There are some sequels which end up reinstating the fact that some films should just be left alone. Bheja Fry 2 inadvertently turns out to be one of them. Not to take away from the first but then we do remember that Bheja Fry was a remake of the French movie Le Diner De Cons – a script pretty much ready in hand with just a few alterations needed. Bheja Fry 2 on the other hand has to start off completely on its own and well, the most obvious conclusion after watching this movie is that it lacks a good story.
So what is Bheja Fry 2 about? Like the first, it revolves around the main protagonist Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak), the dim-witted but good hearted tax officer, who ends up on a cruise because of a game show. Giving him company is the T.V. Show’s executive producer Rangini (Minissha Lamba) for whom Bhushan falls but before his love story can progress any further, evil businessman Ajit Talwalkar (Kay Kay Menon), who is trying to evade the tax investigators, decides to join this cruise. Confusion arises when Bhushan gets suspected for being a tax investigator in disguise when it’s actually M.T.Shekharan (Suresh Menon) who is keeping an eye on Ajit. A plan to get rid of Bhushan goes awry and both Bharat and Ajit end up stranded at an island with no one but each other for company.
Bheja Fry worked well because of the idiotic but sweet nature of Bharat who ends up winning your heart. In this one however you end up being a bit annoyed yourself and it is just not Ajit whose bheja gets fried. Vinay no doubt is a good actor but having played the seedha saadha guy in so many movies after that – Dasvidaniya, Chalo Dilli to name a few – the act tends to border towards monotonous and irritating. Kay Kay is good although because of the chemistry lacking between the two, the interactions seem superficial and forced. And this is where the second problem of the movie lies. None of the antics of Bhushan manage to evoke laughter – except perhaps a very few – and the whole movie turns out to be a long chain of attempts on the parts of the actors to bring comic relief. The first half dedicates itself completely to defining the character of Ajit as a mean, pervert, cheating industrialist who finds Bhushan’s dim-wittedness mildly amusing. The second half starts off as a promising premise for some comic moments but there is too much chaos in the storyline to achieve anything. Minissha Lamba does not have much to do in the movie and she is good in the parts where she appears. Suresh Menon is good but then again the South Indian act has a déjà vu sense. Also Amole Gupte’s mad Bengali Babu act in the second half seems totally disconnected from the storyline.
Unlike the first film, Bheja Fry 2 has some songs in the movie and other than O Rahi, which comes as end credits, none of the others are really that hummable. Cinematography is good; editing could have been tighter especially in the first half.
One can safely say that Sagar does falter as a director for the sequel. One wishes that he would have paid more attention to the script as well as its execution. With so many expectations riding on this one because of the success of Bheja Fry, it is but natural that the audience would compare with the first and needless to say fails miserably. None of the tracks are fully developed in the movie whether it is the Vinay-Minissha romance, or the track with Kay Kay and his wife or even Amole Gupte’s.
You can safely give this one a miss. Watch this only if you want to get your Bheja fried.
