Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar shootout review: A sanitized concoction of CID and Crime Patrol opera

Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar shootout review: A sanitized concoction of CID and Crime Patrol opera

Case No 87C912. Manoj Bajpayee reprises the character of ACP Avinash Verma with his SCU team comprising Inspector Bhatia (Prachi Desai), Vaquar Shaikh and Sumit Vaid to investigate a mass shootout at a bar which is not as simple to crack as it seems. As the team delves deeper into the case, they peel off more layers of complexities – deliberate motive, collateral damages and a racket of flesh trade, sex trafficking and a suspect who is a psychopath.

ACP Verma discovers Sharyu Seth who happens to be a Minister’s assistant wasn’t the main target in the genocide but a girl in the name of Aasman was. As he probes more, he finds a darker and sinister element at play which lead him to Jaipur.

Helmed by Aban Bharucha Deohans, Silence 2 is exciting on paper and premise, but elementary in execution. Shot extensively inside confined corridors and swanky rooms, the treatment constantly gives you a feel of watching a manicured CID episode with so much hygiene in place. The low-key set design, the sloppy and pedestrian screenplay and the hackneyed writing by short-filmmaker Sunny Sharma induces such a slog that even an actor like Manoj Bajpayee can’t salvage. The film lacks kinetics and the urgency that a tight thriller should possess. The characters here solve the case like a mathematics puzzle. "Information ke bina sab speculation hai", dialogues lack life.

In one scene, Sumit Vaid asks him, “Sir aapko kabhi khaate hue nahin dekha!”. Bajpai just stares at him solemnly. He is the reason to engage in this mediocre crime thriller which is remotely engaging. Dressed in a singular costume through the film, the actor humanizes his character and wears a consistently somber look to portray a man saddled with familial discord.

Post the first hour, the show tries to infuse some promise with a slight surge in the momentum, but it doesn’t heal up the crevices or the damage in the building of the storyline. Actors like Dinker Sharma playing a deranged man and Parul Sharma with a tormented childhood are far from convincing. You can hardly invest in their stories.

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