Arjun Chauhan might be the director of the game, but I will write the last scene). There’s also, ‘her life was interrupted by death’ at a very serious point. So, you get the drift of how the film gets unintentionally funny.
All in all, this is, at best, a one-time watch. This is one of those films that had the potential, but there were just so many flaws. Hopefully, with the hint of a third part at work, the flaws will be looked into, and the outcome would be better!
2.5 out of 5 stars for ‘Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout’.
