Cast: Sunny Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Om Puri, Narendra Jha
Rating: **(2/5)
Director: Sunny Deol
New Delhi: Coming out of his prolonged hiatus, Sunny Deol is back on the silver-screen with the sequel of his one of the biggest blockbusters ‘Ghayal' of all time. Aiming at reclaiming his lost effectiveness at the box-office, Sunny has himself produced, co-written and directed ‘Ghayal Once Again'.
The famous notion about the sequels that they are never as good as the original one has once again come true as what starts-off as a genuine follow-up looses its touch midway and ends up as a disappointment.
Apart from a major drawback of looking like a 90s project, the film lacks also the trademark punch lines that one expects to see in a Sunny Deol film.
Also read: Sunny Deol in Aap Ki Adalat: 16 years of cut-off with SRK; 10 other secrets he revealed
The film takes-off from exactly where prequel had left-off. Ajay Mehra (Sunny Deol), after having served his prison term for killing Balwantrai and his men in 1990 now owns a news channel Satyakam now.
Everything goes fine till a bunch of youngsters land themselves in a soup after accidentally capturing a murder in their video camera. The murderer, Kabir (Abhilash Kumar) is the son of a powerful business tycoon Raj Bansal (Narendra Jha) and it is from here that a typical Bollywood fight between right and wrong begins.
Ajay Mehra, the last hope of the four kids, takes the entire matter in his hands and decides to rescue them from Bansal's political game.
The first-half of the film lacks steam as there isn't a single powerful scene or a heroic act by Sunny Deol. It is only towards the end of the first-half that the film begins to take pace and we finally see Sunny getting into his action mode.
The second-half is comparatively better but not enough to have let the film emerge as a winner. The action scenes are the only strong point as there isn't a single whistle-worthy dialogue by Sunny Deol. The hero v/s villain confrontation is pretty much predictable and doesn't leave the expected impact.
Sunny, as the captain of the ship puts in a genuine effort but it is script of the film that lets him down. The car chase sequences and the action scenes remains the highlight of his direction.
The screenplay of the sequel borrows from the original instalment but sadly couldn't come any where close to it. One of the major short comings is that it takes a long time to establish the characters and the plot of the movie. Also, we don't see the same aggression in Ajay's character as it was in the previous film.
Technical aspects of the film are just about average. Cinematographer Ravi Yadav does a decent job with his camera and sets the mood of the film. Although, the film is just 126 minutes long, but the editing could have been much tighter.
Reprising the character of Ajay Mehra, Sunny Deol lacks the original spark. The actual problem is in the writing as it didn't gave much scope to his character to have created a similar impact. He, however, owns the action sequences and is a treat to watch.
The antagonist Narendra Jha is a complete turn-off. He lacks the aura of a villain and is only assigned a limited job in the film.
Soha Ali Khan, who plays Ajay's psychiatrist, delivers an average performance.
Om Puri does full justice to his character while the four newcomers are just about fine.
‘Ghayal Once Again' is strictly for the hard-core fans of Sunny Deol as the fans of the original instalment are bound to get disappointed. Looking like a 90s affair, the film can be given a miss.
