Gadar 2 Movie Review: Say what you will, Anil Sharma at least surprised me twice in Gadar 2, even if both the creative surprises are backed by nonsensical writing and execution. Gadar 2 is the sequel to the 2001 blockbuster Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, a film that I am not a fan of, but its jingoistic appeal worked well with the masses whose anger with Pakistan got more stoked post the Kargil War. Starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel in the lead, Gadar turned out to be a bigger hit than its box office competitor, the far superior Lagaan, despite the mixed reviews. Tara Singh and his handpump became permanent icons of Bollywood cinema, and going by the initial box office rush for Gadar 2, the love for the film hasn't watered down even if Gadar hasn't aged that well. Or maybe we just hate the neighbour even more now. Gadar 2 Star Sunny Deol Visits Golden Temple Ahead of His Film's Release in Theatres (Watch Video).

But before I talk about how Gadar 2 fares in comparison to Gadar, let me first talk about another Anil Sharma film, a more recent one. In 2019, he made Genius, which was a launchpad for his son, Utkarsh Sharma, that didn't work at the box office. Utkarsh had also acted as a child artiste in Gadar, playing the young son of Tara Singh and Sakeena, a role that he is reprising in the sequel, and under the shadow of the mighty and still the owner of the ferocious roar, Sunny Deol, becomes the parallel lead of the film. So in many ways, this sequel also turns out to be a re-launchpad for the actor.

So anyway, speaking of the plot, Gadar 2 begins with a recap of the first film, and then gets into the repercussions of what happened when Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) escaped from Pakistan with his wife Sakeena (Ameesha Patel) and son Jeete back in 1954, defeating the whole Pakistani army. Little did Tara know then that his exploits would raise another villain, General Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhwa), who hates India to the very core, and he wants to avenge that insult meted out to his army by Tara Singh.

Fast forward to 1971, as India prepares to go to war with an intrusive Pakistan, Tara Singh is living a happy life with Sakeena and their now adult son (Utkarsh Sharma). However, certain circumstances lead both the father and son to end up in Pakistan, and you can guess what happens next.

Watch the Trailer of Gadar 2:

Going by what I wrote in the first paragraph of this review, I may not be a fan of Gadar, but that film had heart. That beating heart belonged to the love story between Tara and Sakeena. Another aspect that worked in its favor is that Gadar had commendable production design that lent credence to the film's absurd action scenes, especially the train sequence in the climax.

Gadar 2 simply rehashes the old beats with a very half-hearted commitment, which sometimes goes to nil, to look genuine or plausible. There is nothing here to connect with the characters, save for relying on the nostalgia factor. The main driving point is the father-son relationship, but with the lack of development given to that bond, the heart finds it difficult to pump warmth into the story. OMG 2 Movie Review: Akshay Kumar's Film Champions 'Sex Education' Sensibly With Ample Humour!

Gadar 2 takes an even more nonsensical stance with Tara Singh with a scene where he — a civilian — is seen fighting with the armed forces on the border. Gadar 2 also has no respect for space or time (editing plays a major fault in this). A character seen fighting on the battlefield is later seen falling down a waterfall. Where did that come from? Who knows? I'm not even sure how many days Tara and Jeete were running from the Pakistani army in the second half.

The director takes a risky creative choice when he focuses solely on his son's character in the first half after the first act, with Sunny Deol nowhere to be seen. There is a love story and two couple of romantic songs for Jeete as he falls for a Pakistani beauty, Muskaan (Simrat Kaur). The love story simply pads out the already lengthy runtime, while the track veers too close to another film about a man landing in Pakistan to save a loved one - Milan Luthria's Deewar - Let's Bring Our Heroes Home (even the finale is similar). What's more, the new girl has more screen time than Ameesha Patel, who spends most of her limited time either gazing fondly or simply simpering.

Sunny paaji's fans can breathe a sigh of relief, though. He returns near the interval and owns the second half with his larger-than-life presence. The man is still, as Pushpa would say, Fire. But does his return make Gadar 2 any better? Aside from illogical writing – how does Tara Singh easily enter Pakistan despite the heavy security and being the man everyone is watching out for? – the second half spends most of its time in chases through dust and smoke (that hide the bad CGI), reunions and separations, and then reunions again, some very over-the-top action scenes, and of course, jingoistic dialogues that are tailored to make the Pakistani-hating audience clap in joy. The Islamophobia is even more marked in the sequel, despite the lame attempts of tokenisms and balancing. This is a film that keeps forgetting that its protagonist is a Sikh and not a Hindu, whose sect prays to a different deity and has a different holy book.

There is still something to cheer here – after Pathaan earlier this year, Gadar 2 also marks the return of earthy mass heroism in Bollywood. You may not be a fan of this aspect, but there is something exhilarating about Sunny Deol's voice ringing through a large crowd to announce his presence. It may make absolutely no sense, but this was one mass moment that Gadar 2 got right, even if the film later appeals to the bloodthirsty vindictiveness in us.

The problem, though, is that it is hard to take the film and Tara Singh's conquest seriously. For a film whose second half has more fights than anything I have seen in Hindi cinema this year, the action choreography is utterly lackluster and Anil Sharma's direction feels a pale version of what it used to be. The villain is purely a one-dimensional moustache-twirling caricature, whose job is to keep spouting nation-insulting dialogues so that Tara can shout more crowd-pleasing slogans.

This is a film that is self-aware of its setting in the Gadar universe, as evidenced by the scene where a mob of violent, skull-wearing Pakistanis chasing Tara Singh come to an abrupt halt when they see him next to the infamous handpump. What happens next sends Gadar 2 into parody territory. I stopped taking anything seriously about the film after this.

Still, among all the crude jingoism, dust, smoke, and surprisingly lilting melodies (new and old), there is one particular sentiment that I wish the audience would take seriously from the film: a dialogue that Sunny Deol says. When challenged about the hate crimes happening in the country, Tara Singh screams back, "India belongs to Muslims, to Christians, to Sikhs, and to Hindus." Now that Sunny Deol has said this, I hope his some of his own party members would respect that sentiment.

Final Thoughts

If you are someone who enjoys seeing the army of the enemy nation being insulted verbally, physically, and morally, then Gadar 2 is the film for you. However, compared to the first Gadar film, the sequel takes many steps backwards in terms of its writing, direction, and even technical aspects. At the same time, it propels a star-kid, who everyone ignored in his first film, into the spotlight through Sunny Deol's still-sturdy roars. Gadar 2 is just old wine in a dusty, crinkled bottle that exists to show how our cinema is moving backwards.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 11, 2023 01:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).