Ghayal Once Again Review: Ghayal No More

Sunny Deol is back after a fairly long hiatus and not only is he acting now, he has co-written and directed the sequel to the ever popular Ghayal as well. Ghayal Once Again as the film is called, is the same old story in the same old package and the same old Sunny. In fact, the film looks old, shabby and besides a few moments of pure nostalgia, not much is going for it.

Starring Sunny Deol as Ajay Mehra, the film takes off from where the earlier one left off. After he has been sent to jail for avenging the murder of his family, Mehra now returns as a leader of a vigilante group. He finds that there is a group of students who have obtained a video of a son of an influential businessman murdering someone in cold blood. The students are obviously now the target and it is up to Ajay Mehra to protect them and allow justice to take its course.

Following the premise, the film is a typical cat and mouse chase and is extremely predictable there on in. Some of the action scenes are quite good, but you have seen all of it before and there is not much new with the film. The story is weak and you don’t get too invested in the characters. There is a recurring helicopter in the movie, and the poor CGI goes to show how perhaps the producers too thought that there was very little working for the film. It all leads to a long drawn out climax and even though you know exactly how its going to shape up, you can give credit to Sunny Deol for being an honest director and making it look somewhat real. However, by the end the audience is fairly exhausted and that is a small redeeming factor in a film that doesn’t rise above its predecessor.

Apart from Sunny Deol, the only prominent faces in the cast are Soha Ali Khan and Narendra Jha. Sunny Deol does pack quite a punch (literally and figuratively) throughout the film, but Soha Ali Khan is a complete waste. Playing the neurologist to Sunny Deol’s character, her lines are cringeworthy and the role quite pointless. Narendra Jha is easily the best thing about the film. Playing the villain with elan, he picks up from where he left on in Haider and delivers an effortless performance. It is quite a pity that the rest of the film doesn’t match up. The remaining cast is not particularly noteworthy, with most just hamming through their roles and delivering an over the top performance.

Ghayal Once More is the sort of film Rajkumar Santoshi made his big bucks with back in the 90’s. In 2016, it looks cliché and boring. While the performance from the lead protagonist and villain are quite good, the same is not true for the rest of the film. This one will leave the audiences more Ghayal than happy. Watch at own risk.

Ghayal Once Again
Cast: Sunny Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Narendra Jha, Om Puri
Director: Sunny Deol
KawKaw Rating: 1/5