Judwaa 2 review: "Varun manages to rock in this rather stale remake!!!"

Finally the long weekend has come to an end on Monday with the 148th birth anniversary of the father of our nation. This festive weekend in Bollywood saw the release of "Judwaa 2", the reboot of the superhit "Judwaa" that released two decades back. Over the years, we have seen numerous remakes being made & more often than not, it has bit the dust with "Aag" being a classic example. Well as per box office reports it has garnered a thumping initial. So what made it click with the audience???

Since most of us have watched Salman's "Judwaa", I dont think there is need for me to elaborate on the plot. Anywaz for those whose grey cells have started to fail, Prem & Raja (Varun Dhawan) were twins who got separated at birth due to the evil design of the smuggler, Charles (Zakir Hussain). Prem grew up with his parents in London while Raja was raised in the slums of Mumbai. But destiny brings Raja to London which leads to mistaken identities & comedy of errors. 

In the 90's, David Dhawan was the director with the Midas's touch as his brand of slapstick comedies was lapped up by the audience. But with time, his powers waned due to his inability to change with the times. His last movie was "Main Tera Hero" in 2014 that had his son in the lead & he has opted for his son yet again to reprise Salman's role in "Judwaa 2". There is hardly any difference between the two movies as it is a scene to scene copy of the original, though Sajid-Farhad has managed to sprinkle humour with some hare brained dialogues apart from numerous sexist & cringe worthy ones. Ayananka Bose deserves praise for the visuals while the music was kinda average after all two of the stand out tracks belonged to the original.

So this brings us to the most important question & that is whether Varun was able to match Salman's performance. There is no doubt that Varun was the right choice for the role & he actually outperforms Salman for most parts. But when it comes to goofiness & innocence, Varun was found to fall short. Both Taapsee Pannu & Jacqueline Fernandez didnt have much to do apart from shake a leg & serve as love interests for the protagonists. As for the rest, Rajpal Yadav's character was unbearable, Anupam Kher was fine while Pavan Malhotra was wasted.

Verdict: Well the box-office numbers claims that it has the third highest opening weekend in 2017 & is on its way to the 100 C mark. Frankly speaking, the film didnt impress me as it felt outdated despite Varun's sincere performance. This is not to imply that "Judwaa" was a great movie in the first place though it catered to the tastes of the audience in that time period. In short, if you are in the mood for pea brained comedies, you can give it a try or else forget it!!!

Rating: 1.5/5

Regards...Ben