The ending of War 2 was about Kabir “Kaboo” Dhaliwal’s efforts to save the Prime Minister of India from being assassinated by Major Vikram “Raghu” Chelapathi and his associates in the Kali Cartel. Based on intel from Vikrant Kaul, Colonel Sunil Luthra sent Kabir “into the shadows” to take on illegal hit jobs so that he would show up on the radar of the Kali Cartel. The Kali Cartel was composed of businessmen from China, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India, and their main aim was to replace the current Prime Minister of India with one of their own, Vilasrao Sarang. And after roping Kabir into their operation, they ordered him to gun down Luthra to prove his allegiance to Kali, which he did. His next step involved killing Sarang’s whole family to convince him to be the next PM. Since Kabir didn’t want to murder that many people, he won over Vikram and requested that he help him stage a fake killing spree. That’s when Kabir got the shock of his life, as Vikram revealed himself to be a member of the Kali Cartel and his childhood friend. Vikram had hoped that Kabir would carry out the execution of Sarang’s family, which was actually ordered by Sarang to gain the sympathy of the public, and join him in his mission to rule over India. But by not doing so, they ended up becoming enemies. Vikram still intended to kill the Prime Minister, but as long as Kabir was alive, that wasn’t possible. So, did Vikram manage to kill Kabir and put India under his thumb? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Kabir and Vikram’s Motivations
Since Raghu had grown up on the streets of Mumbai, he yearned for “status.” He hated people from the upper class—whom he referred to as the gentry—and he hated anybody who tried to put him down. On the surface, Raghu considered Kabir to be his friend, but there was a part of him that liked Kabir because he depended on him to get through life. I think he derived some kind of pleasure from being in charge of the daily thoughts and activities of an orphan who came from the “gentry” class. So, when Colonel Luthra chose Kabir over him for a program to shape the future of India’s defense forces, whatever bubble Raghu had blown for himself to feel superior burst before his very eyes. Both Luthra and Kabir tried reasoning with him, telling him that if he managed to prove his worth in the next six months, Luthra would allow him to fight for India with Kabir by his side. But Raghu refused that offer, and he chose to prioritize himself over India. Now, what happened after Raghu ran away from Kabir is a big fat question mark.
Based on the bits and pieces of information that we get over the course of War 2, I guess he did three things over the course of 26 years: he had a hand in enough criminal activities to be chosen by the Kali Cartel, he joined the armed forces and rose through the ranks to become Major Vikram, and he kept obsessing over Kabir. If you are wondering why, despite growing up in Mumbai, Vikram used a Telugu song for his introductory sequence, all I can say is that your guess is as good as mine. The simple reason is that NTR Jr., who plays Vikram, is from the Telugu film industry, and they wanted to make a reference to that fact in the most basic way possible. The most complex reason I can come up with is that, after running away from Maharashtra in an attempt to transform himself from Raghu to Vikram, he became obsessed with Telugu movies; hence, a Telugu song.
In the meantime, Kabir trained under Luthra, romanced Wing Commander Kavya (Luthra’s daughter), and then was recruited into RAW by Luthra. Kabir claimed that he did search for Vikram, but we never get to see exactly how he conducted that search. By the way, Luthra was also training Vikrant during this period, and he was the one gathering intel on the Kali Cartel. That’s why Luthra was able to send Kabir on the missions that led to the events of War, I suppose. When Vikrant failed to cross the lines that needed to be crossed to win the trust of the Kali Cartel, and Kabir went rogue at the end of the war, Luthra tasked him with getting into the cartel’s inner circle. After Kabir killed Luthra, I suppose Vikram thought that he was ready to join him on the dark side. But as soon as Kabir revealed to him that he was still loyal to India, Vikram cut him out of the equation, but not entirely because he wanted to frame Kabir for the murder of Gautam Gulati.
Vikram killed Gulati
The face of the Indian wing of the Kali Cartel was Gulati, and after witnessing Kabir’s prowess, he had offered him a seat “at the table,” from where he’d call the shots for everything that’d happen in India. That rubbed Vikram the wrong way. Gulati’s decision reminded Vikram of how Luthra had once judged him and deemed him unworthy of respect. He was unwilling to see that, until and unless he changed his attitude, he’d always be the hammer for any organization that he joined, not a scalpel like Kabir. Or maybe he recognized the undercurrent of classism in the Kali Cartel and saw a person from the “gentry” class getting promoted while someone who had gained prominence without any help was being sidelined.
Either way, Gulati’s decision hurt his ego, and hence, he killed him and pinned the blame on Kabir. Before Vikram pulled the trigger, Kabir had appeared in front of the cartel with a tied-up Gulati and threatened to kill them all for toying with the fate of his country. So, when Vikram accused Kabir of killing Gulati, the cartel easily accepted Vikram as their savior. All that Vikram had to do next was kill Kabir. However, since some part of him still wanted Kabir’s love, he began monologuing in front of him, and Kabir got away. Vikram saw that as a minor inconvenience because, to India, Kabir was the traitor who had killed Luthra, and even if he waltzed up to RAW, claiming that Vikram was the real traitor, nobody would believe him. They’d arrest or kill Kabir before he uttered a word against Vikram, who was still a trusted member of RAW.
Now, while Vikrant gave the assignment of taking care of the Prime Minister’s security detail ahead of his visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF) to Vikram, Kavya, who had joined RAW’s investigation team that was tracking down Kabir, parsed through the evidence found on the yacht where Gulati was murdered. There she found the engagement ring that she had once made for Kabir, and saw that as a sign from him to meet him. Kabir gave her a recap of the plot, and Kavya’s murderous rage instantly subsided. I didn’t know it was that easy to forgive somebody for killing your father in the name of duty, but Kavya made it look really easy. Wouldn’t there be some kind of mixed feelings? Wouldn’t you be a little conflicted about the fact that the love of your life killed your father? Can the “India First” brainrot compel someone to straight-up forgive such an act? That’s nonsense of the highest order. I know that these YRF Spy Universe movies aren’t synonymous with nuance, but when your runtime is close to three goddamn hours, you can at least try to make some space for complex emotions.
Kabir Foiled Vikram’s Plan
Assuming that Sarang was still on the side of the good guys, Kavya contacted him to inform him about the threat to the current prime minister’s life. Sarang told her about a spot where they could meet and discuss the details that Kabir had shared with her. That turned out to be a trap laid by Vikram, and if it hadn’t been for Vikrant’s timely intervention, they would have been killed by the cartel’s gunmen. I don’t know if I am the only one that thought that we were going to get a cameo from either Pathaan or Tiger, but given how they had shown up in each other’s films when they were in a pickle, I expected one of them to do the same for Kabir. But I guess the producers had spent all their budget on the shoddy VFX and CGI and couldn’t afford to bring in Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan for a cameo. I mean, yeah, Vikrant getting a mini-gun moment made sense, but since Anil Kapoor was giving such a dull performance, that scene just wasn’t all that impactful.
Why wasn’t Vikrant skeptical of Kabir, though? Well, conveniently enough, Luthra had told Vikrant that when the need arises, Vikrant will need to support Kabir without casting even a shadow of a doubt. But that didn’t mean that Vikrant could tell the other members of his team about the fact that he and Kavya bought Kabir’s narrative and were sure that Vikram, Sarang, and the Kali Cartel were planning to kill the Prime Minister in Davos and then make Sarang the next PM. They let Vikram think that Kavya and Kabir had been killed by the Kali Cartel’s shooters so that he would attend the WEF, where Sarang, the PM, and Vikrant would be in attendance, without worrying about Kabir. He was so sure that Kabir was dead that he even assured the Kali Cartel that the PM’s death certificate had been issued. However, when Vikram let his guard down and began casually chatting with Sarang about their political ambitions, Kabir put a bullet in Sarang’s head and shot Vikram in a way that the bullet missed his heart by just a few inches.
Vikram Saved the Prime Minister
Why didn’t Kabir just kill Vikram? The movie claimed it was brotherly love and a full-circle moment from Vikram, who constantly said that he does what his heart wants, but I am going to say what everyone’s thinking: both of them are in the closet. I mean, Vikram doesn’t even have a girlfriend, and Kabir never “gets” to have a romantic relationship. If that’s not evidence of these characters’ queerness, I don’t know what is. If these Indian filmmakers and actors were brave enough, they wouldn’t have included a mid-credits scene where Kabir reunited with Kavya, okay? They would have brought things to a close by having Kabir and Vikram kiss each other. Anyway, assuming that Vikram’s plan to assassinate the PM had failed, the Kali Cartel sent their people to kill him. Vikram promised his colleagues that he’ll kill Kabir and the PM in the next 24 hours. The cartel members believed in him and gave him another chance to prove his worth.
In War 2’s ending, Vikram and Kabir convened in an icy cave to have a fistfight, while Kavya and Vikrant put the PM on the plane headed back to India. During the physical altercation, Kabir kept goading Vikram into revealing more and more information about how he was planning to kill the PM. While that helped Vikrant and Kavya dispatch of the armed Kali Cartel guards at the plane hangar, they were still unaware of the fact that Vikram had a bomb inside Sarang’s dead body, and that the coffin carrying it was on the same plane that the PM had boarded. It was only after a lengthy round of grinding (Kabir and Vikram were impaled by the same metal rod, and they were grinding on it), hitting each other with phallic-shaped ice shards, and bromancing that Vikram finally revealed the location of that final bomb, and the PM was saved. I have to point out a couple of things now. Firstly, before getting into a fistfight, Kabir had been shot in both of his shoulders, and Vikram had been shot in the chest. How did they even manage to move? It’s the greatest mystery of the movie.
Secondly, how did Kabir’s speech bring about such a change of heart in Vikram that he went against the will of the Kali Cartel and saved the Prime Minister of India? If Vikram saw the error of his ways and vowed to unlearn nearly two decades of hatred that he had brewed in his system, I would have accepted it. But after nine months, or in a matter of nine months, Bro went on a killing spree and then drove off into the sunset with Kabir. That’s just preposterous. You can say that Vikram’s ideology was always a bit inconsistent. First, he was anti-rich, then he briefly became a hypernationalist (who would plant the tiranga in the enemy’s chest, which was in stark contrast to Kabir’s empathetic stance), and after that he became the greatest attack dog of a syndicate of capitalists. So, maybe all he needed was an icicle stab to his chest and a hug to realize that all he wanted from life, and Kabir, was some good old gay lovin’. No, there wasn’t any actual gay lovin’; Vikram and Kabir driving into the sunset is the closest thing that we’ll get to two male leads in a mainstream franchise kissing each other after slathering the screen with hours of homoerotic moments.
Mid-Credits and Sequel Bait
Coming to the topic of a two-man army killing the members of Kali, as underscored by Vikram and Kabir, the cartel still lives on. It is a Hydra-like situation—as per Greek and Roman mythology, it was the Lernaean Hydra that was capable of regenerating its severed heads countless times—where killing the leaders of its branches would be pointless because they’d just be replaced by someone else. I suppose the sequels will reveal that the Kali Cartel was unaffected by Kabir and Vikram’s spate of righteous violence and that they have become all the stronger by appointing some really ruthless members who won’t make the same mistakes as their predecessors. For once, I hope that the villains win, because this is getting a bit boring. The three Tiger movies, War, Pathaan, and War 2, are turning into superhero movies. If you look at three of the best superhero movies of this year—Thunderbolts, Superman, and Fantastic Four—even they are letting their protagonists be vulnerable, even if they are technically invincible. Meanwhile, the guys in the YRF Spy Universe are going through the ringer and still walking it off like it’s no big deal. So, yeah, here’s to hoping that the Kali Cartel gets a win in a sequel.
Speaking of sequels and Greek mythology, the mid-credits had a tease for the upcoming film in the franchise, Alpha. The scene featured Bobby Deol tattooing the symbol of the Greek letter α onto the arm of a little girl. When the little girl asked him what it meant, Deol said something cryptic about the motive of his program, which was in the business of molding young minds to be at the top of the food chain by being fast and courageous. The dingy-looking room that Deol and that girl were in wasn’t all that detailed in terms of production design, but there were a bunch of astrology charts on the walls. What does that mean? Well, to be honest, I don’t know. Since Alpha is coming out this year in December, I am sure they have completed filming for it. The movie supposedly has Alia Bhatt, Sharvari Wagh, and Anil Kapoor as well. But this is all they can show? I guess YRF is confident that this’ll be enough to get the audiences hyped. Until then, all I can do is speculate.
Since these YRF Spy Universe movies are heavily inspired by Mission: Impossible, Fast and Furious, and the entirety of John Woo’s filmography, I don’t think that Alpha is going to offer anything original. They have probably taken several pages out of films like Black Widow, Ballerina, Red Sparrow, and every other narrative that features a school or outfit for training female assassins. Deol is clearly the leader of this program. Either Alia or Sharvari is going to be the best assassin of Alpha, while the other is going to dismantle it in order to free all the young girls that are being turned into killing machines by Deol. Eventually Alia and Sharvari will become the good guys, and they’ll butcher Deol, thereby proving that women are the real alphas of this jungle. Let’s see if my cliché prediction is correct or not; I hope it’s not, and I pray that it ends up being something fresh in terms of storytelling and action. As a parting note, I genuinely want these YRF spy movies to tone down the scale of their set pieces. The overuse of VFX, CGI, and nonsensical wirework is becoming cartoonish. I don’t think Alpha will be the one to bring that change; maybe Pathaan 2 or Tiger vs. Pathan will. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on War 2. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
