A mirthless and unintelligent reunion
FUKREY RETURNS Direction: Mrighdeep Singh Lamba Actors: Pulkit Samrat, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Manjot Singh Rating:
Picking up from where Fukrey left off in 2013, Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadda) is let out of jail in the sequel and sets out to wreak vengeance on the four men who conned her.
They are still in the lottery business, thanks to Chu Cha’s (Varun Sharma) prophecies and Honey’s (Pulkit Samrat) unique calculation techniques. This time they have also run afoul of a Delhi politician named Babulal Bhatia (Rajiv Gupta).
It should have been loads of fun. But the element of naïvete that made Fukrey an endearing watch is missing here.
If nothing else, Fukrey was fresh. It felt like a window to the world of India’s teeming, hungry youngsters; good-natured, for now, full of imagination and devoid of access.
The subtle conflict of their morality and their ambition was absorbing. Their ravenous dreams of big money had made them a bit crazy, even they knew it, and that made it funny.
The new film is missing those layers, and the elements of eccentricity and fun.
Chadda’s character fills up the screentime but feels stretched and laboured.
Pankaj Tripathi as the Punditji still shines. His obsession with English will make you laugh. Sadly, the the film is not about him either.
That’s part of the problem — the film doesn’t belong to anybody, and it goes nowhere. Even the bromance between Honey and Chu Cha starts to grate.
Pulkit Samrat and his friends have lost their innocence, and some IQ points, since we last saw them.
Their return makes for a tedious 141 minutes; unfunny, unintelligent and disappointing.