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Jun 12, 2024

Don’t think, bolo Tara ra ra : The Tribune India

Follow Us Epaper Login / Register A- A+ Updated At: Aug 12, 202308:38 AM (IST) Uprooting whatever comes in his way, Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) in a still from ‘Gadar 2’ . Film: Gadar 2 Director: Anil

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Updated At:Aug 12, 202308:38 AM (IST)

Uprooting whatever comes in his way, Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) in a still from ‘Gadar 2’ .

Film: Gadar 2

Director: Anil Sharma

Cast: Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, Utkarsh Sharma, Simrat Kaur and Manish Wadhwa

Parbina Rashid

Here is a word of caution. If you are planning to put two hours and 45 minutes of your life in the famous ‘dhai kilo ka haath’, it would be a good idea to practise suspension of disbelief. You will need it to cope with Tara Singh’s infinite strength and his ear-splitting roars.

Tara Singh (Sunny Deol) in an enemy country all by himself is bad news. This time, he has his grown-up son Jeete (Utkarsh Sharma) by his side. So, you can imagine the mayhem that is about to follow! And the enemy country in question is, well, Pakistan. What would Bollywood do without Pakistan playing the villain! How would it drum up the high-on-patriotism fervour? China could be an option but then the kohl-rimmed slanted eyes would not suit our sensibility, I guess!

Well, to come back to Tara’s story, it unfolds in 1971 as the war clouds loom large. There is a border flare-up and the Indian Army is cut off from its supply chain. So, who does the Army depend on to deliver arms and ammunition to the troops? Tara Singh, of course!

The scene also introduces Pakistani Major General Hamid Iqbal (Manish Wadhwa), a poor replacement for Amrish Puri’s character in the original ‘Gadar’. He has a score to settle with Tara Singh. As he trains his telescope at the battlefield, guess who does he see bashing up his boys? Tara Singh, who else?

Even for a hero with the strength of 10 bulls, one needs to build up the image, and director Anil Sharma does not mind going overboard with it.

One thing leads to another, and Jeete lands up in Pakistan, only to be entrapped by General Iqbal. Tara, like in the prequel, goes on a rampage, leaving us with the feeling of déjà vu. The chase goes on and on, with gun-wielding Pakistani soldiers baying for the blood of Tara and his son.

But no matter how cruel the Pakistanis are, how many tanks they set after our heroes, how many choppers they press into action, it all adds up to accentuate the heroics of the father-son duo. Well, just in case you are wondering about the replay of the famous hand-pump scene, the answer is no. Tara comes across one, but this time, he does not uproot it. He just makes a dash for it with his signature roar, and that’s enough to scare away the gathering crowd and soldiers! Some scenes are eternally etched in the collective memory, for better, or for worse.

But Tara Singh makes up for it. As the chase turns into a full-fledged war between Iqbal and him, Tara gleefully uproots wooden pillars, electricity poles, or whatever comes in his way. He even throws a canon to disperse the hostile crowd.

Deol proves that he has not lost the potency of his ‘dhai kilo ka haath’, nor his ultra-nationalistic tone. As bullets fly past him, he stops to mock Iqbal, “Given a choice, most Pakistanis would migrate to India and half of your Pakistan would be empty.”

It’s difficult to say where he found the statistics, but he says it with so much of conviction and shrill that one can’t help but nod in agreement! Suspension of disbelief, didn’t I tell you?

However, it would be wrong to say that ‘Gadar 2’ is just about India-Pakistan hostility. Back home in Punjab, where they lived for 22 years happily (going by the song-and-dance routine the duo breaks into so often), Tara’s superhuman power is kept in balance with Sakeena’s (Amisha Patel) melodrama. In a simple case of grief, her beautiful violet eyes (contact lens?) well up but her lips curve into a smile. In a severe case of grief, she hallucinates and faints, with make-up on! For the rest of the time, she is on the prayer mode, praying for the safety of her husband and son.

And in between two ends of the spectrum is the son, who has been repackaged and re-launched by his director-father. But there is a tiny problem. Sharma Sr seems to be unsure of whether to build up his son as an action hero, or a romantic one. The son, however, looks out of place in both arenas. He would definitely need another launch pad to make his mark. Maybe ‘Gadar 3’!

While the three take the story forward, the other cast members just add to the cacophony, which is strong enough to trigger a headache by the time the trio, yes the sonny brings his Pakistani dulhania with him, crosses over to India.

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The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.

The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the newspaper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.

The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).

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