Judwaa 2 movie review: Varun Dhawan succumbs to the pressure of expectations

New Delhi: With his quirky antics and unstoppable charm, Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan never fails to impress moviegoers. But, this time with Judwaa 2, the 30-year-old hunk has big shoes to fill. However, while watching the movie, I also realised that it was a big litmus test for filmmaker David Dhawan too. So, is the movie worthy enough to lighten the wallet? Well, let's find out!

The flick is touted to be a reboot of superstar Salman Khan's 1997 hit Judwaa. In the flick, Varun is playing twins - Raja and Prem – who get separated at birth in Mumbai. When the story unravels, the situations and circumstances reunite the duo in London after more than two decades. Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu portray the characters of Raja and Prem's love interests respectively.

In most of the first-half, David tries to build-up the storyline but, sadly, fails to do so. He takes too much time to establish the screen-presence of the characters, which was somewhat unnecessary. The movie loses pace too often. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Raja (Varun's tapori avatar) was one man army who drove the movie single-handedly. 

Even during the second-half, the script does not have much to offer. You will be amazed to know that the flick features an ensemble star-cast of comedians including Upasana Singh, Rajpal Yadav, Ali Asgar, Anupam Kher and many others to raise the humour quotient of the film. But, most of these celebrities weren’t given substantial screen time to make a mark.

Jacqueline, as usual, brought too much glamour to the theatres. She was cute, lovable and everything which her role expected her to be. On the other hand, Taapsee appeared out to be a bit too headstrong for her character. As a result, she was a tad disappointment.

Varun – as Raja - must be lauded as he, without much assistance from any of the sidekicks, entertained the audience to the core. As Prem, he didn’t work wonders but I will not blame him for that. The script lacked vision in this case. 

Judwaa 2 comes loaded with Bollywood clichés, double meaning dialogues and slapstick comedy. The music of the film will hit you will nostalgia and give you the feel of good old B-Town. The weakest link of the movie is its screenplay. Honestly, it has nothing new to offer. It looks like David Dhawan invested too much in the production but forgot to work hard during pre-production at all. It looks as if the director wasn't even interested in shooting a good climax.

You can go to the ticket counter only if you are a hardcore Varun Dhawan fan. The flick appeals to the youth and young audience. It might work at the Box Office and, out of which, a huge share will come from single screens. In the end, I would just like to say that a finer film was expected from David Dhawan.

Rating: Two stars