Name: Vadh 2
Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Released: 2026-02-06
Rating: 7.0
Cast: Sanjay Mishra, Neena Gupta, Kumud Mishra, Shilpa Shukla, Yogita Bihani

A police officer's pursuit of truth in a shocking prison crime intertwines with the lives of a widowed prison guard and a soon to be released inmate, unravelling a web of  morality and redemption.

Vadh 2

Times of India

Rediff

News18

Firstpost

‘Vadh 2’ unfolds without hurry, allowing tension to gather gradually rather than forcing it through spectacle. The film succeeds in creating unease through mood and restraint. Its prison setting becomes a defining presence, shaping the narrative and drawing the audience into a tightly controlled space that feels increasingly suffocating. Strong performances hold the film together, with the cast working in sync to deliver a riveting film. While the story follows the outline of a mystery, it bends the format by hinting at the culprit early on, even as the complete picture remains concealed. The pacing stays sharp, the situations feel grounded, and the film places its faith entirely in the hands of its actor.
The narrative once again revolves around Shambhunath Mishra (Sanjay Mishra) and Manju (Neena Gupta), though their connection here is entirely different. Shambhunath is a weary low-rank police guard approaching retirement, while Manju is imprisoned for a double murder. Their relationship develops slowly within the jail walls, and the two develop a fondness for each other. The story takes a disturbing turn with the arrival of Keshav (Akshay Dogra), a violent inmate and brother of the local MLA, whose cruelty extends to senseless acts against the weak. His behaviour pushes the rigid jailer Prakash Singh (Kumud Mishra) to assert control and discipline. When Keshav suddenly disappears, doubt and fear spread through the prison, forcing the arrival of investigator Ateet Singh (Amitt K Singh) to solve the mystery of Keshav’s disappearance.
‘Vadh 2’ is not a sequel in the conventional sense. The cast from the first film returns in entirely new roles. The emotional dynamics are reworked, even as murder remains the driving force. The first half prioritises atmosphere and character, allowing the setting to settle in and tensions to slowly build. The second half shifts toward a procedural approach, with sustained interrogations inside the jail forming the spine of the narrative. The screenplay remains disciplined and taut, ensuring that each scene serves a clear purpose. The prison environment feels oppressive and unpredictable, reinforced by careful detailing that reflects the realities of smaller Indian jails. This sense of realism only deepens the impact of the story and make it a compelling watch.
Sanjay Mishra brings a stripped-down honesty to Shambhunath, avoiding sentimentality and letting fatigue register naturally. The detailing of his character is pitch-perfect, and when he steals vegetables from the jail premises to earn that extra income, his character is firmly established. Neena Gupta delivers a restrained portrayal of Manju, capturing a woman hardened by circumstance and worn down by years of survival. Kumud Mishra makes a strong impression as the authoritarian jailer, particularly. But amid a powerful cast, it's Amitt K Singh who steals the limelight in the role of the investigator. His measured presence, sharp observations, and ability to read silences elevate the investigation and give the film its edge.
‘Vadh 2’ emerges as a clear improvement over its predecessor and remains engaging. Director Jaspal Singh Sandhu approaches the material with control, though the precision of the writing consistently outweighs the visual execution. The film understands the value of restraint and knows exactly when to conclude. Its depiction of prison life stays stark and unsettling before the narrative briefly moves to a different location in the final stretch. This change in setting mirrors the tonal shift and adds an emotional contrast. ‘Vadh 2’ ultimately comes across as a tightly constructed, performance-driven thriller.

In the first part of Vadh, there's a scene where Sanjay Mishra's Shambhunath is seen trying to catch a troublesome rat with a mouse trap. When his efforts fail, he switches to a kill trap, a decision that horrifies his wife Manju, played by Neena Gupta.

This small moment acts as a metaphor for the violence that later unfolds in their home.

The rat stands for the film's sadistic antagonist and his eventual murder, which drives the morally complex drama surrounding the elderly couple.

Vadh 2 has a similar mood and setting, telling another murder story, but it isn't a direct sequel. Mishra and Gupta return as Shambhunath and Manju, playing new characters with the same names; the rat from the first film also finds a playful reference here.
Vadh 2 opens with a flashback. A young Manju is convicted and sent to prison for murdering a young couple. The drama shifts to the Shivpuri thana in Madhya Pradesh, where an older Manju (Neena Gupta) is nearing the end of her 28-year sentence.

Having spent most of her life within the cramped walls of a prison, Manju wonders how she will adjust to the outside world.


'Ab toh aadat si ho gayi hain yahan,' she says.

Manju shares her fears with warden Shambhunath (Sanjay Mishra), who has a soft corner for her. He remains hopeful that she will find a better life once she is released.

A young inmate, Naina (Yogita Bihani), lands in prison on money-laundering charges framed by her superiors. Manju learns Naina's story, and sees parts of her own past in it.

On the day of Naina's court hearing, she draws the attention of a local gangster, Keshav (Akkshay Dogra, playing the role with perfect menace), who has lustful eyes on her. Keshav delays Naina's hearing using his influence, and attempts to assault her one night.

The scene shifts abruptly, and Keshav goes missing.

Jaspal Singh Sandhu's direction shines
The drama in Vadh 2 unfolds almost entirely within the desolate confines of a prison, adding fitting realism through the story's grim and claustrophobic atmosphere.
Compared to the first film, this story is more dense with characters, and yet it leaves room beyond the lead protagonists.

Shilpa Shukla, as the female warden Rajni, brings moral ambiguity that drives key events, Kumud Mishra's jail superintendent Prakash Singh is a man obsessed with setting the 'right example', and Yogita Bihani (The Kerala Story) as Naina becomes the catalyst of the story.

Director Jaspal Singh Sandhu, who has also written the story, neatly plants breadcrumbs that come together near the end. The story's appeal isn't in what happened, since that part is straightforward and deliberately kept easy to grasp, but in how the events play out.

Holding the narrative together is investigative officer Ateet Singh (Amitt K Singh, in a star-making turn), whose affable demeanour hides sharp intelligence as he uncovers the truth about the people around him.

Is Vadh 2 worth a watch?
For a film centered on a dead body, the treatment is rather unsensational and bypasses the unnecessary sentimentality. The story unfolds at a slow but steady pace, gradually building to a clear climax. This surprising restraint makes Vadh 2 feel more assured than the first.

The result sits somewhere between the pulpy tone of Haseen Dillruba and the grit of Drishyam, finding a comfortable middle ground of its own.

A few elements from the first film return, like Shambunath complaining about the loan he took for his son, who is now distant, or Naina remains the same name for the character that drives key events. These feel more like playful nods from the director.

The film also find spaces to sprinkle in humour to cut the tension with subtlety. Before facing their superior, Shambunath has his Muslim peer say 'Bismillah' while he utters 'Jai Shri Ram', creating a brief, ironic moment that lands perfectly.

Vadh 2 also includes a tender bond between the lead protagonists, adding subtle depth to their dynamic without going overboard.

What works best in Vadh 2 is that the film doesn't try to be a showcase for seasoned actors like Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta. Director Sandhu keeps the film controlled and simple, letting the story take centre stage. Both actors bring their A-game to their roles and this lived-in quality makes the characters and their predicament even more convincing.

'Hatya nahin, vadh kiya hain,' a character says, repeating a line from the earlier film that points to the title's mythological idea of good defeating evil.

It may not be entirely realistic, but lands emotionally.

Back in 2022, Vadh, led by Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta, arrived quietly and left a thunderous impression. Its power lay not in spectacle but in the slow tightening of its moral noose, a simple, unassuming narrative that gripped you precisely because it felt lived-in and intimate. Fast forward to 2026, and we have Vadh 2. The cast largely returns, now joined by Kumud Mishra, Akshay Dogra, and Amitt K. Singh. The question, inevitably, is whether the sequel manages to summon the same haunting magic. The answer is conflicted. Vadh 2 retains the thematic skeleton of its predecessor and is sincere in its intent, but while it engages sporadically, the film as a whole settles into a strangely muted, almost listless experience.

The film opens on a note of brutal finality. A young woman, Manju Singh, is convicted of killing two of her relatives by smashing their heads with a steel tiffin, and is sentenced to 28 years in prison. From this stark beginning, the narrative leaps forward in time to the prison complex in Shivpuri. A new jail superintendent, Jai Prakash Singh (Kumud Mishra), takes charge. In an early exchange with his driver, he casually asks for his surname to identify caste, a seemingly throwaway moment that quietly establishes his worldview and moral temperament.

Within the women’s section of the prison, we are introduced to Manju Singh (Neena Gupta), who has clearly spent many years behind bars. She has adapted, survived, and even carved out a small economy for herself. Manju supplies fellow inmates with daily essentials, sourced through Shambhunath Mishra (Sanjay Mishra), a prison constable with whom she has developed an unspoken arrangement. He brings her goods; she provides him with fresh vegetables grown inside the prison complex. Shambhunath sells these outside to repay a loan he took to send his son abroad, a son who no longer returns his calls, a quiet, painful echo of the emotional wounds from the first film.

The same prison also houses Keshav, better known as Bhuri Bhaiya, the notorious and morally bankrupt brother of an MLA. His cruelty and hunger for dominance are chillingly established in a disturbing scene where he places two puppy dogs under the tyres of a prison van, crushing them without remorse. It is a moment that defines him in a single, horrifying stroke.

The narrative takes a turn when a new batch of inmates arrives, including Naina Kumari (Yogita Bihani), an innocent woman falsely implicated by a colleague for bank fraud. During a court transfer, Bhuri Bhaiya’s predatory gaze fixes itself on Naina. Inside the court premises, he even goes so far as to instruct her lawyer not to secure her bail, even though she could have walked free that very day.

Back inside the prison, Bhuri’s tyranny escalates. He brutally assaults an elderly inmate for the trivial act of washing clothes in his vicinity. Jai Prakash Singh witnesses the assault and orders Bhuri into solitary confinement. But power, as always, bends rules. Under pressure from his seniors, Jai Prakash is forced to release Bhuri. Humiliated and seething, Bhuri mocks and threatens the superintendent over a phone call. Jai Prakash, himself driven by ego and wounded authority, storms into the prison in the dead of night and thrashes Bhuri mercilessly before leaving.

The next morning, Bhuri is missing. With no sign of an escape or a body, Inspector Ateet Singh (Amitt K. Singh) is dispatched to Shivpuri to conduct an official inquiry. The film then settles into its investigative rhythm, following Ateet Singh as he questions those who were present on the night Bhuri vanished, attempting to piece together what truly happened. Whether the truth will surface, and at what cost, becomes the central mystery.

At a runtime of two hours and eleven minutes, Vadh 2 begins with promise but gradually succumbs to a sluggish screenplay and uneven pacing. What made Vadh linger was the deeply felt bond between Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta, an emotional tether that anchored the narrative. That connective tissue is sorely missing here.

There is a genuinely tender moment early on where Manju and Shambhunath speak across opposite sides of the prison complex. Shambhunath opens up about the ache of raising a son who has now abandoned him, and the quiet devastation of being forgotten. It is a beautifully written and performed exchange. Unfortunately, after this scene, the two characters barely interact for the rest of the film, severing the emotional lifeline that the story itself so carefully establishes.

The investigative track, too, struggles to generate urgency. Ateet Singh’s methods and interrogations feel familiar, especially in an era saturated with crime thrillers across films and web series. The predictability of the narrative further weakens the impact, as the audience can connect the dots well before the film does. Post-interval, the pacing tests patience, and despite not being excessively long, the film feels stretched. There are few moments that genuinely place you on edge. The climax, however, offers some redemption. The final twist injects a brief spark of intrigue and leaves you with a lingering sense of what the film could have been.

The antagonist, too, pales in comparison to the first film’s villain. Where the earlier antagonist felt terrifying in his ordinariness, this one slips too easily into familiar Hindi film tropes, diluting the threat.

Yet, for all its shortcomings, it is impossible to dismiss the honesty with which Vadh 2 has been made. The makers clearly strive to stay true to the moral and thematic universe of the original. Performances across the board are solid. Sanjay Mishra brings his trademark wounded humanity, Neena Gupta radiates quiet resilience, and Kumud Mishra inhabits his role with conviction. Amitt K. Singh, Shilpa Shukla as Rajini Shukla, Akshay Dogra as Keshav, and Yogita Bihani as Naina Kumari all deliver earnest performances that elevate the material where the writing falters.

Ultimately, Vadh 2 feels like a film that had the potential to surpass its predecessor but loses its way along the journey. For viewers who enjoy crime thrillers, it may still offer a passable watch, provided it is approached on its own terms and not measured relentlessly against the shadow of Vadh.


Love can be deep even without being sexual. Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta’s matured love story is a slow burn that will keep you glued to the film. Jaspal Singh Sandhu’s directorial is a complete package that is not just entertaining and thrilling but thought-provoking too.  ‘Vadh 2’ makes you believe that what you sow is what you reap.
_‘Vadh 2’_ is not a candy-floss love story, but it is deep and intense. And you can fall in love and go out of your way to do anything for your partner, without even getting to meet him/ her. Slow intensity is the most attractive part of the film. The ordinariness of the characters played by Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta is the best thing about Vadh 2’. The film is hugely superior to the mediocrity and loudness that reigns the Hindi film industry.

Produced by Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg’s Luv Films, also features an expanded ensemble cast, including Kumud Mishra, Shilpa Shukla, and new actors including Amitt K Singh, Akshay Dogra, and Yogita Bihani.  Each of the characters has done justice to their roles and given solid performances. And when you have senior actors like Sanjay Mishra, Neena Gupta, and Kumud Mishra as leads, you know you are heading for something different with a strong storyline.
For a good film you just need strong stories, good craftsmen and convincing performances. For too long, audiences have been underestimated. It’s good that filmmakers have started realising that there is a set of people who want to watch good stories that will make you think and not just stars showing off their muscles.


Though the lead cast remains the same, you don’t need to watch the first part because the story of Vadh 2 is completely different and refreshing. He falls in love with Manju (Neena Gupta), who has been in the prison for the past 28 years for being accused wrongly. Then comes in Prakash Singh (Kumud Mishra), who is supposedly very honest, and how things change in the jail is what the film starts with.
Vadh 2 will make you believe that cinema need not be always be spectacle driven to make it to theatres. Good content whether it is on the digital platform or on the big screen will always be appreciated. Cinema is definitely made for entertainment, but it should be thought provoking too and why should love have any age. You can fall in love deeply and truly at any stage of your life. The script of this film never thins down. Vadh 2 is indeed a layered thriller which shows emotional conflicts and makes one believe that you pay the price of your mis-deeds in this birth itself and you don’t need to be born again for that. At the end of the film, prison guard (Sanjay Mishra) rightly says that there is a difference between murder and ‘Vadh’.




Vadh 2 - Official Trailer | Sanjay Mishra, Neena Gupta | Jaspal Singh Sandhu | Luv Films | 6th Feb

Sanjay Mishra is a well-known television and film artist. An alumnus of the National School of Drama, Sanjay made his debut with Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! (1995). He is best known for movies like Satya (1998), Saathiya (2002), Golmaal Returns (2008), Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010), Jolly LLB (2013), Bhootnath Returns (2014), Kick (2014), Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Ankhon Dekhi (2014) and Golmaal Again (2017).

Sanjay Mishra

Neena Gupta is a National Award-winning actress and director. An alumnus of the prestigious National School of Drama, New Delhi, Gupta has garnered both critical and commercial success in Indian and international cinema. Some of her best known films include Gandhi, Cotton Mary, In Custody, Woh Chokri and Hello Zindagi. She gained widespread popularity with her work on Indian TV shows including Saans, Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj, Buniyaad and Yatra among others.

Neena Gupta

Kumud Mishra

Shilpa Shukla

Yogita Bihani is an Indian actress who made her television debut as Palak Sharma in Ekta Kapoor's romantic soap opera Dil Hi Toh Hai in 2018

Vadh 2(2026)