Ghayal Once Again (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – When a video of his mentor’s murder surfaces, an investigative journalist takes action to find those responsible. A sequel to Ghayal (1990).

My Take – Sequels are not always bad, especially when done right. What is the basic formula of a sequel? And no I don’t mean just adding a number to the title like 2 or 3 or being just bland as ‘Returns’, what I mean by the question is – moving the story forward with bigger & better means along with enough character developments to keep the momentum of the original going. The original 1990 film was a blockbuster by all means capitulating its star Sunny Deol & its director Rajkumar Santoshi to star status while sweeping all awards left & right including a National Film Award-special Jury Award for Sunny Deol. Ghayal is what we can term as a landmark film in the Hindi film industry, it gave birth to India’s original action hero, it won accolades and audiences hearts all over. The film left a lasting hard hitting impression on all its viewers, it’s a film which is considered a cult classic till date. Twenty-six years later, Sunny Deol has come back with a sequel no one has ever asked for! After going through a series of production set backs, the film releases carrying a lot of baggage & a decent amount of hype with it. So is this film any good? or is it just like most Bollywood sequels which are made to cash on the former glory? Well, I would say its a mix of both. Yes! The film disappoints. For a guy like me (and most of the audience) the main reason for watching this film was to see our original action hero of India Sunny Paji go crazy, and wreck havoc like he usually does, as it’s been years since a proper crazy Sunny Deol film has released, and me being a fan of the original He-Man wanted to see him kick some ass on screen, and scream some riveting dialogues, which honestly we are served in a platter, but in minimal doses. Instead of the standard good old dialogue baazi & hand-to-hand combat we are given long tiring chase sequences & a reminder of how digitized our world is now (computer hacking, phone tapping etc are a piece of cake apparently). Thicker make-up and a receding hairline mark his return, and instead of eliminating the bad guys, the new quest for justice involves recovering a hard drive with damning evidence against an evil businessman. Deol not only reprises his role as the daring vigilante who will stop at nothing, he also directs the cliche-riddled project.

The story follows Ajay Mehra (Sunny Deol) has been released (after being jailed at the end of the first film) and has turned his world around and given himself a purpose. Backed by ex-ACP Joe D’Souza (Om Puri) and his doctor Rhea (Soha Ali Khan), Ajay Mehra now runs Satyakam, a news agency and an organization that stands for truth and justice. It doubles up as an expose of corruption & wrong doings and in secret runs a vigilante gang. It hires people who were with Ajay in jail and ex-police officers who stood by him and against the system. Satyakam has Robin Hood-like intentions and has managed to irk corrupt politicians and has made Ajay Mehra a name synonymous with the Protector of Truth. All is well at first, but tragedy strikes and Ajay loses his friend and guide, Joe, in an accident. Joe who was an RTI activist was up against some very powerful people. His murder ends up being recorded by a bunch of college kids. They fight against all odds in order to deliver the evidence to Ajay and here starts Ajay’s struggle to save the kids from the clutches of Raj Bansal (Narendra Jha)- a mogul whose son Kabir (Abhilash Kumar) pulled the trigger. Ajay Mehra ends up once again against a powerful adversary. It is clear Deol is seeking resuscitation here. Not only for Ajay Mehra but also for his career. Yet, you have to give it to him for fairly managing to retain the essence of the Santoshi’s ‘Ghayal’ blockbuster, while giving it a contemporary twist. The movie has shades of an outdated story line that’s been influenced greatly by the ’90s, which clearly plays the spoilsport here! I know the film is low on originality, but I must admit Sunny added a new dimension to the action in the film that will instantly connect with the new generation. There are tech-savvy baddies and hackers, a foreign team of henchmen who look convincingly menacing, and Deol taking them on in his revamped action-hero persona. The four youngsters try their best but don’t really leave any lasting impression. This is mostly because their characters aren’t sketched properly. The movie also takes some time to set up in the beginning with the added burden of a rape victim’s death adding bulk to the story-line. Ajay Mehra is introduced as a pill-popping nightmare-suffering broken person, which is the least of anyone’s worries eventually, including his own. Some scenes wouldn’t have been out of place in a Salman Khan film (think Kick!) There’s a train sequence which will make you question the plausibility of the stunts. Also, almost at the end, Ajay hijacks a helicopter! Although the climax keeps you at the edge of your seat, you may wonder how. A little over-the-top but every bit entertaining.

Though not as emotionally engaging as the original, the sequel manages to keep you hooked with its proceedings even though your not clapping or whistling as you had planned to. Sunny Deol succeeds as a director in giving his antagonist (and some other characters) a lot of character depth. Unlike most films were the villain kills people senselessly, here we see him actually thinking about the repercussions. It was a nice touch. Dan Bradley the Hollywood action director needs to applauded for coming up with some good action scenes here. Sunny even makes sure his film talks about issues relevant society issues like women equality which is a burning issue in India today, the whole Satyakam newspaper angle was also nice (but needed to be elaborated more) plus wasn’t he a state level champion boxer in the first film?. However the film’s story in totality even though it was gripping for the most part and talked about 2016 relevant issues, it’s still outdated. It’s seems like any other Sunny Deol film story from the 90s, it has serious case of Deja Vu. The film also is sometimes highly melodramatic and as a Sunny Deol fan it was almost cringe worthy to see Ajay Mehra cry when he was faced with any problem, what happened to the hot headed Ajay, he couldn’t have been completely lost no, I mean character depth is great, but at what cost. Even the VFX are quite bad. There is also only one Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy song to suffer through in this 127 long minute film. Performances wise, Sunny Deol takes a minute or so to settle in. But once he does, the movie moves in to an unstoppable gear of awesomeness which no other actor can match – irrespective of their roaring prowess. He eats up the screen like wish to water. He acts, and emotes amazingly. His character depth is great, he is a one man show/army, the usual thing. Soha Ali Khan is wasted in a small role. Narendra Jha is terrific and completely believable along with Tisca Chopra. Rest of the supporting cast is alright. On the whole, ‘Ghayal Once Again’ works in bits & pieces, while Sunny Deol fans will be happy to see him back in form, the rest will walk away empty handed & nothing to remember this film by.