‘De De Pyaar De 2’ review: Anshul Sharma's sequel is hit and miss comedy
Ajay Devgn brings down the tempo in this occasionally funny but thin and unambitious comedy
Ajay Devgn used to throw himself into comedies. I never thought he was a great comic (compare his effortful style to the ease of Akshay Kumar), but he more or less got the job done. But now, as with every other facet of his acting, Devgn’s comedy has lost its edge. In De De Pyaar De 2, he’s a beat behind everyone else, draining the energy in scenes when he should be cranking it up.
If you haven't seen the 2019 film (I never did), the opening of Anshul Sharma’s sequel boils it down to a handy montage. Ashish (Devgn), a 50-year-old, falls for a 26-year-old in London, Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh); he brings her to India to meet his wife and kids; complications ensue and are sorted out. The new film does the expected reversal: now the May-December couple must meet her December-December folks and seek their blessings.
At first, the new setup shows some promise. Rakesh (R. Madhavan) and Anju (Gautami Kapoor) are a self-described modern, progressive couple—which is what they tell their daughter when she warns that her fiancé is slightly older. This confidence in shattered when Ashish turns up, with his neatly greying hair and sagely demeanour. Anju unthinkingly calls him beta—embarrassing, but not as bad as him calling her bhabhi ji, then mummy ji. Soon, their discomfort turns to opposition, which the fiery Ayesha takes as a challenge (the film is quite happy to skewer the complacent values of the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge generation).
From the start, Ashish is a drag on proceedings. His insistence on not lying to his future in-laws has comic potential, but Devgn isn’t the one mining it. Madhavan and Kapoor are an effective tag team, pinging lines back and forth at speed. Ayesha’s combativeness suits Singh (the drama that comes later doesn’t), and Ishita Dutta is loud and funny as Rakesh and Anju’s pregnant daughter-in-law. But Devgn is inert, ambling through the film with patient expression and calm voice, like he’s above such shenanigans.
Jaaved Jaaferi, as Ashish’s friend, turns up in the second half to show everyone what true comic playing looks like. His presence gets the best out of screenwriters Luv Ranjan (also the producer) and Tarun Jain, like when he tells Devgn he’s experiencing “second hand zillat (humiliation), zillat by association". And well he should, given how Ayesha is eyeing Aditya (Meezaan Jafri, Javed’s son), her childhood friend, who’s secretly been brought in by her father to steal his daughter away from Ashish. Meezaan Jafri makes Aditya a rather appealing himbo, like one of those Disney princes who aren’t bad sorts but think too much of themselves.
Almost 15 years after his debut, Ranjan is where he started out. He’s still a fitfully funny writer. His best moments seem to arrive almost as sketch comedy, like the scene here with Suhasini Mulay as a grandma with a scarily good memory. But he’s forever trying to top the rants he wrote for Kartik Aryan early on, and is always working from silly stock situations that rarely support the dramatic turns they’re forced to take in the final act. De De Pyaar De 2 has about half an hour of unconvincing tears before a late burst of comedy brings the story to a close. If this means the franchise ends here too, I would be grateful by association.
‘De De Pyaar De 2’ is in theatres.
Visit Livemint.com/lounge for more reviews.
topics
