Hindi
Yamla Pagla Deewana 2: Just an excuse for a sequel
MUMBAI: Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (YPD 2) looks like one of those attempts at comedy where the cast and crew claim to have thoroughly enjoyed the making of the film, thus promising lots of fun to the prospective viewers. The viewers on the other hand finally discover that whatever the reason the cast has had a gala time, the film has little to offer to the audience. The film is a sequel to the Deol clan‘s earlier film, Yamla Pagla Deewanawhich, besides the legendary bonding of the family, had a lighter, entertaining theme. The sequel falters at the very basic stage – the script.
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Producer: Sunny Sounds P Ltd, YPD Films. |
Except for the three leading men, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, the film has left the previous ties behind. Dharmendra and Bobby continue to be conmen operating in Banaras while the other brother, Sunny, earns an honest living in England as a recovery officer for a local bank. He has been convinced by the other two that they are also earning by honest means. Sunny has been asked by the bank to find out why Annu Kapoor, a local big shot who has borrowed a few billions from the bank, won‘t return it. His visit to Kapoor‘s posh club coincides with Anupam Kher‘s goons, led by Johnny Lever and Sucheta Khanna, who have come to wreck the club. Kher wants to take over the club property to build a virtual mall there. However, the super Sikh – Sunny spoils their plan. Impressed, Kapoor offers Sunny the job of manager at the club.
Dharmendra and Bobby soon arrive at London with a plan to deprive Kapoor of all his wealth. Bobby plays the oldest con, developing proximity with Kapoor‘s daughter, Neha Sharma. In a comic twist in the proceedings, Sharma is not really Kapoor‘s daughter and hence not entitled to his property. His daughter and the heiress to his estate is Kristina Akheeva; under Dharmendra‘s guidance, Bobby now shifts his attention to Akheeva. He has to shift focus from Sharma to Akheeva. But Sunny has fallen for Akheeva hook, line and sinker. His heart pounds at high decibel levels when he sees her. Straightforward Sunny is pitted against crooked father and son.
Being Sunny Deol, he must give his fans ample doses of action. Kher is a big help on this count. Not only Kapoor‘s club, he also wants whatever the other people have. To impress Akheeva, Bobby has become an artist. He can‘t paint but there is an orang-utan at their disposal which, on a full moon night, with ample alcohol in its tummy paints classy paintings that are passed off as Bobby‘s work. Kher now wants these paintings; he is a resourceful man; he has all kinds of fighters to stop Sunny. First the white toughies followed by ninjas and, ultimately sumo wrestlers. Thankfully, with the sumos, the film ends.
YPD 2 looks like just the idea, that of making a sequel to a fairly successful film. The development of this idea and intent is not evident in the 155 minutes of forced comedy. The gags are half-baked at most times and childish at others. The orang-utan is fun for a while but soon gets repetitive. Action sequences are stretched. Music is a letdown. Sangeeth Sivan‘s handling of the film is disappointing. The film rests mostly on the Deols; while Sunny is sincere, Dharmendra and Bobby overact. Sharma and Akheeva are okay but look too young with their respective heroes. Kher and Lever are too loud while Lever‘s sidekick, Khanna, needs subtitles to her dialogue. Kapoor is good in parts.
All in all Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 is a disappointment.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
