Yamla Pagla Deewana 2

About the film

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (transl. Crazy Mad Lover 2; Hindi pronunciation: [jəməlaː pəgəlaː diːʋaːnaː]) is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Sangeeth Sivan. It is a sequel to the 2011 film, Yamla Pagla Deewana and the second installment of the Yamla Pagla Deewana film series.

It stars Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kristina Akheeva and Neha Sharma in the lead roles, supported by Annu Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Aidan Cook, Johnny Lever and Sucheta Khanna. This was Russian-Australian actress Kristina Akheeva's debut movie.

Plot

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 reunites the Dhillon family trio – the con-artist father Dharam Singh, his equally cunning younger son Gajodhar Singh, and his honest, strong elder son Paramveer Singh – for a fresh round of shenanigans.

The story begins in Banaras, where Dharam and Gajodhar are running a phony baba (spiritual guru) scam, conning locals by having Dharam pose as a fake guru, "Yamla baba". Their latest target is a wealthy NRI businessman from England, Sir Yograj Khanna, whom they mistakenly believe to be a millionaire. Dharam hatches a plan for Gajodhar to woo Khanna's beautiful daughter, Suman, and inherit his fortune. To swindle Khanna, they impersonate sophisticated businessmen and arrange a match between Gajodhar and Suman. They travel to London, where they run into Paramveer, who is now a successful loan recovery agent for a bank. Param is initially thrilled to see his family, believing they have turned over a new leaf, only to be horrified to find his father and brother still engaged in their crooked ways.

Param was previously hired by Yograj Khanna as his new manager after single-handedly protecting Khanna's club from a notorious gangster named Joginder "Dude" Armstrong. It is at an engagement party for Gajodhar and Suman that Param first meets Reet, Khanna's second daughter, who works in an art gallery. The meeting sparks an instant connection, and Param quickly falls in love with the sophisticated art-lover. Their attraction begins to deepen, but the course of true love hits a major snag when Dharam and Gajodhar discover that Khanna's elder daughter, Suman, is adopted and that the rightful heir to his wealth is his younger, biological daughter, Reet.

Music and soundtrack

The film's songs were composed by brothers Shaarib–Toshi except for the promo track "Main Taan Aida Hi Nachna", which was composed by Sachin Gupta. The lyrics of the songs were penned by Kumaar. The background score of the movie was done by Raju Singh.

Production

A sequel to Yamla Pagla Deewana was announced after the success of the original, and it began filming in September 2012. Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 was produced by Dharmendra and his production company, YPD Films UK, and distributed by Sunny Sounds. Online promotion was by Yash Raj Films, with its trailer and song promos uploaded to the YRF YouTube channel.

UK locations were in Leicester, Birmingham and London, with filming beginning on 17 September 2012 in Leicester.

After the success of Yamla Pagla Deewana, Dharmendra announced a sequel. When the original director Samir Karnik could not do the sequel, Sangeeth Sivan agreed to direct. Sunny Deol's son, Karan, was assistant director. In January 2013 shooting began in Mandav, Maheshwar and Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Critical reception

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 received mixed to positive reviews. The Times of India gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "On the upside, a very attractive Sunny stays this movie's brave heart." Filmfare gave it four out of five stars: "YPD2 gets two things right. The first is Sunny Deol's performance. He's a Super Sardar in the movie. He's continuing where he left off in Border, Gadar and YPD. He can beat up an army all alone. Only this time he has a supersonic roar, he massacres a whole legion of Ninjas, battles gigantic Sumo wrestlers and lifts a goddamn truck with one hand. The self-deprecating humour and parody with Sunny is hilarious. The other good thing is the use of a painting as a humour motif. Everyone seems to break into tears of disbelief and awe on seeing this painting. Funny thing is, it's painted by the man in the monkey suit, while he's piss drunk and has used his bum as a paint brush."

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com called it an unimaginative, tedious film. Karan Anshuman of Mumbai Mirror rated the film 1.5 out of 5, IBN Live gave the film two out of five stars: "Rarely do we see contemporary actors giving tribute to each other. The stature of Salman Khan is celebrated in #YPD2. It's a pity the jokes run out faster than your popcorn does."

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