MUMBAI – The Deol Inc. may not be able to put up the best act in town but they do seem to win hands down when it comes to winning your hearts. Remember ‘Apne’ and how it tugged at your heartstrings with its estranged father and sons saga.
Once again, in ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’, Dharam Singh (Dharmendra) and his sons Paramveer Singh (Sunny Deol) and Gajodhar Singh (Bobby Deol) are the oddball family which win you over with their goofy attempts to bridge their differences and bond, first on the picturesque ghats of Benares and then in the burlesque backwaters of Punjab.
Sunny Deol comes to India from Canada to look for his father, Dharmendra and his brother, Bobby Deol, who were separated from him during childhood. He finds them earning their livelihood as petty thugs in Benares. But before he can take them back with him he must resolve his kid brother’s complicated love story by tackling the girl’s (Kulraj Randhawa) tough brothers (Anupam Kher and the rest). This means a trip to turbulent and throbbing Punjab!
The film is meant to showcase the Deol charisma. And that it manages to do, despite a clumsy first-half and a stodgy script. The brawny threesome does manage to transcend the flaws in the narrative and create some comic moments with their earthy, rustic, pulsating Punjabiyat exploding full throttle. If Sunny replays his gentle giant machismo, then Bobby carries on his prankster lover-boy image, even as he pitches in as dad’s favourite son, buddy and partner-in-crime.
But it is dad Dharam who steals the show with his ‘Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana’ act. The thespian still manages to grab eyeballs and stand out in the crowd with his effortless comedy. The music of the film already boasts of a chartbuster: the item song, ‘Tinku Jiya’. Watch it for its unbridled goofiness, the attempt to laugh at the Punjabi stereotypes and for the Deol chemistry that makes you chuckle, now and then.
