By: Omair Alavi Vitamin C is what keeps the Dhawan peeps in check – C for Comedy, D for Dhawan! The elder (David) Dhawan is back with his latest flick where junior (Varun) Dhawan does a Salman Khan for more than 2 hours and impresses with his double role, dancing, and chemistry with the…
SAMAA | Omair Alavi – Posted: Oct 3, 2017 | Last Updated: 4 years ago
By: Omair Alavi
Vitamin C is what keeps the Dhawan peeps in check – C for Comedy, D for Dhawan! The elder (David) Dhawan is back with his latest flick where junior (Varun) Dhawan does a Salman Khan for more than 2 hours and impresses with his double role, dancing, and chemistry with the leading ladies. Yes, the story is as same as it was 20 years ago but many changes have been made in the plot, the dialogues and all absurdities of the 90s have been disposed of well.
The Plot
Judwaa is the story of twin brothers Prem and Raja (Varun Dhawan) separated at birth – one turns out to be a tapori and the other a musician. One lives with his parents (Sachin Khedekar, Prachi Shah) in London while the other in Mumbai with his friend Nandu (Rajpal Yadav), because their parents believe that he is dead. When they are in close proximity, they display identical movement since they were conjoined twins when they were born – the reason why one is so strong and the other, so weak. The parents are in England because of one Charles (Zakir Hussain) who was caught stealing diamonds because the father had helped the Customs. Is Charles able to take revenge from his enemy when he comes out of the prison? Do the two kids ever meet and find out that they are twins in reality? Watch the film to know more. All I can say is that is a little different from the original one.
The Good
This is a Varun Dhawan entertainer because he is there in every second scene doing things that remind the older people of Govinda and Salman Khan; for the younger audience, his antics are as cool as Govinda’s were in the 90s. He wears yellow but doesn’t look bad; he dances on Oonchi Hai Building ad makes Anu Malik look good; he mocks Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees character and makes people laugh, knowing that King Khan will not mind. The Script is the winner here because Farhad – Sajid work hard on their lines and make fun of pop culture as well as other stuff. Both the girls Taapsee Pannu and Jacqueline Fernandez try to emulate Karisma Kapoor and Rambha and while they manage to look more beautiful is some scenes, they both lack the star power of Karisma – nobody remembers Rambha!
The Bad
It is a crime to use Johnny Lever for just one scene, Pawan Malhotra as a comedian, Rajpal Yadav as Varun’s sidekick and a 37-year-old Prachi Shah as Varun Dhawan’s mother. What if Johnny doesn’t do comedy like he used to; Pawan Malhotra didn’t have many offers, Rajpal Yadav was in need of money and Prachi has played Varun’s mom before – David Dhawan could have started the change. He sticks to the 20-year-old story but makes amends in the plot with the help of Farhan – Sajid and that is good for those who haven’t seen the original flick; for those who have, it comes out as repetitive. Had Farhan Akhtar not changed the climax of Don, no one would have dared to watch the film again. And then there was the case of the Censored Kiss – something that changed the momentum of the story and we Pakistanis had to be content with connecting the dots and realizing that we were watching a film on PTV. That act of love was as pivotal to the plot as the strike of lightning in Back To The Future but when in Pakistan, agree to what the Censor Board says, even if it ruins the film.
Verdict – 3/5
Salman Khan’s fandom is a tricky one – some love all his films while some love a few of his films. I was one of the few who were in the Govinda Camp when Judwaa came out and naturally, Deewana Mastana attracted me more. It still does because at least the script wasn’t written assuming the audience to be stupid. Farhad – Sajid must be commended for addressing the simplest of things in their version of Judwaa where the two brothers’ identical movements can only happen when they are in the same city, not the same planet. They could have used some other actress in place of Upasana Singh as the mother of Taapsee’s character because all she did was ape Bindu and look ridiculous. The butt slapping antics might have made the audience laugh in 1997 but today it is not considered funny at all, especially when it has nothing to do with the story! Judwaa 2 is a film for those who don’t swear by Salman Khan because, for Sallu’s fans, the old Judwaa will always remain the real Judwaa. This one doesn’t exist in their universe!
