Beginning with the hard truth, if a director decides to make a sequel of his first film after 15 odd years (which is a long time) and co-produces it too with the music company re-using its most famous track, then either he is too obsessed with the very idea or is not able/willing to go for any novel plots due to his own undisclosed limitations or professional fears. Ironically the statement gets proved when after watching the film one realizes that the director has not even gone for a sequel but has just remade the original film following the exactly same format with even more clichéd insertions in the name of fresh changes. (Spoilers Ahead)
So TUM BIN 2 loses its major marks as it’s not at all a sequel but a remake made by the same director after 15 long years when even generations change in a society following a completely different thought process and ‘their kind of’ cinema.
Mentioning its noticeable merits first, the sequel/remake begins on a shaky note with a good song and some grainy graphical visuals. But then picks up soon with the emotional quotient handled well in its first 30 minutes followed by some regular entertaining moments supported by the well written lines. In fact despite the completely predictable/outdated theme or story progression the film still decently manages to engage you till the intermission through its likeable performances, sweet interactions and Late Jagjit Singh’s voice on screen (though it would have been much better if the song was not tempered inserting an additional female voice.)
Where the first half has enough emotionally entertaining moments and songs, the second half fails to impress despite having a few good scenes coming at long intervals. The narration derails fast and then goes into a completely confusing zone becoming too lengthy with nothing novel or engaging happening in its prolonged climax. As a result what could have been a good emotional film (for the young viewers), remains just an average romantic saga based on a highly overused and lackluster theme wasting a fine opportunity of en-cashing the still fresh memories of its original film.
Offering nothing more than the routine predictable love triangle with ‘an assumed dead returning all of a sudden’ the film’s only merit is its touching scenes keeping the emotional level high especially in the first half. And the best scenes in the script include an emotionally distressed girl's honest conversations with her supporting would-be father in law, the family’s visit to the house of a Pakistani Hindu doctor living with his mother and Neha’s confession in a Gurdwara admitting her present love. Background score helps a lot in these particular sequences and cinematography does give it an elegant eye-pleasing look throughout. At the same time the soundtrack struggles to surpass or even match the standard of its original film with only a few good and not any outstanding songs to be exact.
Having said that just like the 2001 hit, TUM BIN 2 also has all sincere performances more specifically coming from the largely lesser known supporting cast. Aditya Seal impresses confidently leading them all (in the first half) and debutant Aashim Gulati is just okay with a lot of time ahead to learn the essential details. Neha Sharma tries her level best playing a difficult role and looks gorgeous on the screen providing the glamour too. But the greater impact comes from Kanwaljeet (as the father), Mehar Vij (as the elder sister), Sonia Balani (as the second sister) and the actors playing the cool Sikh husband and the young doctor from Pakistan. Plus Sandali Sinha (of the original) also features in a pleasantly surprising cameo in the film’s initial moments.
Coming to its shockingly unimaginative remake status, just see how writer-director Anubhav Sinha follows his own film without going for anything fresh and innovative in his ‘supposed to be safe’ sequel even after a gap of 15 long years.
Tum Bin 2 has the same story format of a boy dying and the girl getting attracted to the very (guilt-ridden) person who is responsible for her boyfriend’s death (reminding you of films like DUSHMAN, KINARA and more having related concepts). The original exactly had the same plot but in fact had a more matured one as there is no dead person returning in it like the sequel (strongly reminding you of films like SANGAM and more).
The 2001 film had debuts giving the lead cast a dream chance, a long road journey bringing together the two young souls, the falling business of the girl resurrected by the leading man, a key Sikh character helping the hero, the interval coming right after the entry of the second boy, the love triangle beginning post intermission and a hit Stereo Nation (Punjabi based) song added into the script making a good use of T-series’s own artists.
Surprisingly everything mentioned above is right there in this so called sequel too with a few boring and unexpectedly avoidable additions. Thankfully this time we have an original Sikh person playing the supporting character instead of any fake disguised one and TUM BIN 2 has another rehashed Punjabi track of the past too (following the current sick trend) re-proving the fact that the mainstream Hindi cinema today cannot really do without any Punjabi song.
But stating the positive difference, where the original moved around only its 3-4 lead characters without involving the supporting cast much, the sequel gives them a well written respected space and extracts some fine performances too enhancing its overall impact.
Yet that cannot be accepted as an excuse from writer-director Anubhav Sinha for re-serving the same old-fashioned love story to the new-age viewers in the name of an emotional, musical sequel.
In all, TUM BIN 2 doesn’t justify the status of a sequel (being a remake instead) and can simply be rated as ‘fairly watchable average film’ due to its emotionally rich first half, likable performances and the nostalgic cult song alone. Besides it just gets some extra marks due to a few noticeable lines as,
“LIFE is exactly like a nice summer vacation………… wherein the moment we are busy making our next grand plans….. it suddenly gets over and we don’t have any more time left in the granted days”
Indeed a nice ‘enlightening’ thought to take back home from the theatre.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
(On a personal note, I felt good to see ‘Sadness and Sentiments’ back on screen in a Hindi film portrayed well without any hurry (in the first half), which was not being allowed by 'the corporate producers and presenters' intentionally since last many years.
Ideally, this must make you think about ‘the emotional quotient or scenes’ in the recent Hindi films, not staying for more than a couple of minutes on the screen, forget about the SAD songs.
But let me keep this revealing info of ‘silent conditioning of young viewers’ for a separate detailed write-up to be posted in the coming weeks.)
