Putting up a good fight

Jasmine Singh

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Rupinder Gandhi 2, this week’s Punjabi film release is the sequel of last year’s release Rupinder Gandhi—The Gangster? While the first part briefly established why Rupinder Gandhi became a gangster, largely the film revolved around his fights. 

Well, in the second part too, the fight continues, on a larger scale. The only difference is that this time the fights have been directed well by director Avtar Singh.

Throughout the film all you see is dishoom- dishoom. Even though, the director does show that Rupinder Gandhi has a family but the members appear only in the opening scene, thereafter you do not see them. The real life character Rupinder Gandhi on whom the film is based was seen as a youth icon, the Robinhood of Punjab. At the same time, he was a good sportsmen as well, which does not figure anywhere in the story. 

The film to quite an extent fails to establish the character of Rupinder Gandhi played by Dev Kharoud. who has acted really well. It is just gang wars, ladaai-jagda at college and university level. The film does shed light on how politics has entered student elections, a point valid in today’s time.

The director has also briefly brought in a love angle, which thankfully isn’t out of context. The movie, however, lacks focus. Those who do not know Rupinder Gandhi will eventually return not knowing him, except for the fact that he used to fight a lot and would stand by his friends. All the characters in the film, especially artistes who plays Rupinder Gandhi’s friends, have done a fairly good job. One artiste, who has been consistently giving a superb performance, is Jagjeet Sandhu. Jagjeet has a subtle yet bang-on comic timing. Given the fact that Jagjeet started out with a serious kind of role for which he received critical acclaim as well, we just hope he is not lured into the comedy trap.

Rupinder Gandhi is a total ‘mundeyan wali film’ which has only maar dhaad. If only the director could bring out more of Gandhi, his personal life, his likings and dislikings, it would have made it a good watch, especially with a fine actor like Dev playing the real-life inspired character!

jasmine@tribunemail.com