Director Anil Sharma has himself described Gadar as an emotion. 22 years later, it is the same emotion with which writer Shaktimaan Talwar continues the cross-border love story of Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) and Sakina (Ameesha Patel).
Although the war clouds of 1971 are looming on the horizon, it’s family time for truck driver Tara, wife Sakina and son Charanjeet alias Jeete (Utkarsh Sharma). But, on the other side, General Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhwa) of the Pak army is still seething over the wounds of 1947 when he lost his whole family. After orchestrating the hanging of Sakina’s father Ashraf Ali (Amrish Puri), he continues to lust for blood with a visceral hatred for Hindus and Hindustan; Ghazwa-e-Hind (the Islamic conquest of India) is his target. There is one particularly telling sequence where Iqbal asks a Hindu and his little son to choose between the Gita and the Koran. The Hindu, holding his son under him, bows to the Gita, only for them to be cruelly beheaded.
It sets the tone for venomous hatred that’s spread by Hamid Iqbal and company. It makes an effective beginning.
Anil Sharma and Shaktimaan then spend a lot of time reanimating the Tara-Sakina chemistry, suffusing the Singh family with a cloak of warmth even if there are light father-son clashes.
It’s when Tara is feared dead or imprisoned by Hamid Iqbal after a skirmish in the hills that the story perks up with Jeete rising to the occasion to prove he’s Tara Singh’s son. He goes into Pakistan in search of his dad after which Tara, who has returned home safely, crosses the border to bring back Jeete.
For quite a while, Sunny’s presence is missed as Jeete looks for him inside Pakistan where he meets pretty Muskaan (Simrat Kaur). But the story keeps moving and it’s amusing when Pakistanis are besotted with Hindi films.
Unfortunately, after Tara comes looking for his son in Pakistan, Anil Sharma loosens his reins and loses track of time. Tara and Jeete are united, then separated, united again and separated again, with Deol taking on the Pak army at frequent intervals. In 1990s style, there’s even one sequence where father and son break into song and find each other. The meet and separate goes on endlessly, punctuated with snatches of ceetee-maro dialogues from Sunny and the famous hand pump scene which is inserted for nostalgia value and to elicit a chuckle.
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Sunny Deol, scowling and growling with tonsils-showing energy, is in full form, with not a drop in vigour despite the 22-year gap. And yes, you do believe that he can take on an army single-handedly, with a bit of help from his son. But when it’s an endless series of not-so-exciting action combat, the incredulity can get wearisome.
Utkarsh is pleasant and easy when light-hearted and light on his feet during action scenes. But he could do with more experience in high-voltage drama.
In the little that she gets to do, Simrat Kaur is impressive.
Ameesha doesn’t go beyond evoking nostalgia. Snarling Manish Wadhwa makes you miss Amrish Puri.
Very early in the film, Anil Sharma uses up both his winning Uttam Singh compositions, ‘Udd jaa kaale kauwa’ and ‘Main nikla gaddi leke’ which will make fans of the original Gadar go balle balle. But alas, the new score by Mithoon, which includes ‘Sambhavami yuge yuge’ in the background when Sunny bashes up the Pak army, just doesn’t match up. Uninteresting numbers like ‘Khairiyat’ which accompanies Sunny on his way to Pakistan, could well have been edited out of the nearly-three-hour-long running time.
At the end, there’s a dialogue that the Indo-Pak war hasn’t even started. You wonder, if the Indo-Pak war was not the backdrop for rekindling fervour on either side of the border, why set the sequel in 1971?
But what does it in is the overstretched narration. There’s something called overstaying your welcome. That’s precisely what #TeamGadar2 does in Pakistan.
Rating: 3/5
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