De De Pyaar De 2 movie review: De De Pyaar De, released in 2019, was Bollywood’s first breakthrough film that introduced the idea of an older man and a younger woman as a completely viable romantic option. It’s not as if Indian cinema hasn’t played with the May-December idea before, but not to an extreme extent Behind the Pairing of Over Fifty Spotted Grays by Ashish Mehra (Ajay Devgn) and 26-year-old Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh), meet cutely in London, fall in love with each other, and start living together.
The sequel, which comes six years later, picks up where the original left off, this time featuring Ayesha’s parents, “modern liberal” Raji Khurrana (R. Madhavan) and Mrs. K (Gautami Kapoor), whose mission is to navigate the process of denial all the way to the other side, in two-and-a-half hours.
Of course, in the meantime, a lot of fun, games and drama ensue: How can a mother and father, no matter how liberal and modern they claim to be, embrace a potential date in the same age group as them without a lot of “kalish”? Considering that co-producer Luv Ranjan has written the film (he also had writing credits on the first film), we know what we’ll be in for, a mix of new and old – Suhasini Mulay as a grandmother with a great memory, Ishita Dutta as a supportive and very pregnant sister-in-law, Tarun Gahlot as an equally supportive kabadda bhai, and Meezaan Jafferi giving the green flag a good move.
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It’s not just the film that has jumped ahead in years, it’s also Ranjan’s writings on men, from the boys-to-be-boys of Punchnama days, to now when potential boyfriends are happy to help a girl get an ‘asli pyaar’, the birth of a girl child is something to be celebrated loudly, and the happiness of women, who are still smarter than men of course, is crucial.
I really enjoyed the first part because of the novelty factor, as well as the hilarity of Rakul Preity Singh balancing out Ajay Devgn’s tough kindness: the presence of Tabu, who plays Devgn’s great love, adds to the film, as he always does. In this film, Rakul seems lively, but Devgn seems almost vulnerable, with Jaaved Jafferi returning as his friend and therapist who offers advice for navigating the difficult terrain the former has landed on – what do you call a ‘hone-wali-saas’ who is probably younger than you? Mummyji, Bhenji, yaa in her name?
Wat Depanned Deepti:
I missed Tabu in this, but R Madhavan’s loving father who will do anything to protect his daughter is the real star of the sequel. In Shaitaan, the last film that Devgn and Madhavan did together, the latter thoroughly stole the show. The same thing happens here, as we see Madhavan following the arc of “protection” embraced by benign patriarchy, to let his daughter go. This Simran is all set to live her own zindagi, and make her own mistakes. Now that’s real adulthood.
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If only the movie didn’t look like an extended sitcom, with a house in which most of the action takes place and not bothering to hide the fact that it’s just a set, its length makes us feel anxious. Yes, we applaud all this modern liberal stuff, but should it take this long before we get to the point? It just goes to show how hard it is to sell romance between old people and young people; What if the woman is older and the man is much younger? Now that would be real growth.
De Pyaar De 2 cast: Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan, Rakul Preet Singh, Javed Jhaveri, Gautami Kapoor, Meezaan Jhaveri, Ishita Dutta, Tarun Gahlot, Suhasini Mulay, Ekavalli Khanna.
De Pyaar De 2 director: Anshul Sharma
Movie rating: De De Pyaar De 2: 2.5 stars
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