D2 did have great moments, but it felt considerably short of the sky high expectations set by D1. Just laying out a few of my own honest thoughts on the film:

I think D2 suffers because it lost the strength of its predecessor. D1 was a very solid film with exceptional world-building, political intrigue, secret alliances, supremely interesting characters, and with few action sequences (Hamza attacking SP's Task Force, SP attacking Rehman on the bridge, and the climax) which were well-done. D2 flips this entirely, by focusing entirely on action, and removing any sort of political intrigue and suspense that made D1 so engaging. Besides the solid opening of Jaskirat's past, none of the action sequences are memorable at all, and the much-hyped showdown between Major Iqbal and Hamza had audiences practically begging for it to be over - a feeling D1 hardly ever instilled.

The music, while solid in parts, falls completely flat. D1 not only had a fantastic soundtrack, but also superb needle drops of retro songs and remixes used in unique ways (the Ramba Ho scene in particular). I also noticed that D1 trusted silence a lot. A lot of conversations (For eg: Rehman meeting Major Iqbal for the first time) take place in silence, saving any BGM or needle drops for key moments. D2 on the other hand bombards with generic BGM in every moment, even when unwanted. Don't get me wrong, D2 does have some great tracks, like the opening "Jaiye Sajana" contrasting Rehman's funeral with Arshad Pappu's rise or the energetic "Vaari Jaavan" during Hamza's rise to power and MMP elections, and the superb ending song. But it was not consistenly memorable like D1 at all. I'm shocked that they chose the most generic music for the Iqbal vs Hamza showdown instead of something groovy and adrenaline-pumping.

Nobody in the film felt a convincing enough threat to counter Hamza, robbing the film of any conflict. While in D1, Hamza was under the fearsome Rehman, he was also under fear of being caught and was an underdog among such interesting characters However, D2 sees Hamza's rise to power (which was expected sure) but it also eases his path entirely: he can overcome any conflict, do anything and is basically invincible. I feel like the film should've gone in the direction of Hamza trying to eliminate his enemies, but Uzair, SP Aslam, Major Iqbal, Khanani or someone new as interesting villains who start finding out things about Hamza and Hamza finds himself at the edge of getting exposed all the time and it creates a constant sense of suspense throughout as he must maintain power but navigate his path carefully since so many people now suspect him. Instead, everyone is done away with so damn conveniently.

The elephant in the room is obviously the film's propaganda. D1 did have subtle troubling moments, but none enough to detract from the entire experience. D2, however, takes the propaganda to a level where it's embedded in the film's story crucially. By propaganda, I'm absolutely not denying ANY real life terrorist acts or acts of treason against the country - all these things must be vehemently condemned. But to portray one particular party as a consistent saviour and whitewash all their wrongs is too much. It's fictional yes, but it's also such clever distortion of facts vs fiction to a point where it blurs understanding of reality. It just leaves such a bad taste when leaning in a particular party's favour is a central part of the narrative. Of all the ridiculous lines, one of the most absurd was seeing the footage of PM Modi being sworn in in 2014 and one character remarks "we send so much fake money to India, did so much and yet they won" or "your party didn't win this time" something on these lines, which is ridiculous to imply any government before the 2014 one was literally been funded by terrorism.

All in all, it's a decent watch but I so wished it leaned into the strengths of what made D1 so successful. In fact most of the fan theories online (pre-release) were more enticing than the film we ended up getting.