Sadak 2

About the film

Sadak 2 (Hindi pronunciation: [sə.ɽək 2]; transl. Road 2) is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language action thriller road film directed by Mahesh Bhatt and produced by Fox Star Studios and Mukesh Bhatt under their banner Vishesh Films. A sequel to the 1991 film Sadak, it stars Sanjay Dutt (reprising his role from the original), Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur in the lead roles with an ensemble supporting cast, while Pooja Bhatt makes a special appearance. The film's story takes place twenty-nine years after the events of its predecessor.

The film marks Mahesh Bhatt's return as a director after 20 years as well as his final directorial work till date. Its trailer was released on 12 August 2020 on YouTube, and within a week, it became the second most-disliked video and the most-disliked film teaser/trailer on the platform due to internet users protesting nepotism in Bollywood after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

Plot

Aarya Desai vandalises a placard of Guru Gyaan Prakash. She is stopped by her step-mother Nandini and father Yogesh and Gyaan Prakash's ashram people. Ravi Kishore Verma, now an elderly man has recently lost his love and wife, Pooja. He attempts suicide and gets hospitalised. Ravi refuses when the doctor asks him to admit himself in a mental rehab. Aarya runs away, and enters Ravi's home, stating she'd booked Kailash 3 months before.

Aarya convinces Ravi to visit Kailash for Pooja's sake and gives a letter with her handwriting. Ravi agrees. Nandini and Yogesh go to Gyaan Prakash with Commissioner Rajesh Puri. Gyaan Prakash says Aarya will die by her own blood.

Aarya tells Ravi about her mission to stop Guru Gyaan Prakash and all other fake gurus. In past Nandini killed Aarya's mother Shakuntala, married Yogesh and begun using their wealth to run Gyaan Prakash's ashram.

Production

In April 2017, media reports surfaced about the sequel of the 1991 film Sadak, after its lead cast Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt visited Mukesh Bhatt through the office of Vishesh Films. The source further claimed that it will feature a different plot, despite being the continuation of the original and the script will be a remake of the Tamil film Mahanadhi (1994), which will be directed by Srijit Mukherji. However, no developments about the film took place, despite its initial announcement.

On 20 September 2018, coinciding with Mahesh Bhatt's 70th birthday, Alia Bhatt announced the film officially with the title Sadak 2, with the original film's cast members, along with Alia and Aditya Roy Kapur was announced being a part of the cast. The film marked Mahesh Bhatt's return to direction after 20 years since his last film Zakhm as a director, also marked the maiden collaboration with Alia and Mahesh working together and his final directorial venture till date.

On 8 April 2019, it was confirmed that principal photography would commence in the middle of May 2019, which eventually began on 18 May 2019. The following day, Makarand Deshpande was confirmed to play the main antagonist in the film. Alia Bhatt joined the film on 21 May 2019. The first schedule of the film was completed in the third week of May in Mumbai and the second schedule began in Ooty in mid-July 2019. With a few sequences being shot in Mysore and Ooty, the film's principal photography wrapped up on 31 October 2019, except for a few patchwork scenes which were filmed in July 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed by Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, Samidh Mukerjee, Urvi and Suniljeet with lyrics written by Rashmi Virag, Vijay Vijawatt, Shabbir Ahmed, Suniljeet and Shalu Vaish. The film score is composed by Sandeep Chowta.

Controversies

Sadak 2's trailer was released on August 12, 2020, and faced vote brigading owing to the nepotism debate sparked after the death of Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Speculating that Rajput had been upset over being shut out of the film industry, due to hiring practices that favored children of established film personalities, Rajput's fans blamed notable people in Bollywood, including Sadak 2 director Mahesh Bhatt and his daughter Alia. Within two days of its release, the trailer had received 5.3 million dislikes on YouTube and became the second most disliked video within a week's time.

In July 2020, a resident of Bihar filed a complaint against the makers of the film, stating that the film's poster featured an image of Kailash Mansarovar, which "hurt Hindu sentiments". The Vishva Hindu Parishad also criticised the film's trailer for similar reasons.

Release

In October 2019, Gravitas Ventures bought the United States distribution rights for the feature. The film was initially scheduled for release on 25 March 2020 in India and in United States on 24 April 2020, but was pushed to 10 July 2020 in India and 31 July 2020 in the United States due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It was again pulled from the release schedule as the shooting was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India.

On 29 June 2020, the streaming service Disney+ Hotstar conducted a virtual press conference, where Bhatt announced that the film would be released exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar. The film premiered on 28 August 2020 in India and in theaters in United States.

Critical reception

Sadak 2 was panned by critics. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave the film 0.25 out of 5, calling it the director's interpretation of a "sleeping pill", and wrote "It is not possible to be angry with Sadak 2 for its half-baked ideas and quarter-baked script though, because it is too boring to be worthy of even anger." Calling it "One of 2020's worst films", Jyoti Sharma Bawa of Hindustan Times wrote that Sadak 2 is a "jaded and ponderous film that is stuck in the 90's, [which] is best avoided." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 1 out of 5, calling it "terrible" and wondered "why would anyone want to make something so dated, so jaded, in this day and age?" Rahul Desai of Film Companion called the film "dreadful" and "atrocious", and bemoaned that the performances of the actors "sticks out like a sore thumb." Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "The storytelling, performances dialogue, cinematography, songs, background music – all seem to belong to the 90's".

Key details