Film: "Sicario: Day of the Soldado"; Director: Stefano Sollima; Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, Elijah Rodriguez and David Castaneda; Rating: **
<br>After a brief introduction about human trafficking and the drug cartel menace at the US-Mexico border, the film opens with two self-immolations. Both acts are visceral and chilling, indicating scant regard for life. This lays the foundation of the narrative of this film, "Sicario - Day of the Soldado", directed by Stefano Sollima.
Several scenes, with the CIA operative Matt Graver (Brolin) and the DEA, follow to establish the US endeavour to eradicate the threat or menace. When a top secret mission goes awry, Graver is put on the dock by the Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine), forcing him to provoke a war between the cartels.
Why? Because that will help stop the transportation of drugs, illegal immigrants and terrorists across the Mexican border.
Graver does so by hiring attorney-turned-gangster hunter Alejandro Gillick (Benecio del Toro) and a few other mercenaries to stage the kidnapping of Isabel Reyes (Isabela Moner, a cartel boss' teen daughter. This sets off a sequence of events that almost immediately spirals out of control.
The premise of the tale seems forced with a convoluted plot. After the clear cut, good-guy versus bad-guy dynamics of the opening act, matters become vague and fluid in the film's mid-section when Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez), a 14-year-old US citizen helps a low-end trafficker get people across the border as a warm-up for becoming more deeply involved with a Mexican Cartel.
There is no doubt that the multiple strands twist together to give us a complex tale.
Oscillating between action and emotional drama, by the end, the film feels more like a by-product of the original than a sequel, because the story stands on its own, albeit a by-the-numbers Mexican cartel drama brimming with guns, gore and guys.
While this film does not touch the right chord, it definitely makes way for a third edition.
On the performance front, Emily Blunt who was in the first edition is conspicuous by her absence.
Returning as leading men, del Toro and Brolin do their best to make the film watchable.
Their scenes together are some of the highlights of the film. While Elijah as Miguel gives an intriguing performance as the blank faced adolescent, the teenager Isabela Moner clearly steals the show with her naturally dynamic and endearing performance.
She balances Alejandro's emotionally laden back-story, with the right amount of dramatics. And her scenes with him, likening to a father-daughter relationship, are intense and relatable.
Cinematographer Darius Wolski's frames, captured from various angles and lens are commendable. His visuals are aptly complimented with composer Hildur Gudnadottir's eclectic background score.
Overall, despite being interesting and unpredictable, the film lacks the grit and ingenuity of its original - Sicario, which in Spanish means a hitman. This one definitely misses the mark.
--IANS<br>troy/nn/vm
Mansarovar ordeal: Over 500 Indian pilgrims await rescue, 883 evacuated (Lead)
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters that the Indian Embassy in Nepal has undertaken a massive exercise to evacuate pilgrims both from Hilsa and Simikot and "if the weather holds we will be able to get them out in the near future".
In the last three days, 883 stranded pilgrims have been evacuated from Simikot to Nepalgunj and Surkhet.
"At least 675 pilgrims were evacuated from Hilsa to Simikot. Fifty-three civilian flights were operated to get the pilgrims out and 142 chopper sorties were carried out," Kumar said.
"The situtation is fast returning to normal. We have around 50 pilgrims in Surkhet and 516 in Simikot. Evacuation efforts are ongoing."
He added that there was no crisis situation and pilgrims were stranded because weather had packed up.
"If you see the advisory we have put up on our website, specially for pilgrims taking the Nepal route, there is always a chance that when you are passing some of these points the weather could pack up. It just happened that civilian aircraft could not operate because of adverse weather conditions."
Kumar said that the MEA organises Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through two routes -- Lipulekh and Nathula.
"This is a yatra conducted by private tour operators. We are working through the private tour operators. They are the ones who will make arrangements for their coming back to India. As we speak, there are also pilgrims who are going up. So it is not something which has stopped," he said.
The official said that the effort was ongoing to bring the stranded people to places with better facilities. Indian pilgrims returning from Kailash Mansarovar through Nepal have been caught in a bad weather since Saturday.
According to reports, altitude sickness has become a major concern for pilgrims. Eight people had died of the same earlier this year. Twenty Mansarovar pilgrims died in 2017.
Kailash Mansarovar is situated 5,950 metres above the sea level. It takes three days to complete the 52 km Mansarovar circuit.
--IANS <br>ps/soni/vm