Feb 10, 2016 05:15 PM
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(Updated Feb 13, 2016 05:36 PM)
Review: Watch Ghayal Once Again only for Sunny Deol
February 05, 2016
Sunny DeolGhayal Once Again starts out wobbly but gains substantial momentum till interval point, only to go completely haywire in its latter half, writes Sukanya Verma.
Every single time Sunny Deol got angry in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ghayal, I thought he would actually tear the screen and erupt from it. His fits of fury felt so overwhelming and tangible.
Twenty-six years later, he’s back to playing the same character in a new story with some nostalgia and very little skill.
That it’s not directed by Santoshi but Deol himself, also taking top billing in writing credits, has something to do with it.
Whereas Santoshi is a master of compelling screenplay and active histrionics across versatile genres, Deol got behind the camera this one time for the Sabrina-inspired Dillagi after its original director Gurinder Chadha backed out.
Direction isn’t his natural vocation as evident in the middling Ghayal Once Again, which starts out wobbly but gains substantial momentum till interval point only to go completely haywire in its latter half.
Tad disappointed because all the deft action set pieces, preceding the unforeseen melodrama( on FaceTime, no less) led me to believe I could expect better. Also, this abrupt shift of tone in the third act could not be more contrived.
Already the rationale offered behind continuing Ajay Mehra’s( Deol) story from where Ghayal concluded is preposterous. But because the Bollywood hero of yore IS above the law, you shut up and concede. Like how after publically gunning down the villainous Balwant Rai( Amrish Puri), not to mention the unaccounted causalities before, Ajay gets off leniently with only 14 years in jail.
Interestingly though, scenes that evoke fond memories among fans are, to Ajay, a painful reminder of the torture and torment he’s endured. They’ve scarred his psyche enough to regularly pop pills( prescribed by his omnipresent neurologist Soha Ali Khan) and sport a funky Polar heartbeat monitoring watch on his wrist.
In the next decade or so, he’s set up a successful vigilante newspaper agency called Satyakam, an obvious hat tip to father Dharmendra’s acclaimed film, wherein he unlawfully abducts and exposes society’s wolf in sheep’s clothing.
