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Release
date:
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September 29, 2017
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Director:
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David Dhawan
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Cast:
Language:
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Varun Dhawan, Taapsee Pannu, Jacqueline
Fernandez, Rajpal Yadav, Vivan Bhathena, Pavan Raj Malhotra, Vikas Verma, Ali Asgar, Manoj Joshi, Anupam Kher, Johnny Lever, Manoj Pahwa, Cameo: Salman Khan
Hindi
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Since Judwaa was an
unapologetically slapstick comedy of errors, and the goal of this new release
is to cash in on the recall value of that brand, it could have been safely
assumed without visiting a theatre today that director David Dhawan would not
go all cerebral on us with Judwaa 2. A new generation
will perhaps watch this film as a standalone venture, but two questions are
inevitable for those who have seen the original. One, which is better? Two,
more important: who is better, Varun
or the earlier hero, the then successful and now
phenomenal Salman Khan?
Dhawan has positioned
Judwaa 2 as a contemporary reboot of
his 1997 film featuring Khan in a double role with Karisma Kapoor and Rambha as
the female romantic leads. It is the closest to a carbon copy that a remake can
get, with his son Varun Dhawan reprising the characters played by the superstar
back then. So what we get is Dhawan Junior as Raja and Prem Malhotra, conjoined
twins whose surgical separation at birth results in a unique biological
phenomenon seen in one in eight million cases according to the Bollywood Book of
Judwaa Bachchas – when they are in geographically nearby locations, each
experiences the sensations the other is going through and unwittingly clones
the other’s actions.
Before you can
digest that educational moment, the villain of the story kidnaps one, and
through a series of circumstances you would be familiar with if you have
watched the earlier Judwaa, Prem is
brought up in London by wealthy parents and Raja by a poor woman in Mumbai.
Of course the
brothers end up in the same city at some point (London, nicely shot by
cinematographer Ayananka Bose). Prem falls for Samara (Taapsee Pannu), while
Raja is smitten by Alyshka Bakshi (Jacqueline Fernandez). The confusion caused
by their respective lovers and respective enemies being in the same area leads
to a chain of mix-ups and mess-ups that Shakespeare might have approved of.
Given that this is
the premise, obviously Judwaa 2, like
Judwaa, is not an intellectual
enterprise. Fair enough. We all need to occasionally let our hair down with a
dose of old-fashioned stupidity, and large parts of Judwaa 2 offer silly, mindless
laughs.
Even silliness must
evolve though, and this would have been a better film if the screenplay by
Yunus Sajawal (with dialogues by Farhad-Sajid) had, while retaining the same
concept, moved beyond some of the stereotypes and insensitivity that once
dominated Bollywood and occasionally lingers in projects such as this. For
instance, the main antagonist Charles (Zakir Hussain) conforms to the
irritating Bollywood stereotype of the Christian who cannot speak Hindi without
saying “God” in place of “Bhagwan”, while
a Hindu who visits a church says “God” in the middle of Hindi dialogues, as
though “God” is not a common noun but the name of a specific Christian being
seated somewhere upstairs in the clouds. This kind of stuff is bearable though
– idiotic but not offensive. Far less tolerable is the re-use of a once-popular
cliché: a “totla” character as a butt
of jokes.
I am not getting
all hoity-toity here and saying a speech defect may not lead to amusing situations,
but that this team lacks the finesse that, say, Vishal Bhardwaj & Co
employed while writing their “main ‘ph’
ko ‘ph’ bolta hoon” protagonist in Kaminey,
marvelously balancing humour with sensitivity.
There is a fine
line between portraying a person with a disability and turning that person into
a caricature. Nandu, played by Rajpal Yadav, crosses that line. To be fair
though, Yadav’s Nandu is a toned-down version of Judwaa’s over-the-top Rangeela delivered to us in yet another
cringe-worthy performance by Shakti Kapoor. Thankfully too, Nandu gets limited
screen time.
The rest of the
film is harmless fun for the most part, except when it ventures occasionally
again into crude clichés revolving around Dhawan’s assumption that the mere
sight of black people should be a cause of laughter, and the abominable terms
in which a middle-aged woman – Samara’s mother – is repeatedly described. In
one scene, Raja calls her a “khataara
gaadi” (dilapidated car) and consoles her because “tu murjha gayee hai” (you have withered).
Sigh. Is there any
point in explaining ageism and sexism to David Dhawan? Does he care? Well,
never mind him. We should.
With the recent Mubarakan, director Anees Bazmee showed
us how it is possible to hark back to the comedies of an era gone by, even dip
into stereotypes and trite comedic devices – boisterous Punjabis, twins
separated at birth – without resorting to those that should have been retired
in the Stone Age. Judwaa skates on
thin ice on occasion, but for the most part passes muster without being
earth-shatteringly good anywhere.
There are
conversations that are genuinely funny, some because they are so hare-brained,
and some because the actors make it work with their comic timing. Except for
one-off blandness in the form of “Iski
jack lag gayee aur main handle nahin kar paa raha hoon” (a line bestowed on
Varun) and “Rustom ke Akshay Kumar ki
tarah tum chhupe rustom nikle” (which Fernandez is forced to pull off), Judwaa 2 is a fair enough visit to the
slapstick genre.
Still, the question
arises: why was this film made at all, when David Dhawan could as well have
re-released Judwaa on DVD, Blu-Ray
etc with added features? (I mean, c’mon, Judwaa
2 even borrows two songs from the earlier film, Oonchi hai building and Chalti
hai kya nau se baarah. They are the most attractive part of an ordinary
soundtrack.)
The answer lies in
two words: Varun Dhawan. This format gives Junior the opportunity to showcase
his acting talent by playing two characters with vastly different backgrounds
and demeanours in the same film and sometimes in the same frame, display his
action skills in a bunch of fight scenes, and dance. Smart move, Daddy. ’Cos
your son does all three well.
I’ve enjoyed
watching Varun from his first film: he is attractive, has a nice body that goes
well with his sweet face (the currently fashionable body-builder look would not
suit him), and dances with passion. Though he still does not manage to erase
his own personality for his roles (the London-based Prem in Judwaa, for instance, speaks English
with an out-and-out Varun Dhawan-style Mumbaiyya accent and diction right down
to pronouncing “miracle” as “miricle” and “violent” as “viylent”), he seems like
the kind of actor who has what it takes to get there and the
desire to work towards it.
The women of Judwaa are of course secondary to Varun.
Still, within the limited space they get, they make a mark. Pannu, whose
calling card in Hindi cinema right now is her brilliant performance in last year’s Pink, shows here that she is
suited to the singing-dancing-swimsuit-wearing-glamour-doll routine too. She is
outshone though by Fernandez who has spent most of her short career doing
precisely that, but reminds us in Judwaa
2 that she is not the frozen-faced non-actor that too many people take her for.
As we saw in 2016’s Dishoom, it is
clear here too that this gorgeous young woman deserves a shot at larger roles
in comedy.
The fabulous Pavan
Raj Malhotra is wasted in a film where the gifted supporting cast is marginal
and the focus is entirely on Varun.
Which brings me
back to my earlier comment about Varun being the reason why this film was made.
The point is underlined by Salman Khan’s cameo in Judwaa 2. It is a separate matter that that scene must rank as the
most poorly conceived, amateurishly executed guest appearance by a major star ever,
with jarringly bad sound quality to boot. What Dhawan Senior seems to be hinting
at through the weird conversation there is that he sees Varun as a future
Salman Khan.
Well, I am sticking
my neck out and saying the father is shortselling his son with the comparison.
Whether or not Varun becomes as big a star as Khan is not something anyone can
predict, but he clearly does have the potential. More to the point, he is a
better actor and a more flexible dancer than the Khan. Now Daddy, give him a
more imaginative film to work in. Those of us who have enjoyed you at your
best, know that you are capable of so much more than just “not bad” which is
what Judwaa 2 is.
Footnote: The
Censor Board asked Dhawan to remove a shot of Lord Krishna dancing and playing
the saxophone in the song Suno Ganpati
Bappa Morya. It is clear from
their directive that they have not understood the ABC of the playful
down-to-earthness that is the hallmark of Hindu mythology.
Rating
(out of five stars): **
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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149 minutes 46 seconds
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
Poster
1 courtesy: IMDB
Poster
2 courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judwaa_2
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