‘Vadh 2’ review: A well-executed successor to ‘Vadh’

In the vigilante thriller Vadh (2022), the elderly couple Shambhu and Manju carry off the perfect, righteous crime – the murder of a pervert who targets a young woman. Directed by Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Rajiv Barnwal, Vadh had solid performances, a tight plot with a matching gritty palette, and rare respect for the slow movements of its elderly heroes.

These factors are also in play in Vadh 2, directed and co-written by Sandhu with inputs from Neha Shitole and Rahul Sain. The successor too has characters named Shambhu and Manju, who are played by the same actors, Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta. They aren’t married this time, but Shambhu wishes they were.

Shambhu is a guard at a prison in Madhya Pradesh. Among his favourite side hustles is to buy the things that Manju needs for herself and the other prisoners. Manju is near the end of a lengthy sentence for a double murder. The high point of Shambhu’s day – rather, night – is to sneak across to the wall that separates him from Manju and talk to her through the concrete.

The arrival of a new jail warden shakes up things. Prakash (Kumud Mishra) is a casteist disciplinarian, perilously punishing the politically connected prisoner Keshav (Akshay Dogra) when...

Read more