Remember how the first instalment of Yamla Pagla Deewana made fun of the “Starwaale” party represented by the villain (who was named after a film critic) only so that they could poke fun at the star system of reviews?
The second and hopefully last instalment takes some more cheeky digs at art and its patrons.
When Gajodhar (Bobby Deol) pretends to be a world famous painter called Q (in what seems like a cheeky dig at the radical arthouse independent filmmaker), he is asked to showcase his paintings to impress the girl. Unable to come up with anything that looks like art, the father-son duo of conmen get drunk together and feed their pet monkey some alcohol.
The drunken monkey runs amok splashing colours on canvas in the middle of the night and produces a series of masterpiece paintings that makes people cry.
If only the film itself was half as funny as this idea. Yamla Pagla Deewana seems like a script that could have been written by that drunken monkey from the film in sheer defiance of art.
We know that the Deols can be really funny. If the first part was somewhat passable, it was because it packaged Dharmendra nostalgia and the feel-good factor of the casting. Here, the idea of manufacturing nostalgia involves Dharam singing ‘Yeh Dosti’ with a monkey.
It instantly makes us sad to see a veteran actor of his calibre reduced to this caricature of a man he used to be. So when Johnny Lever does a Don spoof in the same film, we realise that the joke is not on Sholay but on Dharmendra just like the joke was not on Don but on Johnny Lever.
There’s also Anupam Kher who wears a Dude Lebowski wig and calls himself Dude (more blasphemy than tribute) to add to this sacrilege and massacre of subtleties. Yes, maybe Dude-ji and related jokes do sound funnier on paper, but the film is just a long audio visual presentation of one gag after another, each dead on arrival.
Sunny Deol spoofs himself, Bobby spoofs Salman and the less said about Dharam Paaji the better.
If you want a real Deol Fest and a much funnier film, you know what to rent out. Nope, not Yamla Pagla Deewana . Apne .
Genre: Comedy
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Neha Sharma, Anupam Kher
Storyline: The trio reunite in the United Kingdom and we learn that nothing has changed. The con men are still at it.
Bottomline: Tries so hard to be funny that it makes you more sad than happy
