Fukrey Returns is one of those Indian films that make one wait for their release but when that happens, they come out as an amateurish attempt at comedy with neither head nor tail. The film starts with Choocha (Varun Sharma) dreaming lottery numbers (long story!) but ends with him seeing the future or premonition as it is commonly known as. There is hardly any character development for him and his friends, and that’s where the film falters. The other issue was with the writer and director who couldn’t carry the story in the Fukrey style and tried their level best to deliver a hit rather than a sequel.

The movie also suffered from ‘no star’ in its cast; all the actors – be it Pulkit Samrat, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Richa Chaddha, Manjot Singh and Pankaj Tripathi – are just actors. Even the villain Rajiv Gupta isn’t an established name in the industry and is known for his monotonous style of acting. The only reason why this film managed to do well was because a) there was no other film competing with it and b) the one-liners were good and engaging. There was no surprise factor like the ones in the film’s first instalment; there was Bholi Punjaban who could make men fear for their lives, but here she was very much part of the team and offered nothing new to the audience.

The film rightly revolves around her (Richa Chaddha’s chracter) who returns from prison to get back at Hunny and gang for sending her in, in the first part. The guys are doing well, thanks to Choocha, but when they encounter Bholi, they know that their honeymoon period is as good as over. Bholi is not just doing it for her but also for a local minister who helped her in getting out of prison; unknown to her, he is the one who controls the lottery circuit and when his goons find out that there is competition in town, they change the lottery number and all hell breaks loose for the Fukreys. They run away, are presumed dead and Choocha gets a new superpower that he calls ‘De Ja Chu’ since it’s his very own. Will they be able to pay back Bholi who could, in turn, pay back the politician and get a clean chit for her? Watch the film to know more!

It is a clean film with comic elements but when the story is repetitive, the director doesn’t know how to make it look fresh and the writer has no idea when to put an end to the film, that’s where things get out of hand. Fukrey Returns suffers from the same ‘template’ kind of films where the characters are established, there is nothing new to offer, while the expectations are sky high. The first film belonged to all the characters while this one belongs to none. Each has its own idiosyncrasies but unlike the first one, they look repetitive rather than fresh; the 141-minute run time just adds to the agony. Had the film been shorter by 30 minutes, it would have done the trick but sadly, the nonsensical scenes with animals were more important to the makers than a decent runtime.

The film also came out at a wrong time for Pakistan because of local releases with the same kind of ‘template’; there are four guys and a girl who con people to get rich, which is sadly something quite common. •