The first ‘Heropanti’, which came out in 2014, was Tiger Shroff’s debut. The terribly tacky, dated

plot notwithstanding, it was clear that a new star had emerged

With his athletic build, ripped abs and trippy moves, Tiger held out a youthful, millennial appeal which looked all set to travel much farther than his father, Jackie, ever had

Eight years on, the sequel ‘Heropanti 2’ proves just how little mainstream Bollywood has shifted in terms of plot and treatment

Tiger’s Bablu is now a hacker and hackster extraordinaire, with a complicated backstory. And this time around, he has gone global, ranging from Yorkshire, to Egypt, to China, to Varanasi

But not even the super-agile Tiger can leapfrog over a worn, moth-eaten storyline which involves one number loving mother (Amrita Singh), mandatory romantic interest, Inaya (Tara Sutaria), and the extremely evil Laila (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and his multi-national, multi-racial cohorts

Actually, there really is no plot. It’s basically a series of set pieces featuring Bablu prancing,

romancing, and dancing, when he is not mowing down bunches of baddies

Even going by the low standards of leading ladies in such movies, Inaya touches a new low with the gutter language she is made to spout

how is it even admissible in a film meant to be family-friendly? Everything below the belt is up for grabs, and that’s meant to be funny

How do you hack into every single Indian’s bank account on the same day? That is the challenge held out to our hero, as is the desirability of being a ‘deshbhakt’

How can a mere Bollywood hero resist? He uses ludicrous passwords, and whistle-worthy lines like

Bablu dhoondhne se nahin, kismat se milta hai It’s not as if Tiger doesn’t work hard

Apart from the fancy cars that he gets to crash into

sleek Lamborghinis seem to have taken over that old Bollywood favourite, the Ferrari

he emerges, sexily smudged but intact from amongst exploding hand-grenades, his shirt neatly ripped to show us the real rips

But the ‘seeties’ are reserved for the villain in this ‘heropanti’ part two

As the campy, kohl-rimmed, lipsticked Laila, Nawaz is full-on, embracing the silliness of his role to match the tone of the movie

Too bad he’s the only one: even Tiger is now looking same-old

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