Yaariyan 2
Yaariyan 2 is not just a big improvement on the first Yaariyan , it is also a lot better than some of the big-budget fiascos that have been thrust into our numbed faces for quite some time, perhaps from the prehistoric ages, who knows how long we’ve been tortured by listless Ail-listers?
Coming from T Series who gave us the mother of all disaster Adipurush some months ago, Yaariyan 2 a worthy remake of a smart city-slick Malayalam film Bangalore Days, about three siblings and how by staying together they overcome personal hurdles.
While both Mezaan Jafri and Pearl Puri do well as cousins, it is Divya Khosla as the third sibling who pours her soul into making her character, Laadli, an endearing mix of naivete and determination when her marriage threatens to collapse even before her mehndi has dried.
Why is her husband(Yash Dasgupta) so sullen and aloof. Is he gay? Luckily for Laadli her husband is just grieving, so wipe off that sweaty brow.
I love the way Laadli brings together her grieving husband and the grieving parents of the girl her husband loved. This itself could have been the film. Yaariyan 2 chooses to walk that extra mile to bring us that much-needed smile that has gone missing in recent violent and vacuous spectacles on screen.
The tone of Yaariya 2 is infectiously nurturing. These are not intellectually elevated characters. But they know the worth of every heartbeat that flows from one loved one to another. Divya Khosla especially is a revelation. With her determined bid to play the starry-eyed ingénue who deals with heartbreaks one at a time, Divya shows a marked improvement since we last saw her on screen.
Her Laadli is the epicenter of the conflicts that come in a rush of resonance in a film that doesn’t play down its emotional velocity but instead celebrates each protagonist’s joys and sorrows with a restrained impunity.
Actors in even the smallest roles leave a lasting impression. This is not a film that would allow you to ignore its attention to minute details, or allow you to look at the goings-on as just another rom-com. Yaariyan 2 is a special film with some of the most ear-friendly songs I’ve heard in a long long time, especially Arjit Singh’ s Oonchi oonchi deewarein and Sachet Tandon’s Simroon tera naam which have been shot with an exquisite play of light and shade.
