Packs a punch!

The more things change, the more they stay the same, goes the adage. It is very true when it comes to understanding the intrinsic knots that dot men and women in love. ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2’, this week’s Hindi release is a sequel to the surprise hit of the 2011 original.

It retains its star cast, by and large from the first release and comes up with a reasonably entertaining encore. The setting is the upcountry environment of Delhi, with its traffic jams and expletive-laden language so casually spoken by the three men, who are young and fall in love one by one.

The male characters are contrastingly and lovingly fleshed out – a yuppie techie with a hep salary (Omkar Kapoor), a cricket-loving software engineer (Sunny Singh) and another do-gooder (Kartik Aaryan) who keeps moving in and out of some workplace.

The female ones too have their distinguishing characteristics – a scatter-brained bimbo (Nushrat Bharucha), a gender-sensitive professional (Ishita Sharma) and a confused, yet smitten in love BPO staffer (Sonali Sehgall).

It fits snugly into the male overview of how exasperating they can be, as the boys try to make sense of their high-strung emotions and mood swings. Perfect viewing pleasure for all those who have been jilted or been having a hard time with their beloved!

Director Luv Ranjan stays true to his basic premise– women are manipulative and self-centred and worse, do not think twice before dumping their besotted lovers if it suits them.

He mounts his venture in a decidedly upper middle-class setting, a posh apartment with well-stacked bar and a motorcycle for a set of stools there to depict the lifestyle of the youngsters who bond well and typically masculine in their world view.

While one cannot dismiss the manner in which he has let his women play their roles, so obsessed and ambitious, his screenplay does not afford them any more scope than what is shown to make them feel any different.

With his sympathies clearly with a set of goofy pals who suddenly seem perplexed and stressed out with sharp twists and turns in their lives because of these women, the best lines and even a eight-minute long monologue is for the boys to keep.

The harangue by one of the affected boys about the frustrating behaviour of girls and how they can only entice and discard men at will was, of course, received with whoops and wolf whistles by the overwhelmingly male audience.

By and large, crisp in its presentation and devoid of distractions and interpolations through melodrama or emotional kitsch, this Punchnama is a watchable tale of hapless boys and harassing girls, played out in a 136-minute film.

It also affords a close, ringside view of how enigmatic affairs of the heart are in this age when inter-mixing of young men and women having increased and unsurprisingly, the problems too as a result of this proximity!

Film Name : Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2

Cast : Kartik Aaryan, Nushrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh, Sonnalli Sehgall, Omkar Kapoor and Ishita Raj

Direction : Luv Ranjan

Genre : Romance

Likes : Uncluttered narrative

Dislikes : Stereotyped characters and tame climax

Rating : ***

By K Naresh Kumar