Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – After falling in love, three roommates experience changes in their lives.

My Take – Back in 2011, a film starring a bunch of unknown faces portraying men being victims of love (seriously at time we are!) made a special impression on the audience. It showed a side of women never seen before in Bollywood, as a result the film turned out to be a huge success among the critics & audience alike. A gritty look-while-we-leap dare devilish work challenging feminist /post-feminist notions of gender equality, the film ripped open all the ‘nice’ conventional notions of the man-woman equation to reveal a deep and devilish cleft between what men desire and women actually deliver. Four years down the line, just like the prequel, this film again shows the spirit of sassy exploration in the form of an extremely enjoyable vaguely misogynistic comedy. This sequel is is not just bolder & more provocative than the first part. It’s a lot sexier and smarter. Yes, the feel of the film remains largely like it’s predecessor, in the sense its still has a sharply-written narrative creating a credible and disturbing argument against urban relationships of convenience. What’s interesting, however, is that it’s considerably funnier and slightly less misogynistic than 2011’s Pyaar Ka Punchnama. Once again writer-director Luv Ranjan walks dangerously close to misogyny, and comes out triumphant. That film gave us a trio of hilarious male protagonists that instantly came off as real and believable. Its female characters, on the other hand, were portrayed as singularly intolerable. The new film makes the same point all over again – that women are often selfish, manipulative, and overbearing, and that they have men wrapped around their little finger – but for the most part, the script employs humor over venom to drive home the message. The tightly wound script once again wraps itself around the minds hearts and thighs of three girls and guys who can’t see that love is nothing but self-interest in disguise. If you recently had a break-up, or you have been cheated by anybody, director Luv Ranjan, has brought you a special film to share your grief!

The predecessor’s lead actors Kartik Tiwari (now known as Kartik Aaryan), Nusarat Brucha, Sonali Sehgal and Ishita Sharma has been retained. While Divyendu Sharma and Rio Bkirta have been replaced by Omkar Kapoor and Sunny Singh Nijjar. The story follows Anshul (Kartik Tiwari), Siddharth (Sunny Singh) and Tarun (Omkar Kapoor), the regular metro-sexual hetero-sexual flat-mates looking for love & end up and finding more than what they had bargained for. Anshul (Kartik Aryan) ends up dating bimbo-brained Ruchika (Nushrat Bharucha), whose closeness to her male best friend is driving him crazy. Tarun (Omkar Kapoor) has maxed out his credit cards pampering money minded Kusum (Ishita Raj), who ends up unsupportive and selfish when he decides to switch his career. Chauka (Sunny Singh) is reduced to a driver, mechanic, and all round errand-boy of his girlfriend Supriya (Sonalli Sehgall) and her parents, even though she can’t muster up the courage to tell her parents she loves him. If you feel you have heard it all before, I guess you are not wrong in thinking so! Like, I mentioned before the film’s script is largely the same as it’s prequel. The way writer-director Ranjan shows his three heroes being exploited by their girlfriends may seem extreme. But the film is not saying every woman is a schemer. It’s only asking for a fair reading of gender dynamics. Men do get caught in situations where they must compromise with everything from their ego to their bank balance. They do suffer you know! For example, Anshul’s new love-interest insists on hanging around with her best friends 24/7. She even has her male best friend sleep with her in her bedroom while boyfriend looks on helplessly. So when Kartik Aaryan as Anshul asks on behalf of all men who have to deal with their significant other’s male BFF, why it is okay for women to have male best friends and not okay for men to have female best friends, Anshul puts forward a valid point. Luv Ranjan’s romp into the confusing mind of women mines into areas of everyday gender interaction with an insider’s knowledge of how manipulative and lopsided relationships can get in a competitive society. When Anshul wonders why men say sorry to women without knowing what wrong they’ve done he echoes what Abhishek Bachchan said about the key to a successful marriage – “Just say sorry to your wives every night for whatever she may think you’ve done wrong.” What doesn’t work? Well, the entire film reeks of been-there-done-that! Be it the situations, the girls’ characters & the ‘poor’ guys’ plight, we have seen all that in the first part. The script writers have just tweaked the situations here and there (e.g. throwing in a girl’s family in the mix, ex-boyfriend turns best friend!). The girls’ personalities are just switched around with Nusrat playing the over-friendly girl this time while Sonali gets to play the confused, manipulative girl, leaving the new girl to be the controlling minx. In short, women remain the same – one-dimensional ungrateful opportunistic females. Why can’t we have at least one female character who is fleshed out? Even the culmination to all the love stories goes the same way. Why, the director even throws in a scene where the boys take their girlfriends on a holiday, just like in the first film. Only because, the director got a bigger budget here, they get to go abroad, instead of Goa! We don’t even feel much for the guys, as we have seen all the motions and emotions earlier, in the sense, we understand that guys like us are being ‘manipulated’, but what’s the solution?

Are the makers hinting that we remain single or turn gays, since, as per these films, whenever we fall in love with a girl, we end up in a bar! The film is too one sided towards men, with even the camera focusing on the girls’ curves more than on their faces, well I guess thats the target audience the makers are looking for! Nevertheless, by the time Kartik Aaryan’s woman bashing monologue (just like the predecessor but longer & equally funny) comes on full-throttle, we are so bloody hooked to the very familiar very mortifying and yet very comforting love life of our three protagonists that we are positively rooting for the underdogs. For one thing, the film works for its genre, i.e. anti romcom. There are some terrific one liners and situations in the film, kudos to Rahul Mody, Tarun Jain and Luv Ranjan. I can’t help but say I laughed a few times on a few women bashing jokes. I especially loved the scene, where the guys wonder how girls can have male best friends, when they haven’t got a single female best friend! There are definitely a few situations in the film that every guy would relate to at some point of their life. The first half is quite breezy and fast paced even with that feeling of deja vu creeping in. The interval point was the best part, where they took a dig at the smoking disclaimers. Director Ranjan gets the easy laid back vibe between the boys just right. The dialogues, often clever, are sharply delivered by the men who, not surprisingly, come off way more like able than their female counterparts who have the odds permanently stacked against them. The chemistry between the friends is something we could easily relate. All the three lead men are natural performers, and it’s hard to choose the best between them. Kartik Aaryan brings in the experience of being in the first film, as he confidently struts his stuff (especially in the monologue scene). Omkar Kapoor, the child actor from Masoom (the one with the Chota bachcha song) is all grown up into an adept performer & a sure-shot star material. Omkar and Ishita’s private striptease performance has to be seen to believed. Very very tantalizing. Sunny Singh is no Divyendu Sharma (I really missed Liquid! He was one character I could relate to), but still has a like able presence. Sunny’s ‘almost-Sardar’ act brings in a bit of Dhanush from Raanjhana. His hopeless devotion to the Punjabi kudi (Sonnalli Saygal) and her demanding parents (Sharat Saxena, Mona Ambegaonkar) are so heftily humorous and heartbreaking, the young actor with his forlorn eyes and ‘Didi Tera Devar‘ caller tune on his phone creates an immediate connectivity with the audience. The leading ladies are hot and adequate, while Sonalli Sehgall & Ishita Sharma are excellent in their parts, its Nusrat Bharucha, playing the thankless role of the air headed deceiver with a squeaky sincerity who walks away with the cake. On the whole, ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2‘ is a very enjoyable sequel / remake which works due to its tightly nit script & brilliant performances! If you loved the 2011 film, you are sure to enjoy this one too!