Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Jishu Sengupta, Priyanka Bose, Makrand Deshpande

Director: Mahesh Bhatt

Rating: *1/2

Platform: Disney+Hotstar

Remember the eternal love story of Ravi and Pooja and late Sadashiv Amrapurkar's award-winning performance as the film's villain, 'Maharani' or melodies like 'Tumhein Apna Banaane Ki', 'Hum Tere Bin Kahi Reh', 'Rehne Ko Ghar Nahi' from the 1991's 'Sadak'. Well, after watching 'Sadak 2' you will think to go back and watch the old one again. Don't worry if you don't want to watch 'Sadak 2' then read the review here. So, Sadak 2 is a revenge story of Arya who wants to fight with a Godman but her parents are his devotees. They think Arya is mad until she meets a man who understands her and helps her even after knowing her reality.

The film starts with Arya (Alia Bhatt) who wants to take revenge on a religious leader Gyaan Prakaash (Makrand Deshpande) and with the motive, she burns a giant effigy of Gyaan and run away but gets caught by her stepmother Nandini (Priyanka Bose) and Gyaan's bodyguards. The scene cuts to Ravi Kishore's (Sanjay Dutt) flashback where he recalls his love memories with Pooja (Pooja Bhatt) who is dead now. It has become difficult for Ravi to live without Pooja and he attempts suicide but gets failed somehow. After the incident, his friend takes him to the psychiatric hospital where we gets to know that Ravi talks to Pooja's entity.

Along with Ravi, Arya is also admitted to the same hospital because of her unstable mental conditions. but Arya's father Yogesh (Jishu Sengupta) takes her back home. Arya escapes from her house and arrives at 'Pooja Travels & Tours', a cab service run by Ravi himself. She asks him to take her to Kailash as his wife has made a booking for this. First Ravi refuses to go but finally agrees. Her journey to Kailash was joined by her boyfriend Vishal (Aditya Roy Kapur) who has been recently released from the jail. The situations take a different turn when Arya reveals to Ravi that she wants to avenge her mother's death with Guruji and her stepmother. What is the reason behind her avenge and why she wants to go to Kailash, everything will reveal in this not so suspenseful film. In Sadak 2, there are several turns & twists that end in just twenty minutes and nothing remains suspicious.

Talking about the direction, Mahesh Bhatt has taken the road of '90s, where actors are promising but film scenes are just as old as the director is. There is nothing new, same action sequences with no inventiveness. Film screenplay is written by Mahesh Bhatt, Pushpdeep Bhardhwaj, Raj Kumar Bhutani, Shagufta Rafique but even a team of four great writers fails to hold the story adequately. Only Jay I. Patel's cinematography acts as a fresh breath in the film as alluring mountain scenes and picturesque locations, just strike one's mind.

Sanjay Dutt is the one who is a man of the moment who stole hearts with his teary eyes and emotions. Alia Bhatt also stands out in her role, especially in her scenes with Sanjay Dutt. Jishu Sengupta is a gem whose role takes different shades but still, he strikes every scene with his emotions and changes his expressions according to the script demand. The supporting cast performed average whether it was Priyanka Bose or Makrand Deshpande. It is quite a disappointment when you see Gulshan Grover in the film, who was just in the film to get hit by Sanjay Dutt, such a waste of talent. If you are looking for Aditya Roy Kapur's performance then sorry to disappoint you but there is nothing much to mention about him.

Music by Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, Samidh Mukherjee, Urvi Suniljeet is the soul of the film and saves you from a bad storyline. Whether it is 'Tum Se Hi' or 'Sadak', music by the great artist just relaxes one's mind, which is very important after watching this movie.

Overall, the film plot is predictable thanks to the writer who doesn't want to hold the suspense. All in all, the film follows the rule of 'old wine in a new bottle' with zero suspense level. Whether it is about actors getting hyper for no reason or watching Aditya once again as a drug addict. 'Sadak 2' is Mahesh's directorial comeback after a gap of 21 years but still, we barely see anything interesting in his ambitious venture. Last but not least it is better that COVID-19 happened and we didn't get the chance to watch it on the big screen. So if you have the leisure time of 2 hours 12 minutes, then watch it at your own risk!