Yamla Pagla Deewana: Funny family entertainer

After a long time I wanted to watch an entertaining movie in the city, the first movie which came to my mind was ‘Yamala Pagla Deewana’. The main reason for watching this movie was the trio of Dharamendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol. Of course YPD has all the ingredients of creating hysteria amongst the movie buffs. But sometimes when the expectations are sky high even the good looks average.
Yamla Pagla Deewana, the title of the movie comes from a popular song from Dharmendra’s super hit movie Pratiggya (1975). The plot is pretty thin, it is an age old lost and found tale. In Canada Paramvir Singh (Sunny) is living happily with his Canadian wife, two kids and mother (Nafisa). Mother misses Paramvir’s father who went absconding with their younger son Gajodhar (Bobby) to lead a life of crime. Paramvir promises his mother that he will bring his dad and brother from India to Canada.

The first half of the film is slow and there is a very little plot. But as the story builds up in the second half, the fun gets better. The film is filled with several laugh out loud moments. There are some dull moments, but every human emotion is perfectly demonstrated. It has got everything comedy, romance, action and everything else one want to see in a movie. Almost all the characters’ part has been perfectly written out.

The movie clearly belongs to Sunny Deol. He acts well in his own way to add life to his character. He is dashing and dynamic. Sunny’s action sequences were well-paced and action packed. Dharmendra delivers a knock out performance. His comic timing and one liner will be received with whistles from the audience. Bobby’s performance is decent. He tries matching up to his iconic father and brother every time they appear on screen together.

Dharam, Sunny and Bobby get to do everything, comedy, fights, item numbers and a few emotional scenes as well.

Debutante Kulraj Randhawa looks gorgeous but still raw as far as acting is concerned; she needs a refresher course in acting. Anupam Kher does full justice to character. Nafisa Ali is graceful and has been perfectly cast but don’t get much scope. Johny Lever is funny in a brief role. Sucheta Khanna makes a mark with her Canada crazy acts. Mukul Dev in brilliant in a tailor made role.

Director Samir Karnik has handled the Deols pretty well. He successfully manages to extract terrific performances from his lead cast and cleverly assigned each one to do what they are good at. One of the best aspects of the YPD is its casting. All the three actors seem to have been made for their respective role.

Music is average. Despite many music directors composing the tracks for the movie, it is only the title song which is inspired by a song from the film Pratiggya is worth listening. Item song ‘Tinku Jiya’ will definitely appeal to the front benchers. The extended romantic song just stretches the film.

Overall, YPD is not a film meant to be taken seriously. It is a funny film but I was expecting more. The story is predictable, but also seemed a little stretched at time.