Venus Worldwide Entertainment and Satish Kaushik Entertainment LLP’s Kaagaz 2 is the second film in the Kaagaz series. In this film, the court raises a pertinent question: what is the value of a law or rule if it is merely on paper but not implemented in practice.
The story is about a citizen’s right to protest and about a citizen’s right to life. Sushil Rastogi (Satish Kaushik) knocks the doors of the court when he loses his daughter because he couldn’t reach the hospital in time to save her life after a fall. Medical help was delayed only because of a traffic jam induced by politician K.P. Deo Ranjan’s (Anang Desai) protest rally in the city. Sushil Rastogi’s case is being fought by advocate Raj Narayan Singh (Anupam Kher) who himself is battling cancer. His son, Uday Singh (Darshan Kumar), is fighting his own demons and hates his father because he had left Uday and his mother, Radhika (Neena Gupta), when he was just five years old. How Uday starts loving his father, how he joins him in his fight for securing justice for Sushil Rastogi, and how he (Uday) solicits the support of his girlfriend, Tanisha Mathur (Smriti Kalra), forms another angle of the drama.
The story, written by Ankur Suman and Shashank Khandelwal, is nice in parts. The duo’s screenplay, like their story, is appealing, but in portions only. The court judgement in the drama may be laudable but it is also the weakest part of the drama because although it upholds a person’s right to life and penalises those who restrict it or come in the way of its implementation, the viewers realise that in real life, protest rallies are rampant all over the country and hence the judgement has no real meaning. Since Arya Rastogi is already dead, the feeling that the judgement would not give much solace to the Rastogis comes in the way of the viewers’ enjoyment of the drama. The initial part of the drama (about Uday Singh’s military training) is slow and, in a way, it does not materially affect the crux. Once the real drama (about the court case) starts, the audience realises that too much time had been wasted on the track of Uday Singh’s military training. Although the courtroom drama is engaging, it does not have too many highs and definitely lacks clap-traps. The screenplay is also devoid of emotions. Ankur Suman and Shashank Khandelwal’s dialogues are realistic.
Darshan Kumar shines in the role of Uday Singh. Anupam Kher leaves a fine mark as advocate Raj Narayan Singh. Satish Kaushik is natural to the core as Sushil Rastogi. Neena Gupta makes her presence felt as Radhika. Anang Desai has his moments as politician K.P. Deo Ranjan. Smriti Kalra is effective as Tanisha Mathur. Anirudh Dave is endearing as Satya. Dara Sing Khurana (as Maninder) and Harry Josh (as Hamid) lend fine support. Shabnam Vadhera is natural as Sarita Rastogi. Aishwarya Ojha makes her presence amply felt in a brief role as Sushil and Sarita Rastogi’s daughter, Arya. Kiran Kumar leaves a fine impression in a special appearance as the judge. Karan Razdan is quite nice in a friendly appearance as Abhijeet. Arjun Bonthiyaal makes a lovely mark as Nandan. Farida Patel is good as house help Leela. Mohit Bhatia performs ably as K.P. Deo Ranjan’s son, Ashish. Bobby Khan (as K.P. Deo Ranjan’s secretary), Trilochan Singh Kalra (as Dr. Nigam), Garima Kapoor (as Ritika), Kapil Tilhari (as lawyer Sunil Kukreti), Devashish Mishra (as advocate Ravi Prasad), Sandeep Mishra (as the advocate), Tulika Banerjee (as DM, Sheetalapur), Sharad Raj Singh (as SP Firoz Alam), Ankur Suman (as Abir Gosain), Rajni Yadav (as Itishri Bansal), Vikas Tewari (as Asif Qazi), Akshay Lamba (as little Satya), Krishiv Agarwal (as little Uday Singh), Paras (as Paras), I.P. Sawhney (as Major), Sudhir Singh (as Colonel), Ayushi Pal (as the maid), Rajesh Kumar Gupta (as police inspector J.P. Meena), Amrinder Singh (as Sodhi), Rashmi Pathak (as Mrs. Sodhi), Kavita (as Geetu), Arpit Kumar Mishra (as Kamlesh Upadhyay), and the others do as desired.
V.K. Prakash’s direction, with co-direction by Nishant Kaushik, is fairly good. Music (Sharib Toshi and Srijan Vinay Vaishnav) is okay. Lyrics (Rashmi Virag and Srijan Goswami) are meaningful. Aseem Ahmed Abbasee’s poetry is good. Sushma Sunam’s choreography is functional. Srijan Vinay Vaishnav’s background music is quite nice. Anu Moothedath’s cinematography, with additional cinematography by Amir Lal, is reasonably nice. Pradyumna Kumar Swain’s action and stunt scenes are fair. Jayant Deshmukh’s production designing, and Mohammad Minurazzama’s art direction are alright. Sanjay Verma’s editing should’ve been crisper.
On the whole, Kaagaz 2 is a well-meaning film but it does not give the audience a high. And such films don’t perform at the box-office unless the audience experiences a high and sheds tears.
Released on 1-3-’24 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.