Rahul Desai
Much of this 170-minute sequel plays out like an unwitting (I think) parody of the 2001 blockbuster. Everyone seems to be at a Bollywood cosplay party; the jingoism sounds like secularism having a bad-hair day.
More than two decades since the events of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), former rioter and truck driver Tara Singh(Sunny Deol) is a freelance Indian soldier of sorts. The man seems to raise his voice even when he isn’t saying anything.
Iqbal has old beef with Tara Singh, who had killed his troops during his violent love story all those years ago. So the baddie does what any self-respecting baddie would: He fails, again and again, till the film finally gets sick of him.
When a bitter Iqbal reminds Tara that it goes both ways – that his family was killed during the Partition, too – Tara’s reaction sounds like something an online troll would say when confronted with logic.
The weird thing about Gadar 2 is that Sunny Deol is absent for much of the first half. Instead, we are subjected to the life of Charanjeet as he smuggles himself into Pakistan to look for a missing Tara, who he assumes has been captured and jailed by evil Iqbal.