Movie Review 'Welcome Back': Not a warm welcome
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Dimple Kapadia, Paresh Rawal, Naseeruddin Shah
Director: Aneez Bazmee
Rating: *1/2
'Welcome Back' primarily thrives on the caricatures of the earlier instalment. Because characters like Uday Shankar Shetty (Nana Patekar), Majnu (Anil Kapoor) and Dr. Ghungroo ( Paresh Rawal) were established as entertainers, director Aneez Bazmee has used them again to its optimum. The caricatures of the old characters are played out well in the first 15 minutes and it marks a good first impression.
But you always wonder, except for the intro credits, why the picture quality of the movie is so blurred all throughout and also appears pixelated. Its a huge let down for all the spectacular aerial shots of the beautiful city, Dubai, where the major chunk of the film was shot.
The story initially revolves around Uday and Majnu who are no more extortionists and are trying to live their livelihood as the ‘nice’ people. Though Majnu regrets this change it is Uday who has decided to stick to living on the right path.
Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar’s chemistry is the only saving grace in the film and dialogue writers have extracted some of the most hilarious situation one-liners that is rib tickling. Giving away any line from the film will spoil the fun and is best enjoyed in the situation.
Here comes the annoying part. John Abraham as Ajju Bhai. If the actor participated in the ‘Worst Acting’ competition, he would qualify even without an application. He can neither pull off the ‘Bambaiya Tapori’ slangs, nor the dance. But that can also be blamed to bad choreography. Ranjhana, played by Shruti Hassan, and also John’s love interest is just a pretty face to look at and doesn’t impress.
Dimple Kapadia, who is asked to play a con woman in the film, has no scope for performance. Naseerudin Shah, well he would know better, why he said a yes to a film, which doesn’t even justify a quarter of his acting calibre. His character was an attempt to recreate the world of RDX perfectly played by late Feroz Khan in the first instalment. It clearly doesn’t live up to it.
The film which does makes you laugh in portions comes crashing drown in possibly the worst climax in a long time. It has really bad VFX, the narration disgusts you and drags to bore. The desert storm that takes all the cast as casualty which thankfully marks the end of the film, makes you walk out from the theatre thinking the action in MSG 2 would still be visually more appealing.
Anil and Nana are the only saving grace of the film. Watch only for their comic timing otherwise this no-brainer can be give a ‘no welcome’ board.