To watch Sadak 2, is to travel in a time machine.
You of course first revisit the 90's –
the film is a sequel to Sadak,
which was released in 1991.
Once again, Sanjay Dutt is Ravi,
a suicidal, mentally unstable driver.
In the original film he is like this,
because his sister becomes a sex worker
and is then killed by the sadistic
brothel madam Maharani.
Ravi, then finds redemption and purpose
in rescuing a young girl named Pooja,
whose been sold by her uncle to Maharani.
In Sadak 2, he is suicidal, because Pooja is dead.
He then finds redemption and purpose
in rescuing a young girl named Aarya,
from a sadistic god-man
and her own dysfunctional family.
Sadak 2 doesn’t just mirror the
original in terms of narrative beats.
The storytelling, performances dialogue,
cinematography, songs, background music –
all seem to belong to the 90's,
which was the last time
Mahesh Bhatt directed a film before this.
Bhatt, whose co-written the story with Suhrita Sengupta,
is still resolutely stuck in thirty years ago.
Gulshan Grover, who did multiple films with him then,
reappears here as a one-handed baddie named
Hathkatta – it’s like time has stopped.
In some scenes, Sadak 2 goes even further back -
an owl named Kumbhkaran,
helps Ravi to fight the bad guys,
which might remind you of the wondrous eagle
Allah Rakha in Amitabh Bachchan’s Coolie, in 1983.
And the celestial touch of Shivji Bhagwan in the climax,
will remind you of dozens of old Hindi films, in which
the gods themselves staged a timely intervention.
All of which is to say, that Sadak 2 is flat-out bonkers.
Take the character of the dhongi baba Gyan Prakash,
played by Makarand Deshpande.
Incidentally, Gyan Prakash is also the name of a
renowned historian at Princeton University,
whose book Mumbai Fables, was adapted into
Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet.
I don’t know if there is any subtext here.
But, then again, this film has no text,
so perhaps we shouldn’t be looking for subtext.
Makarand, matching a terrible wig with hollowed-out
cheeks, does his best to summon up perversity
and danger, but mostly, he’s hilarious.
The god-man sits on a beauteous throne.
In one scene, he petulantly bangs
his gold staff on the floor.
And he has terrific taste in jewelry –
I was admiring his bracelets and necklaces.
The original Sadak liberally lifted from
Hollywood films like Lethal Weapon and Taxi Driver.
But the film’s USP was the character of Maharani,
a transgender madam who proudly declares:
"Kamaal ka dimaag hai mere paas,
isliye mardon ki seva karti hoon aur auraton ka dhanda,
yahan ka raja, iss jism ke bazaar ka maharaja,
aur naam, Maharani".
Of course, Maharani was problematic
and furthered negative stereotypes,
but the character played with gusto by
Sadashiv Amrapurkar, propelled the film.
In contrast, Gyan Prakash giving lectures on
the Brahman, is unforgivably lame.
I suspect only the fine Bengali actor Jisshu Sengupta,
whom you might recognize from films like
Barfi, Mardaani and more recently Shakuntala Devi,
understood that Sadak 2 is a train-wreck,
so he decided to have fun and ham.
Playing Aarya’s father, he goes full frontal
on expressions, swagger, emotion
and is consistently watchable.
The others don’t do as well.
My heart went out to Sanjay Dutt,
who plays Ravi with sincerity.
But at every step, the script gets in the way.
I don’t know which actor could convincingly pull off
the scenes Sanjay is required to perform here –
these include chatting regularly with his dead wife
and trying to kill himself by hanging from a ceiling fan,
which breaks because of his weight.
Aditya Roy Kapur looks dazed and Alia Bhatt, confused.
Unlike Pooja in Sadak,
Aarya isn’t a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued.
She actively drives the action,
which is the one sign that this film is a 2020 film.
But even an actor of Alia’s caliber can’t do much,
with such sloppy storytelling and clumsy dialogue.
In one scene, Aarya says emphatically about Ravi,
“He knows me and understands me”.
I wish we could all find chauffeurs like this.
More than anything, Sadak 2 is a
brutal reminder of the ravages of time.
The film features moments from Sadak and
it’s startling to see how youth and beauty have frayed.
As have Mahesh Bhatt’s formidable
skills as a storyteller.
When Sadak 2 ended, I resolved that i am
going to pretend it never happened.
I would rather remember the gut-wrenching impact
of Mahesh’s story-telling through films like
Arth, Zakhm and Saaransh.
I’ll do the same for Makarand.
My favorite visual of the actor 
is him and Shah Rukh Khan,
dancing on the hill to A. R. Rahman’s,
"Yun hi Chala Chal" in Swades.
I’m going to stick with that.
You can watch Sadak 2 on DisneyPlus Hotstar.
