There is an episode of Mad Men where Don Draper makes a presentation centered on nostalgia to his clients. “Nostalgia — it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound’. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel; it’s called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels — around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved,” Draper says passionately.
As a 90s kid, watching Judwaa 2 , I couldn’t help but go back to this analogy. Judwaa 2 isn’t just a remake of the super hit Salman Khan starrer from 1997, it is in fact an ode to all goofy, filmy, masala comedies from the 90s. It has the wackiest tropes of the 90s, with a hero who has impeccable comic timing and is comfortable with punch lines and slapstick. He can dance like Govinda but also be bare bodied like Salman and show off his toned abs. Varun Dhawan, would probably have been a successful star even in the 90s.
Half the fun of watching this film was actually spotting the references. Atul Parchure who plays Anupam Kher’s brother-in-law, reprises Paresh Rawal’s super curious character from Judaai . (Coincidentally, both the original Judwa and Judaai released in the same year.) Paresh Rawal asks a series of inane questions like “ Aapke ghar mein chhipkali hai ? Nar hai ki maada hai ?” Parchure too is prone to asking pertinent questions like “ Mangal pe Budhwaar ko jaa sakte hain ?”
Again, another 1997 film, Mr and Mrs Khiladi had Akshay Kumar asking a goat, “April ke baad kaunsa maheena aata hai ?”— to which the all-knowing, soothsaying goat replies with a throaty “May”. Here too we have Dhawan asking Jacqueline “Afghanistan ka capital kya hai ” thrice so that she may say “Kabul, Kabul, Kabul” in response. Johnny Lever’s character in the film is called Pappu Passport in the same vein as his cinematic predecessors from other David Dhawan films — Munna Mobile and Pappu Pager. In fact, I even saw a likeness in the fluctuating amnesia that afflicts Alex, the villain in this film and the character of Duggal, played by Kader Khan in another Nadiadwala and Dhawan collaboration Mujhse Shaadi Karogi . Duggal has a shifting ailment, he is blind one day, mute another day and on one day, believe it or not, he thinks he is a policeman.
Must confess though, I saw the film in Chandan, a 1200-seater single screen theatre in Juhu, in a packed, enthralled house, where every joke landed and resulted in much hooting and whistling. When Manoj Joshi’s character asks Vivan Bhatena, “Big Ben ghanta hai ya badi behen ?” to check if he still has amnesia, the theatre roared in laughter and applause. Each time, Varun did an SRK impression and said, “ Ammi Jaan kehti thhi ” they cracked up even before the joke was done.
Perhaps, if I had seen the film in a multiplex with a more evolved audience my experience would have been different. But then again, why must we deride this audience just because they watch differently from us? For a while now, most films seem to be a lesson in History, Civics or Moral Science — here is a film that’s like Games Period. Unadulterated fun.
Nostalgia, is inextricably linked with escapism. People turn to the past to escape from the dissatisfaction of the present. And what better escape than a film like Judwaa 2 , that takes you straight back to the lap of your childhood?
Perhaps, nostalgia is a form of self-deception in a way that it inevitably involves a certain sense of idealisation of the past. But this past doesn’t necessarily have to be glorious. It can be personal, intimate and a bit of a guilty pleasure.
Concepts like wabi–sabi from Japan, or even saudade from Portugal, try and peel the layers of intrigue surrounding our deep love for nostalgia, but then again, nostalgia is something that can only be felt in hindsight. Judwaa 2 might not be cinema of nostalgia – like how Meri Pyaari Bindu was – but it is definitely cinema that makes you extremely nostalgic. As the song goes, ‘Ek baar se dil nahi bharta, mudke dekh mujhe dubaara’ .
(A Bollywood buff, Ishita Moitra is the dialogue writer of films 'Half Girlfriend', 'Noor', 'Mere Dad ki Maruti', 'Ragini MMS2' and TV shows 'The Test Case' and 'Romil and Jugal'.)
