FUKREY RETURNS is yet another project conceived following the blind trend of sequels, coming after 4 years of its original surprise hit released in 2013. And as usual it delivers nothing great in comparison, remaining a quite casually written film based on a familiar format revolving around the same key characters.
Praising its first 30 minutes, it begins taking forward the story of its original film and an opening song in the credits gives you a quick recap of the same announcing it to be 'a true sequel' for a change. The first sequence brings in the laughter right away and then the smile stays on your face watching the cute ‘Choocha’ once again for the next half an hour.
However the film suddenly starts moving into some seriously weird directions post this initial phase and the absurdities continue right till the end, even venturing into a zoo, a tiger, a cub and a hidden treasure too insulting the allowed creative liberty of a film-writer.
Recalling the original film, the 2013 FUKREY actually worked due to its realistic, innocent characterization, sweet romance between the young couples, a few Hit songs including ‘Ambersariya’, the relatable Delhi (college/local colonies) ambience and fresh execution (writing/direction) led by the four entertaining boys with focus on Varun Sharma in particular.
But in the 2017 sequel, everything mentioned above goes missing (including the romance, songs or the realistic writing) and its only the performances that work to some extent with both Varun Sharma (Choocha) and Pankaj Tripathi (Pandit Ji) remaining the two entertaining saviors giving you the exact picture.
A few sequences do work bringing in the expected laughter but they all remain the ones featuring Varun, Pankaj or at times Manjot Singh, who was also one of the most appreciated scene-stealers of the original film. For instance, just as the character who used to steal Manjot’s bike parts in FUKREY, this time we have a person diving into Yamuna for coins generating a similar impact, but the actor doesn’t come into the narration repeatedly.
Summing up, here we have the same team directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, but the writing doesn’t work and no one amongst Pulkit, Manjot, Ali, Richa, Priya or Vishakha are able to make any kind of emotional or entertaining connect with the viewers as seen in their first film.
So FUKREY RETURNS works in parts, but that too just because of Varun and Pankaj alone and nothing else.
Ratings : 2 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for just Varun Sharma and Pankaj Tripathi for their entertaining performances)
(Note: The article was first published on UC-News Mobile App in December 2017)
