Judwaa 2 review: Varun Dhawan is charming in this outdated comedy

David Dhawan remakes his own 1997 comedy Judwaa and changes next to nothing, except putting his son Varun Dhawan front and centre to take on twin roles of Raja and Prem.

Varun pays a fitting tribute to Salman Khan and performs a lot better in most places than the star did in the original. He handles both the roles — Ganpati bappa worshipping tapori and a shy rich boy — entertainingly and excels in the comic scenes.

He woos you with his clean-shaven looks, dancing, fighting and innocence.

While he brings a lot of fun to the proceedings, Varun's charm isn't enough to lift the outdated plot and story.

Not only does Dhawan pepper the film with references to the original, borrow songs and background score, he also retains whole sequences and several dialogues from the original. Able actors like Rajpal Yadav, Anupam Kher, Johnny Lever and others contribute in whatever way they can, but all of them, including the leading ladies Taapsee Pannu and Jacqueline Fernandez, are dealt bad cards right from the beginning.

The laughs are scattered and there are not enough laugh-out-loud moments you would expect from a film like this one. The story and screenplay are stale and David's attempt to contemporarise the proceedings is frail.  

While there was a novelty to 'chalti hai kya nau se barah' and 'isse kehte hai judwaa' dialogues there is nothing new to this 2.0 version, apart from its multiplex-meets-single screen approach.

It's almost as if David thought to himself 'could I have made Judwaa a lot better? Let's give it another shot'. If you are going to remake something, shouldn't you at least attempt to add a new twist or a fresh point of view in the screenplay?

So the story stays true to the original — a pair of conjoined twins get separated right after birth because of the villain. While one is weak, the other is strong. After several years, they end up in the same city and create a lot of confusion. When in close vicinity they can feel each other's reflexes. The villain resurfaces, wanting to kill their father. The two brothers reunite and save the father. And yes, Salman too makes an appearance to bless Varun for paying him a tribute.

Was this remake necessary? Not at all. Are we running out of ideas when it comes to making mainstream entertainers? A big yes.

Perhaps its only aim is to serve old wine in a new bottle to all those nostalgic millenials.

Credit to Varun for making this film watchable with his antics. But daddy Dhawan isn't in his elements as he fails to embellish the wafer thin plot with his trademark sharp repartees and quick humour the way he used to in his heyday.