Yamla Pagla Deewana Movie Review: The Deols are back again

One of the surprises of 2007 in Hindi Cinema was a film called Apnedirected by Anil Sharma and starring the Deol family members –Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. Considering that both Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol were going through a bad patch and also that Dharmendra hadn’t been appearing in too many films those days, the box office response was certainly a surprise. What was also surprising was that Anil Sharma, more known for his over the top movies like Hukumat, Tehelka, Gadar etc had managed to keep Dharmendra and Sunny Deol both in control for a major part of the film. So after 3 years when the trio from the Deol family announced that they were coming back again with a film called Yamla Pagla Deewana ( YPD from hereon ), there were eyebrows raised out of interest. But there was no mass hysteria initially as YPD was being directed by Samir Karnik, whose filmography included films likeKyun! Ho Gaya Na,Nanhe Jaisalmer, Heroe’s and Vaada Raha- certainly nothing meriting attention.

But when the promo of the film came out things completely changed. The promo of YPD was one of the most well received promos in recent times and thus set the expectations very clearly for the film. YPD begins with a look into the life of Paramvir Singh (Sunny Deol ) in Canada. Paramvir is married to a Canadian, Mary (Emma Brown) and lives along with her, their 2 sons and his mother (Nafisa Ali). Param’s mother is still missing her husband Dharama ( Dharmendra ) and younger son Gajodhar ( Bobby Deol ) who got separated from them when Paramvir was still a child. Thanks to some people Paramvir and his mother realise that his father and brother are in Varanasi and making a living by conning people. Paramvir promises to bring back his father and brother and sets off to Varanasi. After a couple of funny encounters Paramvir manages to inform his father the truth but Dharam refuses to acknowledge their relationship. But Gajodhar convinces Dharam to enlist Paramvir in their team, impressed by his brute force.

In the meanwhile Gajodhar falls in love with Sahiba ( Kulraj Randhawa ), a girl from Punjab who visits Varanasi to write a book. After some initial drama and egged on by Paramvir, Gajodhar manages to win the heart of Sahiba. But just as things start getting rosy, Sahiba’s brothers forcibly take her away back to Punjab. Unable to see Gajodhar’s plight, Dharam then acknowledges the relationship with Paramvir and thus begins the journey to Punjab to unite Gajodhar with Sahiba. And what happens later is what the rest of the story is all about. No prizes to anyone for guessing the film’s outcome. While there is nothing remarkable about the story, what is interesting is the way the screenplay develops in course of time and helps in sustaining the interest levels of the audience. Usually in such films the 2nd half of the film typically gets very predictable and hardly has any sting. But here is where the writing byJasvinder Singh Bath needs to be specifically commended.

So what makes the 2nd half interesting and what makes the 1st half pale in significance? Well the answers to both the question are the same- Bobby Deol . Most of the 1st half is dominated by Bobby Deol as he’s initially playing the Varanasi ka bhaiyya and trying to con people and then later on playing the lover boy as well. In both the avatars Bobby doesn’t appear convincing, after all it takes more than just colourful clothes and eating paan to pull of the U.P wale bhaiyya ( a la AB sr in Don ). Coming to the 2nd half what makes it interesting indeed is that apart from the dialogues there are also a whole host of characters who make their presence. And of course Dharmendra and Sunny Deol have a little more work to do as well post interval. Anupam Kher as Joginder Singh, the eldest brother of Sahiba and Mukul Dev as Gurmeet, another brother of Sahiba are the one’s who make the maximum impact among the additional characters introduced in the 2nd half.

Talking about Dharmendra I must admit that the veteran is still out there having fun in YPD. Though age has caught up with him, it still doesn’t deter him from him giving it his all in the company of his sons. Sunny Deol has his moments as well and is sure to make his fans rejoice finally. Kulraj Randhawa who has earlier done a few Punjabi films and also seen in Chintuji gets a good platform with YPD and does what is expected of her. The soundtrack is of a mixed variety with Charha De Rang (Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shweta Pandit, Mahalakshmi Iyer ) being the best of the songs. There’s the now popular song – Tinku Jiya to keep the masses happy and thankfully by the time the remix of the yesteryear hit “ Yamla Pagla Deewana” ( Sonu Nigam, Nindy Kaur- remixed by RDB with the original song composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal in Pratigya ) appears on the screen, the audience is seen to be relatively pleased and having a good time.

For those wondering if all this indicates that YPD is flawless, I’d say that it’s certainly not the case. Not only is the plot quite old styled, there’s also the added issue of Bobby Deol taking up more of the screen time (and not doing enough justice for the same). But a more than reasonably engaging 2nd half with some fine cameo’s along with the chance to see Dharmendra and Sunny Deol in good form makes this worthwhile enough. Well the promo had indicated that the movie would be a complete entertainer and the end result shows that the makers have indeed tried hard to live up to the expectations set up by the promos. So for those who still enjoy a good masala film once in a while, YPD is not bad indeed.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/yamla-pagla-deewana-movie-review-the-deols-are-back-again/

Ek- The Power of One- Totally drives you powerless

Looks like somebody has come forward to bail out K Sera Sera, the well known production company and thus one gets to suddenly see a flood of movies from their stable getting a release in the last 2 months which were otherwise lying in the cans. So after Chal Chala Chal & Kisse Pyar Karoon which released last month, this week saw the release of Ek- The Power of One. A straight remake of the Telugu blockbuster Athadu, it’s a typical masala movie, one which reminds you of the masala entertainers of the 70’s & the 80’s but then that’s also the problem with the movie. You just don’t feel connected to the movie at all.

The movie begins with Nandu (Bobby Deol) and Shekhar (Pradeep Kharab) who join Jackie Shroff’s gang at a very young age. During a particular assignment Jackie Shroff is captured by the police & so Nandu and Shekhar branch off on their own. Years later they’ve grown up to be sharp shooters. Anna Saheb Mhatre ( Sachin Khedekar) is the leader of opposition who wants to be the CM & so he hatches a plan to get himself shot at an election meeting to win public sympathy. Nandu is assigned the task. But before Nandu gets to shoot Anna, somebody else shoots & Anna dies. Now the police is behind him and thus Nandu is on the run.

On a train to Punjab, Nandu meets Pooran who is on his way home after 18 years. When the police who are following Nandu fire at him, Pooran gets killed instead accidentally. Thus Nandu ends up in a village in Hoshiarpur and takes refuge in Pooran’s large Punjabi family. Nandu is mistaken as Pooran by the family and is whole heartedly welcomed. The family consists of a grandfather (Kulbushan Kharbhanda), the eldest bua (Zarina Wahab), his childhood sweetheart (Shriya Saran) etc. The case of Anna Mhatre’s murder is entrusted to a CBI officer (Nana Patekar playing to the gallery) and he ends up landing at Hoshiarpur and meeting Nandu for the investigation.

So does Nandu manage to get away from trouble? Does the family get to know the truth? Who had shot Anna Mhatre? The rest of the film tries to answer all these questions. Athadu was a very slickly made desi version of The Assassins and was quite successful at the box office. In comparison though, Ek comes across as a very pale copy. While in Athadu Mahesh Babu as Nandu conveyed a lot through his eyes, Bobby Deol is wooden throughout. Nana Patekar in an attempt to bring in comic relief is quite irritating. The emotions hardly work and the romance is almost non existent. Shriya Saran does not get any scope. While in Athadu the climax was brilliantly shot (quite similar to The Assassins) here it is at best average. All said and done the movie is a yawn fest- watch it at your own risk.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/ek-the-power-of-one-totally-drives-you-powerless/