Hindi
Force 2…..Of forced action…
MUMBAI: Force 2 is the sequel to the 2011 movie, Force, which, in turn, was based on the 2003 Tamil film, Kaakha Kaakha. Force was about John Abraham, an ACP level cop, a loner who refuses to marry because that would hamper his work of chasing dreaded criminals. His department is always at war with the narcotics trade, and his life is always at risk.
However, love happens: he falls for Genelia D’Souza and marries her, only to lose her in his battle with the drug mafia. The rest is about how he avenges her death.
In Force 2, John the narcotics cop goes international. He is deputed to assist a RAW agent, Sonakshi Sinha. John’s childhood friend, Freddy Daruwala, a RAW agent along with two other colleagues has been eliminated by the Chinese while on duty there. John receives a book from his friend and concludes that his friend’s cover was blown by one of his own compatriots.
John takes it upon himself to avenge his death.
It is for John and Sonakshi to identify the traitor from among their own and then to neutralize him. Sonakshi does not think much of John, he being a cop while she represents the elite espionage force. She does not take John’s contribution seriously as she would rather go about singling out the traitor in her copybook style.
The equation changes once John pinpoints the culprit while Sonakshi is still marking the probable suspects. But, much to John’s discomfort, the hierarchy is established. John is supposed to take orders from her even though her bumbling ways and reputation of failing to pull the trigger when needed makes her look more like the hero’s funny sidekick
The villain, Tahir Bhasin, is identified but nabbing him is not easy. After all, he is also a trained spy. What follows is a chase which lasts through most of the first half of the film. The traitor is smart, always well-prepared and a step ahead of his pursuers. He has backup help from the Chinese to whom he is leaking the names of Indian agents in their country!
As John and Sonakshi catch up with Bhasin, he is always saved by his handlers. Whenever that happens, John and Sonakshi are sitting ducks for them but they, it seems, want to chase to go on!
Why would an Indian and a RAW agent at that be leaking information? He has his reasons on which the whole premise of the film is based. He is seeking revenge from someone high up in the Indian establishment. And, that is where the finale shall take place.
The film starts off on an exciting note in the backdrop of China where three agents’ cover has been blown and the way they are killed. But, no, the fight here is not with the Chinese, they are just incidental. It’s all about the enemy within and that takes away some fun to start with.
After that the action shifts to Budapest for rest of the film but, besides the change of scene as far as the location is concerned, the chases and the one-upmanship game have been seen before and get repetitive. The concept, as mentioned earlier, is based on a premise that is not familiar. Nowhere is the public privy to life of a RAW agent, let alone it being flashed on media like a local incident.
While the pace is swift as most of the footage goes to action and chases with none wasted on romance or singing and dancing, it also means the film has no distractions as in variety. The script is on predictable lines. The direction, in such an event, is all about sticking to action with little attention to script.
The climax takes the audience for granted. Dialogue, especially the lines penned for Tahir, is good. The action is well executed and John, to his credit, makes them look plausible. John also looks sincere about his role of a cop on a rebound. Sonakshi shows little variation in expressions whether she is talking about her mistake which cost five cops their lives or in any other situation. The background score is effective.
Force 2 is a below average action thriller.
Producers: Vipul Amrutlal Shah.
Director: Abhinay Deo.
Cast: John Abraham, Sonakshi Sinha, Tahir Bhasin, Adil Hussain, Raj Babbar.
Tum Bin 2….Old wine gone flat
Tum Bin 2 is a sequel to 2001 film, Tum Bin, a musical love triangle. The sequel, also directed by Anubhav Sinha, comes rather late as far as sequels go, as the idea seems to be to cash in on the current trend of sequels and also to put to use a successful franchise. Tum Bin 2 follows almost same storyline as the original.
Ashim Gulati and Neha Sharma are a pair and live an eventful life full of fun. On one of their days out skiing, Ashim meets with an accident. After attempts to trace him, all hopes are given up on his survival. Neha is devastated and withdraws from the world outside.
This is when Neha meets Aditya Seal through Ashim’s father, Kanwaljeet Singh. Aditya gets busy helping Neha out of her grief. He also gets her involved in her work. Neha gradually starts living a normal life while also getting attracted to Aditya. Just when lives of all connected seem to be hunky-dory, it takes a turn to bring in the ever so popular and old-fashioned twist.
Ashim is not dead after all. It is now a love triangle and Neha is faced with her past and present loves.
There is nothing new to the story about the past catching up and the one in a quandary is always the woman. Tum Bin 2 does not vary from its original and retains the same glitches in the script as well.
The forte in the original was its soundtrack which worked in the film’s favour. Here, the music falls short of expectation. Retaining an old Jagjit Singh number from the earlier version is not much help.
Direction is fair. Dialogue is routine. Cinematography makes the viewing pleasant. Performance wise, Neha Sharma and Aditya Seal do well. Ashim Gulati has little to do in the first half; he is okay.
Tum Bin 2 faces some tough challenges. It comes at a time when demonetisation has affected box office collections all over; the film needed stronger musical score and, the length of 141 minutes (shortened by six minutes from the original censored length of 147) is too lengthy for a love story without any known faces.
Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Anubhav Sinha.
Director: Anubhav Sinha.
Cast: Aditya Seal, Neha Sharma, Ashim Gulati, Kanwaljeet Singh.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
