Released Date : 11 Aug, 20232
Avg. User's Rating : 4.7/5
Story: Decades after rescuing his wife Sakina (Ameesha Patel) from Pakistan, an army-truck driver Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) must cross the border illegally once again to save his son (Utkarsh Sharma) from the wrath of Pak General Hamid. Iqbal (Manish Wadhwa). The latter harbored a grudge against Tara for what she had done in 1947.
Review: 22 years after Gadar: Ek Prem Katha created a tsunami at the box office, Anil Sharma comes up with a sequel that tries to recreate the heart-pounding patriotism and familial love of wartime. It even makes a strong case for secularism. "Hindustan Muslims ka hai, Christians ka hai, Sikhs ka hai, Hindustanio ka hai."
What the film lacks is a solid premise. The loss of life and the brutal aftermath of partition moved the audience in the first film. The cross border love story and survival story tugged at your heartstrings as it had a strong emotional core despite the provocative dialogue. The sequel struggles to engage you emotionally. Gadar 2 tries to cash in on the nostalgia factor, filmy dialogues and slomo action scenes, without any story or purpose that can hold it together.
Sakina's father Ashraf Ali (Amrish Puri) is no more. Tara Singh finds a new nemesis in Pakistani army general Hamid Iqbal, who brutally beheads people to show their allegiance to the Bhagavad Gita over the Quran. A war is taking place in the wake of India's involvement in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) (1971), and Iqbal seeks revenge for this situation and the past. He captures and tortures Tara's son in Pak, who crosses the border in search of his father. This forces Tara to repeat what she did for her son years ago. The boy's love track with Muskan (Simrat Kaur) in Pakistan feels completely irrelevant and unnecessary. The sequel comes across as an over-extended remake with an unstable plot running for over 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The release of the film was due to its music and Sunny Deol. Again sung by Udit Narayan, Mithun's reprised version of Uttam Singh's beautiful composition 'Ud Ja Kale Kava' is the highlight of the film. It evokes more emotion and nostalgia than the entire film.
Sunny Deol is loving and sincere. His strong presence and heavy duty continue to have an impact on the dialogue. They want her son Charanjit (Utkarsh Sharma) to be educated so that he too doesn't end up as a truck driver. Her concern and love for her child feels real. And of course for fans of the previous film, this film also has the iconic hand pump scene.
There is nothing to do but tearfully wait for Amisha Patel to return to her life. Utkarsh Sharma gets some important scenes and while he is delightful, he lacks the screen presence required for this action drama.
It's not that Gadar 2 is poorly made, it's just full of characters that don't have the depth to stir the desired emotions in you or hold your attention for long. For Sunny Deol fans, the actor brings back his star power and that great roar that is hard to miss in the film.
