SCREEN: SUPERHEROES AND SUPERNATURALS
Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se
A yurvedic medicine, it seems, has the power to grant super-heroic powers. Once one surrenders to this fact, then it is not that difficult accepting Sunny Deol’s feats of strength in Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se (YPD3).
After a perkily narrated introduction of how Ayurvedic medicine helped cure a Mughal prince’s libido problems, and then rid Queen Victoria of pimples, we jump to the present where Deol drags two tractors to the finish line in a tug-of-war match.
Deol plays Pooran, a local medicine man from a long-line of Ayurveda practitioners, who is not in it for the money. Like all soft-hearted idealists, he runs his small shop for the betterment of all mankind.
When not curing children’s eyesight or adding health and longevity to 90-year-olds’ lives, Pooran is crushing drinking glasses made of steel, smashing holes in building pillars — and very late in the movie — colliding straight into a speeding truck without getting so much as a scratch (the same cannot be said for the truck).
The secret to his unique power is a concoction that has been passed down in his family for generations. Naturally, a big pharma company (whose CEO is played by Mohan Kapoor) wants to buy him out. They, as one may have guessed, get the stuffing beaten out of them.
Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se is an improvement over its prequels and while Stree is not perfect, it is still memorable
Pooran, though, is a calm, loving man when unprovoked, and lives with his good-for-nothing brother Kaala (Bobby Deol), two sons, and a compounder (Binnu Dhillon — who aces his small screen time). Their tenant is a shrewd lawyer (Dharmendra) whose charisma and magnetism is so natural and out-of-control that it woos goddesses from heavens; goddesses, let me clarify, that only he can see.
Out of the blue, a young surgeon from Gujarat called Cheekoo (Kriti Kharbanda) visits Pooran to learn about Ayurveda. Now the reason for a surgeon learning about ancient medicine might sound preposterous but the viewer shouldn’t mind. Ridiculousness has always been a part of YPD movies. And in comparison with the last two parts, this one is far tamer in its idiocy.
Director Navaniat Singh (a director with a long list of Punjabi film credits) sets up a very Punjabi film-like ambience. Its visuals (which includes cinematography, frames, lighting and production design) evoke memories of Carry on Jatta 2 or Vadhayiyaan Ji Vadhayiyaan. Like the latter two titles, YPD3 chooses the family-friendly route where no one turns out to be evil and we once again see the Deol family’s familial bonds take centre stage.
What one does mind is the draggy post-intermission run of the movie, and the fact that the filmmakers didn’t seriously invest the time in writing an engaging screenplay. Nevertheless, YPD3 is a big improvement in the series.
Stree