Rating: Got Me Headache!!! (* *)

welcome-back

Usually sequels are not always as good as originals and fail to meet audience’s expectations. Unfortunately, Welcome Back is also one of them and even with some twists in the story and change of characters, it fails to impress. When I saw the trailer first time, I was pretty sure (and maybe like me there might be some more people) that it is not going to be as awesome as the original and film proved it correct.

Story: I am going to keep it short when it comes to story. If director and producers already decided to make a sequel whether there is a story or not, what difference is it going to make? Don’s sister, her marriage and search for her ideal partner – the story remains same as part one with some twists. The movie is about wedding of Ajju Bhai, a Mumbai Don, played by John Abraham who is son of Paresh Rawal aka Ghungroo Mama. Ajju Bhai loves Ranjana, played by Shruti Haasan who is another sister of Don Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar). Being said that, what kind of additional twists will create problems in Ajju Bhai and Ranjana’s wedding and how will they overcome these problems is what you can see in Welcome Back.
Of course director might have thought having these twists in the story will make the movie different. Well, it did not. Unnecessary and forceful introduction of additional character to support the story, lavish sets, exquisite locations, super-luxury sports cars does not really support the movie but I am sure that must have increased the budget of the movie. (I did read in the news Director Anees Bazmee claiming that he has not received his money back yet, even though collection at the box office so far is almost Rs. 800 mn – Source: wikipedia and some other sources).
With such a weak story, you wouldn’t expect screenplay to be outstanding. It is in fact so boring that movie becomes slow after intermission and it seems it loses its track. Some scenes are added for no reason which eventually drags movie and thus takes two and half hours finish. I would definitely like to tell director and producers that it is not a crime to have a Hindi movie finish within 2 hours as long as it sticks to the story. This way you can even save some money and then you do not have to worry about recovering your money.

Acting: To be honest, with absence of Akshay Kumar, the only characters you would love to see in this movie are (Uday Shetty) Nana Patekar and (Majnu bhai) Anil Kapoor. Of course they were probably the main reason why most of you might have watched this movie. Dialogues for both of them and their timing is superb and you can laugh at some point while watching this movie, just because of them. Paresh Rawal has less screen space compared to that in the original movie but he is as always best at his work. Lead actors – John Abraham and Shruti Haasan – (if I may call them so or maybe I apologise for calling them Lead actors), did poor job when it comes to acting. Somehow John could not pull off Don’s role and it did not suit him at all. Shruti Haasan, she may be having looks from her beautiful mother and legacy of her parents but she, unfortunately is not at all good in this movie (I do not remember any other movie in which she would have been though :P). Even Naseeruddin Shah who is playing Wanted bhai (Character similar to Don RDX – Fedoz Khan) could not recreate the magic of Late Ladykiller actor. And yes, I must admit that I did miss Mallika Sherawat (I am not sure about you all though!)

Review: To be honest, for me this was complete crap except for some entertainment by Nana Patekar and Anil Kapoor. No story, no screenplay, poor acting, unnecessary additional characters, poor music and pathetic end of the movie (I mean what was Director thinking?) – when all this combines all you are going to get is Headache!!! and a question – “Was the sequel really required?”
The only best part of the movie I heard was initially director was thinking to cast Fardeen Khan for John’s role. So I would say thanks to him for not casting him 😛

Ratings Legend:
KILL ME!!! – Zero Star
About to Suicide – *
About to Puke – * 1/2
Got me Headache!!! – * *
Bearable (OK) – * * 1/2
Don’t Use Your Brain Just Watch (GOOD) – * * *
Worth of time (Nice) – * * * 1/2
Paisa Vasool (Awesome) – * * * *
Will Watch One More Time (Excellent) – * * * * 1/2
Just Made It to ‘One of My All-time Favorites’ List (Outstanding) – * * * * *