22 years is a long long time – and it was 22 years back when Gadar – Ek prem Katha emerged as a historic blockbuster – a cross border love story peppered with dozes of jingoism and over the top action . But it was the core of the story which resonated with the audience immensely, which was a heartfelt love between the rustic Tara ( Sunny) and a pristine Sakeena ( Ameesha). Unfortunately, Gadar 2 is an overstretched sequel which lacks a solid premise and is loaded with too much of noise, and yet, its Sunny Deol who really is the shining star of the Film.

The film carries from where it left. Two decades after the army truck driver Tara Singh rescued his wife Sakeena from Pakistan, he takes up the cudgels to save his son (Utkarsh Sharma) from the wrath of Pak General Hamid Iqbal ( Manish Wadhwa), who holds a grudge against Tara for what he did during the partition times. Tara has to illegally cross over the border to save his son, and transforms himself into a one man army to decimate the Pak army.

Its apparent right from the first frame that Anil Sharma ( director) has desperately tried to cash on the nostalgia factor of the original, which is evident from the background score, flashbacks, and the immensely popular songs of the original which has been remixed to suit the current times. What the film lacks is the emotional strength , as you never feel for the characters on screen. Utkarsh Sharma ( Anil Sharma’s son) is given too much leeway in terms of screen time , and though he tries too hard to emote and act, he lacks the charisma . His love angle in Pakistan with Muskaan ( Simrat Kaur) too seems labored. Ameesha Patel whimpers her way throughout, and has nothing much to do except to wait for the men in her life to come back. With the backdrop of 1971 war, the ruthless Pak general Iqbal creates havoc in Tara’s life by capturing his son. And to bring him back, Tara does what he did in Gadar – by single handedly pumping out the general and his army. The shadow of the prequel looms large , with roaring dialoguebaazi and slow motion action scenes, but its way too much noise here.

Ultimately, its upto Sunny Deol to fix things up and he is in solid form throughout. Its him who actually does the heavy lifting and its a delight to see him what he does best. Deol sponges the nostalgia of Gadar with an endearing and power packed performance. The reprised music by Mithoon too is hummable and you will love the track “Udja Kaale Kaava” as its bound to bring back the memories of the original. These are only two factors which redeems the film to a large extent.

I am pretty sure Gadar 2 will set the cash registers ringing , but its a sequel which could have been avoided easily. Yet for hard core Sunny Deol fans, the quintessential roar is back with a bang . I will not say its a bad film, but its a noisy film which will hurt your ears. I am going with 2 out of 5 for Gadar 2. Its heartening to see our Sunny Paaji back in form, its just that he needs a much better film to carry on his roar!!