De De Pyaar De 2 Review: Six years after Ajay Devgn’s Aashish and Rakul Preet Singh’s Ayesha first fell in love, the couple now returns to screens on November 14 with a new challenge. This time, they need
to convince Ayesha’s parents that they are right for one another despite their glaring age gap. However, the only thing I am convinced of is that the sequel falls short of the original film.
The film begins with a comedic flashback narrated by Jaaved Jaaferi, who, in all his scenes, has outshone every other actor in the film. The story then takes us from London to Chandigarh, where Rakul’s Ayesha returns home for her sister-in-law’s delivery, as it’s a perfect opportunity for her to tell her parents about her 51-year-old boyfriend and soften the blow amid the celebration.
We are then introduced to R Madhavan and Gautami Kapoor, who are Ayesha’s “educated, progressive and modern” parents. R Madhavan plays a father who wants to be friends with his children. He is a doting father-in-law, a loving husband and inarguably a much better performer than our leading hero.
Much like Jaaved Jaaferi, R Madhavan steals every frame and aces all emotions of his character. Whether it’s an outright comedy scene or an emotional meltdown, Madhavan reminds us of his stellar acting chops. Gautami Kapoor complements him flawlessly, and their pairing works well on screen, perhaps even better than Ajay Devgn and Rakul Preet Singh.
Madhavan and Kapoor’s modernity is challenged when they learn that their daughter wants to marry a man who is barely two years their junior. They are faced with the age-old dilemma: log kya kahenge? What follows is a comedic battle of wits between father and daughter. While the ‘perfect dad’ now tries to manipulate his daughter into marrying a young Meezan Jaaferi, the ‘outspoken girl’ ploys a charade to convince her father otherwise.
Meezan Jaaferi doesn’t do much in the film, except aid Jaaved Jaaferi in cracking meta jokes about his son. However, he did come across as someone with potential to give a better performance in a better film. Rakul Preet Singh brings a certain charm to the more light-hearted scenes. However, her emotional breakdowns, especially the one with Madhavan in the middle of a dance sequence, seemed laughable.
Ajay Devgn is well, Ajay Devgn. He gave a tolerable performance in film, except for some of his comedy scenes with Jaaved Jaaferi. While I do believe in watching certain films just for the sake of the experience, without looking for logic and without expecting stellar performances, these factors cannot be overlooked if I had a frown during most of the film.
When De De Pyaar De was released in 2019, it came as a surprise and managed to impress most people. The concept was intriguing, and the narrative made the film an interesting watch, despite some flawed performances. While De De Pyaar 2 gives you hope in the beginning, the film eventually succumbs to half-baked writing. Some jokes land quite well, but that’s about the only thing that works. One might enjoy watching the film once for the jokes and Jaaved and Madhavan’s performances. However, it didn’t recreate the recall value of the original
