Gadar 2 (2023) :
Movie Review -
Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, and Utkarsh Sharma's trio from Gadar is back again for Anil Sharma's Gadar 2, along with new additions to the cast, Simrat Kaur and Manish Wadhwa. Gadar was the biggest mass hysteria since Sholay (1975), with footfalls crossing the Insane 5 crore mark in the 21st century, which no other Bollywood film could do in the last 22 years. Why? Because Gadar had a love story conflicting between India and Pakistan elements right after Partition. The saga went even more crazy when an Indian crushed the Pakistani army single-handedly in Pakistan. Masses were entitled to go bonkers, and that's one of the main reasons why no other Bollywood movie has managed to repeat the same hysteria again since then. Gadar 2 follows the same pattern by arranging the characters differently, and it's a well-written script for Gadar's sequel-at least for its continuity, but for 2003, not 2023. Filmmaking and audiences have come far ahead in these two decades, but Anil Sharma seemed more interested in 2003's audiences and 2003's filmmaking. It doesn't hurt when a normal hit movie gets a bad sequel, such as Satyamev Jayate 2 or Heropanti 2, as they were never iconic movies. But it hurts when a popular mass film like Ghayal gets a sequel like Ghayal Once Again, and a historic blockbuster like Gadar gets a sequel like Gadar 2.
Gadar 2 begins with a backdrop of the 1947 partition and a 2-minute brief of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, as narrator Nana Patekar introduces us to the Gadar world and the new villain, Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhawa). Hamid was in the British India Army before independence, and his family was killed by Hindus in Hindu-Muslim riots before Pakistan got separated from India. He hates Indians, Hindus, and Tara Singh, who killed 40 of his officers while bringing Sakina back in Gadar 1. Switch to 1971, as the Indian Army smells another war with Pakistan (especially the Bangladesh partition), while Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) is still a truck driver, living happily with his wife, Sakina (Ameesha Patel), and son, Jeetey (Utkarsh Sharma). Jeetey wants to be a Bollywood actor, and Tara wants his son to be an army officer. Tara helps the Indian army and is captured during a raid. Young Jeetey decides to go to Pakistan to bring his father back, but he himself gets arrested for being a spy. Tara, who has returned home after a while, can't be silent, and so he heads towards Lahore to get his son back. How Tara Singh and Jeetey fight the entire Pakistani army in Pakistan is what you get to see in the second half.
Gadar 2 seems like a well-intentioned script for a sequel because it attempts the same pattern they sold us two decades ago. It's the screenplay and execution that torture you with two-decade-old fashion in every scene. From Shivaa.. Shivaa.. in Brahmastra to Jeetey.. Jeetey.. in Gadar 2-that's how we have evolved over the last year. It wasn't long ago that people criticised Satyameva Jayate 2 and Heropanti 2, and here we have Gadar 2 trying to be in the same zone. It's just that SMJ and Heropanti were smaller brands, and here Gadar is trying to sell us a huge brand. It will be enough to get contemporary commercial success and good funds, but not the legacy. The landmark for Gadar's sequel can't be 100 crore, 200 crore, or 300 crore. It was a film that sold 5 crore+ tickets; will Gadar 2 get the same numbers or even half of that? You are cashing in on Legacy, but what about creating your own legacy? Of course, Gadar 2 will get a bigger opening because it is a brand now, but it will not see the same success because they haven't been able to create that kind of product again.
Gadar 2 is so outdated and frustrating occasionally that people were laughing at action scenes. However, some crazy mass belt audiences are enjoying the same scenes. That's two sides of cinema for you, and an iconic movie always finds a perfect blend of both. Gadar 2 is quite a one-sided affair, though. That handpump will have two extreme reactions: one side will enjoy it, while the other side will roll down the floor laughing. There are many instances like this in the film, and it's a very long film, let me tell you. Morpheus offered a red and blue pill in The Matrix, and here the villain offers the Red Book (Bhagawad Gita) and Green Book (Quran) to his victims. In 2 hours and 50 minutes, Sunny Deol becomes Mr. India for almost an hour before the intermission, and when he returns, you expect some fireworks. He gives you that, but the ammunition is not modern. I don't even know why someone would use swords in the post-50s era. The 1971 conflict could have been a game changer for the film, but they didn't know how to use it. It was used as a backdrop, not the main conflict, like Gadar used 1947 to set the base for the entire film.
One of the best things about Gadar 2 is that Sunny Deol is back in Tara Singh's crazy, massy Avatar. He roars like a lion, actually noisier than a lion, with the help of a camera, mic, and sound sync to scare the hell out of the Pak army. That Katori wala dialogue and Hindustan Zindabad bring back the old memories, but only for a moment. Ameesha Patel looked breathtaking in Gadar Part 1, and it would be too much to ask her to look the same after 22 years. Her part also doesn't offer anything and is far less than Gadar 1. On the contrary, Utkarsh Sharma has more screen time, and he is good in only some scenes. That Rajesh Khanna's filmy style was well acted, but not well crafted. Simrat Kaur fills the missing gap of a beautiful face, as she looks gorgeous throughout the film. Her role is fine too, but she needed more confident body language. Manish Wadhva is packaged as an evil from the ancient era. So much hype and so much introduction to prove what a devious personality he is. He looks dangerous and acts so too, but can anyone ever replace Amrish Puri Ji as a villain? Even Manish would say a big NO. Nonetheless, he is strictly okay. The supporting cast of Gaurav Chopra, Luv Sinha, Mushtaq Khan, Rakesh Bedi, Dolly Bindra, and a few other known faces pass by without any hesitation.
Gadar 2 has not been made on a huge budget of over 300 crore or 400 crore, so it's fine if it doesn't have any larger-than-life action sequences. Who needs them when you have larger-than-life characters like Tara Singh? On the technical front, Gadar 2 has managed a recent show on a moderate budget. The Cinematography is okay, the editing lacks engagement, the background score is old-fashioned, and the production design is pretty decent. The music scores passing marks with old hit numbers coming back with honest recreation, and the lyrics sound fine too. Anil Sharma has directed 6 films after Gadar, and he hasn't had a single HIT till date. It seems that his wait for a box office hit will be over with Gadar 2. The credit goes to Gadar 1, of course. Anil Sharma had an opportunity to create history, but he was stuck in history himself. The idea of making a film with outdated storytelling is so annoying and disturbing. That's why he couldn't score a hit. Had Gadar 2 been a non-Gadar film, he would have had another flop because the film is so bad. But thanks to Gadar's legacy, even a bad product will sail past the tough times of post-pandemic. Happy days ahead for the box office, at least for a week, but why did we have to sacrifice brand Gadar for that? This needs to be discussed someday in the future. For now, Tara Singh is back with a blockbuster that should have been made in 2003 but arrived in 2023.
RATING - 4/10*
Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, and Utkarsh Sharma's trio from Gadar is back again for Anil Sharma's Gadar 2, along with new additions to the cast, Simrat Kaur and Manish Wadhwa. Gadar was the biggest mass hysteria since Sholay (1975), with footfalls crossing the Insane 5 crore mark in the 21st century, which no other Bollywood film could do in the last 22 years. Why? Because Gadar had a love story conflicting between India and Pakistan elements right after Partition. The saga went even more crazy when an Indian crushed the Pakistani army single-handedly in Pakistan. Masses were entitled to go bonkers, and that's one of the main reasons why no other Bollywood movie has managed to repeat the same hysteria again since then. Gadar 2 follows the same pattern by arranging the characters differently, and it's a well-written script for Gadar's sequel-at least for its continuity, but for 2003, not 2023. Filmmaking and audiences have come far ahead in these two decades, but Anil Sharma seemed more interested in 2003's audiences and 2003's filmmaking. It doesn't hurt when a normal hit movie gets a bad sequel, such as Satyamev Jayate 2 or Heropanti 2, as they were never iconic movies. But it hurts when a popular mass film like Ghayal gets a sequel like Ghayal Once Again, and a historic blockbuster like Gadar gets a sequel like Gadar 2.
Gadar 2 begins with a backdrop of the 1947 partition and a 2-minute brief of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, as narrator Nana Patekar introduces us to the Gadar world and the new villain, Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhawa). Hamid was in the British India Army before independence, and his family was killed by Hindus in Hindu-Muslim riots before Pakistan got separated from India. He hates Indians, Hindus, and Tara Singh, who killed 40 of his officers while bringing Sakina back in Gadar 1. Switch to 1971, as the Indian Army smells another war with Pakistan (especially the Bangladesh partition), while Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) is still a truck driver, living happily with his wife, Sakina (Ameesha Patel), and son, Jeetey (Utkarsh Sharma). Jeetey wants to be a Bollywood actor, and Tara wants his son to be an army officer. Tara helps the Indian army and is captured during a raid. Young Jeetey decides to go to Pakistan to bring his father back, but he himself gets arrested for being a spy. Tara, who has returned home after a while, can't be silent, and so he heads towards Lahore to get his son back. How Tara Singh and Jeetey fight the entire Pakistani army in Pakistan is what you get to see in the second half.
Gadar 2 seems like a well-intentioned script for a sequel because it attempts the same pattern they sold us two decades ago. It's the screenplay and execution that torture you with two-decade-old fashion in every scene. From Shivaa.. Shivaa.. in Brahmastra to Jeetey.. Jeetey.. in Gadar 2-that's how we have evolved over the last year. It wasn't long ago that people criticised Satyameva Jayate 2 and Heropanti 2, and here we have Gadar 2 trying to be in the same zone. It's just that SMJ and Heropanti were smaller brands, and here Gadar is trying to sell us a huge brand. It will be enough to get contemporary commercial success and good funds, but not the legacy. The landmark for Gadar's sequel can't be 100 crore, 200 crore, or 300 crore. It was a film that sold 5 crore+ tickets; will Gadar 2 get the same numbers or even half of that? You are cashing in on Legacy, but what about creating your own legacy? Of course, Gadar 2 will get a bigger opening because it is a brand now, but it will not see the same success because they haven't been able to create that kind of product again.
Gadar 2 is so outdated and frustrating occasionally that people were laughing at action scenes. However, some crazy mass belt audiences are enjoying the same scenes. That's two sides of cinema for you, and an iconic movie always finds a perfect blend of both. Gadar 2 is quite a one-sided affair, though. That handpump will have two extreme reactions: one side will enjoy it, while the other side will roll down the floor laughing. There are many instances like this in the film, and it's a very long film, let me tell you. Morpheus offered a red and blue pill in The Matrix, and here the villain offers the Red Book (Bhagawad Gita) and Green Book (Quran) to his victims. In 2 hours and 50 minutes, Sunny Deol becomes Mr. India for almost an hour before the intermission, and when he returns, you expect some fireworks. He gives you that, but the ammunition is not modern. I don't even know why someone would use swords in the post-50s era. The 1971 conflict could have been a game changer for the film, but they didn't know how to use it. It was used as a backdrop, not the main conflict, like Gadar used 1947 to set the base for the entire film.
One of the best things about Gadar 2 is that Sunny Deol is back in Tara Singh's crazy, massy Avatar. He roars like a lion, actually noisier than a lion, with the help of a camera, mic, and sound sync to scare the hell out of the Pak army. That Katori wala dialogue and Hindustan Zindabad bring back the old memories, but only for a moment. Ameesha Patel looked breathtaking in Gadar Part 1, and it would be too much to ask her to look the same after 22 years. Her part also doesn't offer anything and is far less than Gadar 1. On the contrary, Utkarsh Sharma has more screen time, and he is good in only some scenes. That Rajesh Khanna's filmy style was well acted, but not well crafted. Simrat Kaur fills the missing gap of a beautiful face, as she looks gorgeous throughout the film. Her role is fine too, but she needed more confident body language. Manish Wadhva is packaged as an evil from the ancient era. So much hype and so much introduction to prove what a devious personality he is. He looks dangerous and acts so too, but can anyone ever replace Amrish Puri Ji as a villain? Even Manish would say a big NO. Nonetheless, he is strictly okay. The supporting cast of Gaurav Chopra, Luv Sinha, Mushtaq Khan, Rakesh Bedi, Dolly Bindra, and a few other known faces pass by without any hesitation.
Gadar 2 has not been made on a huge budget of over 300 crore or 400 crore, so it's fine if it doesn't have any larger-than-life action sequences. Who needs them when you have larger-than-life characters like Tara Singh? On the technical front, Gadar 2 has managed a recent show on a moderate budget. The Cinematography is okay, the editing lacks engagement, the background score is old-fashioned, and the production design is pretty decent. The music scores passing marks with old hit numbers coming back with honest recreation, and the lyrics sound fine too. Anil Sharma has directed 6 films after Gadar, and he hasn't had a single HIT till date. It seems that his wait for a box office hit will be over with Gadar 2. The credit goes to Gadar 1, of course. Anil Sharma had an opportunity to create history, but he was stuck in history himself. The idea of making a film with outdated storytelling is so annoying and disturbing. That's why he couldn't score a hit. Had Gadar 2 been a non-Gadar film, he would have had another flop because the film is so bad. But thanks to Gadar's legacy, even a bad product will sail past the tough times of post-pandemic. Happy days ahead for the box office, at least for a week, but why did we have to sacrifice brand Gadar for that? This needs to be discussed someday in the future. For now, Tara Singh is back with a blockbuster that should have been made in 2003 but arrived in 2023.
RATING - 4/10*