Son Of Sardaar 2 movie review: I had nearly, and happily, forgotten most of the first Son Of Sardaar. Only when I saw Ajay Devgn in a nicely-tied turban looking lost in a ‘yeh kya ho raha hai’ manner, and the late Mukul Dev (this is his last film) and Vindu Singh roaming about aimlessly, that I had a flashback of the original.
I wasn’t a fan of the first one. Part 2, with these three reprising their roles, accompanied by some new faces, strains to be a little better. But only just.
Two elements have been added to the plot-what’s-that proceedings. One is a running India-Pakistan gag, in which a few characters are Pakistani, and they are not all ‘soorma-eyed’ terrorists (gasp). The other is a wonderful actor who should basically be given all the awards: a nearly-unrecognisable Deepak Dobriyal playing a trans person with brio, nearly runs away with the film. Or would have, if his character was given half a chance to do more than the all-over-the-place script allows him to.
What of Ajay Devgn, the hero who leads this enterprise which wants to be a laugh-a-minute, madcap caper, but keeps slackening? His bhola-Sardar Jassi Randhawa, having left behind his loving bebey (Dolly Ahluwalia) in the ‘pind’, fetches up in Scotland, there to toggle between affront (wifey played by Neeru Bajwa, has turned out to be a ‘bewafa’), and all-round befuddlement.
Can’t blame him, because all around him tumble an array of disconnected threads, lead by lovely dancer-by-profession Rabiya ( Mrunal Thakur, showing an unexpected gift for comedy) who just happens to be Pakistani. Rabiya’s young daughter ( Roshni Walia) is in love with a guy whose rich sheep-farmer father ( Ravi Kishan) hates Pakistanis.
Son Of Sardaar 2 movie trailer:
Got that? No? Never mind. There’s more. Chunky Panday and Kubbra Sait, also part of the dance troupe, are also, yikes, from that enemy country. He is a serial adulterer, she is, well, just, around, to watch over mismatched couple Jassi and Rabiya come closer. Older hero, much younger heroine, cringe max, or Bollywood as usual? Chunks of 1997 war film Border are regurgitated for laughs. A tank is rolled in. An old Sardar (Sharat Saxena) goes through multiple women of different nationalities; racism rears up and it’s meant to be funny.
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I love broad laughs and hare-brained comedies as much as the next person, but whatever happened to keeping it crisp and connected? Bring back Dobriyal, and give him and Sait something to do. Pair Devgn with an age-appropriate leading lady, and give him a few chuckle-worthy lines. Can’t be that hard, can it?
Son Of Sardaar 2 movie cast: Ajay Devgn, Mrunal Thakur, Deepak Dobriyal, Ravi Kishan, Kubbra Sait, Roshni Walia, Sahil Mehta, Chunky Panday, Vindu Singh, Mukul Dev, Ashwini Kalsekar, Neeru Bajwa, Dolly Ahluwalia, Sharat Saxena, Sanjay Mishra
Son Of Sardaar 2 movie director: Vijay Kumar Arora
Son Of Sardaar 2 movie rating: 2 stars
