Film: Gadar 2

Cast: Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, Utkarsh Sharma, Simrat Kaur, Manish Wadhwa, Gaurav Chopra, Rakesh Bedi
Director: Anil Sharma
Rating: 3.5 Moons

The takeaway in Gadar 2 is that Sunny Deol’s dhai-kilo-ka-haath still packs a lethal punch. While in the original Gadar, the Paaji singlehandedly claims his dulhan Sakina (Ameesha Patel) from the evil clutches of her Pakistani father Ashraf Ali (Amrish Puri), this time it’s Pakistan all over again in the 1971 war and Tara Singh (Sunny) is back to his brawny ways – but to rescue his son Jeete (Utkarsh Sharma) from a cruel Major General Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhwa).

Gadar 2 plays to the gallery with a simple story of nationalism and patriotism and some jingoism thrown in for good measure. Tara Singh and Sakina and their grown-up son Jeete are living happily as any Indian family can do in Pathankot. In Pakistan, Hamid Iqbal still wants vengeance against Tara Singh for killing scores of his soldiers when he fled to India 21 years ago. He gets Ashraf Ali hanged for helping them escape. Then decides to invade India where, in an attempted attack, he comes across Tara Singh. The family assumes Tara Singh has been captured. Sakina loses her mind. Distraught at seeing his mother thus, Jeete goes to Pakistan in search of his father. Where he meets a Pakistani girl named Muskan (Simrat Kaur). But the twist in Gadar 2 is that Tara Singh is not in Pakistan. And when Sakina and he reunite, she begs Tara Singh to get back their son from Pakistan.

Director Anil Sharma has forgotten none of the sound, fury and melodrama of the first part. He takes it all a notch higher in the sequel with cleverly packaged large-scale action, extreme violence, regular doses of nationalism and the hunk that is still Sunny Deol filling the screen. The plot is shaky. The acting at best is passable. But Gadar 2 still manages to entertain if only because Sunny Deol (shown greying and driving a truck) carries the film singlehandedly on those broad shoulders of his. Utkarsh Sharma lends to the action with some great parkour stunts. Sunny Deol and he make sure the action is paisa vasool and applaud able at times. However, Gadar 2 is nearly three hours long and the action and loudness gets to be a bit too much after the interval.

Ameesha Patel looks lost and fails to impress. But Simrat Kaur is like a breath of fresh air. Manish Wadhwa, unfortunately – good actor though he is, plays a role that has not much depth or scope with real and appreciable menace. Some of the old cast including Aamir Naik, Rakesh Bedi, Dolly Bindra and Madhumalti Kapoor are in the sequel and they are as much a treat to watch as they were in Gadar two decades ago. The film belongs to Sunny Deol, happily. You cannot take your eyes off him. Just go to see Gadar 2 for him.