‘Yamla Pagla Deewana 2’, directed by Sangeeth Sivan and starring the Deol trio –patriarch Dharmendra and sons Sunny and Bobby, hit the silverscreen amidst magnified hype this Friday. The Deols earlier struck an emotional chord with the audiences worldwide as ‘Apne’ in 2007 and took you through a laugh riot as ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ in 2011. And as always when the Deol trinity gets together for a movie, you do expect some action. Don’t you? Dharmendra as Dharam is a con man, who makes a luxurious livelihood along with his younger son Gajodhar (Bobby Deol) in Varanasi, despite having an affluent elder son Paramveer (Sunny Deol) in the UK. As the film opens, Paramveer’s undying faith in God is introduced to the audiences. He is indeed a one-man army who doesn’t refrain from calling spade a spade. Nonetheless, Paramveer’s father and brother take pleasure in conning people despite being supported by him financially and otherwise.

The two thugs - Dharam and Gajodjar - lay a trap to get hold of a UK-based businessman Sir Yograj Khanna (Annu Kapoor), who travels overseas to seek Yamla Baba’s (Dharmendra) blessings. And with him comes his pretty daughter Suman (Neha Sharma), a diehard fan of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. Dharam wants his son Gajodhar to impress Suman and thus make way to a plush visit to the UK along with Khanna, the multi-millionaire. As the father-son thug duo land in the UK, they realise that they have indeed asked for trouble, for they weren’t aware that Paramveer works for Khanna. And with this rendezvous, the film proceeds ahead but with negligible velocity. Coming to the performances, the Deols are as always far too impressive but what matters more here is that the script proves to be a complete disaster. The Deol magic can do little to lift the fate of the film high, for there is least to talk about.

Neha Sharma and debutant Kristina Akheeva as Reet are a treat to watch. And since it’s a film about the Deols, the two beauties have indeed very little to offer. Nonetheless, actors Anupam Kher as Joginder Armstrong aka Dude, Johnny Lever and Sucheta Sharma come across in avatars that are mindless to the core. Addressing his film as ‘over-the-top comedy’, filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan, prior to the release of the film, had said, “If you are a reviewer or a critic who doesn`t like over-the-top films then don’t review it. You will put your sensibilities into it and it is not meant for you.” Alas! Even mindless comedy should have the potential to tickle one’s funny bone, isn’t it? Had the director been equipped with a much better script, he could have perhaps treated a nonsensical film with élan. But something somewhere has certainly gone terribly awry. The songs are good, but could have been a lot better. ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana 2’ has action aplenty but terribly fails to impress. Even Einstein (the orangutan) fails to cast his charm. The Deols could have certainly come up with a much better one! To sum it up, the first franchise ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ is a much better watch.