From start to finish, this only feels like a repeat

A still from the Tum Bin 2

Tum Bin 2 (Hindi)

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Starring: Neha Sharma, Aashim Gulati, Aditya Seal

A love song shot among snow-capped mountains. Check. A boy wearing a sweater and a muffler. Check. A girl in bright gowns, worn to deliberately create photogenic blobs of colour on the white expanse. Check.

From the beginning to the sudden twist and reveal towards the end and then on to a protracted and cop out of a climax Tum Bin 2 has a “seen that way too many times” feel. A Sangam (1964) meets Dushman (1972) of sorts. In fact a pot pourri of many more old-fashioned films, including Sinha’s own Tum Bin (2001)..

Taranjeet Kaur (Neha Sharma) is a woman caught between two men – Amar (Aashim Gulati) and Shekhar (Aditya Seal). She is in a good spot, something many will envy.

If Amar has a picturesque house with a stunning lake view, somewhere in Scotland; Shekhar is a rich young man who has made $62 million with an application he developed.

Sharma keeps crying. Gulati is the Siddharth Malhotra lookalike with a Dev Anand bouffant (which stays intact months after being bedridden).

Seal has a baby face but is severely muscled and spouts Paul Coelho-like gyaan. Sample: “Life is like a summer vacation”. Why? “Because it comes to an end!” Or some such spiel.

One rather extended and interesting sequence dwells on Pakistan and its people in a fun way. It speaks of culture as against religion, about complicating what are simple human issues.

Taranjeet’s two Kaur sisters had the potential to be quite a riot, but they get hemmed in. The pick of the picture is Kanwaljit Singh, ever so dignified as the gentle patriarch.

Then you have the voices of Jagjit Singh and Rekha Bhardwaj on Teri Fariyaad. But you are better off listening to the two greats on your own music system than on the big screen.

NAMRATA JOSHI