Sad saga of sequels

Quickly name a good sequel that Bollywood made till date? If this question was posed to you to test your knowledge of Bollywood, then you would take some time to answer. The fact is that it’s not your fault at all. Bollywood for all the deluge of sequels that it claims to have made does not have a great sequel record.

The most impressive one is the ‘Munnabhai’ franchise and that is more like different stories of the same characters. ‘Munnabhai’ is not necessarily sequels. It is a different fact altogether that both the ‘Munnabhai’ films are phenomenal, but they are not really sequels like say a ‘Terminator 1’ and a ‘Terminator 2’ or a ‘Godfather 1’ and ‘Godfather 2’. Those movies took the narrative further, were very well written and executed and in their own respective spaces are cult movies to watch.

Bollywood has some other claims to competent one-time watch sequels in ‘Dabangg 2’ or ‘Krrish’ series also. While the critics panned these movies, the audiences found them entertaining. The garbage sequels list of Bollywood runs like a never-ending Anaconda.

‘Raaz’ series, ‘1920’ series, ‘Force 2’, ‘Rock On 2’, etc, the list goes on and on where the goodwill of the original hit was so royally taken to the mud by directors. Let us not even go towards the “me too” Amitabh fetish movies like the new age ‘Don’ series, where SRK for all his glorious track record and massive achievements keeps on proving to us that what a massive Big B complex he suffers from. In the process, a cult classic like ‘Don’ has suffered two on-screen insults and the third one is soon due I hear.

The problem of Bollywood turning shady shallow sequels is the fact that it does not respect its directors and writers. In fact, look hard and Bollywood has probably half a dozen good writers. Trust me I am being optimistic here. Therefore, at times the first movie becoming a hit in itself is a solid miracle and a pleasant surprise for the audiences. Then in the greed to milk, the name of the first movie the makers come up with sequels.

In most cases, you will notice that for the sequel the original director, writer and majority of characters go missing because they know what’s coming.

In the context of all of the above, the trailer of ‘Happy Phirr Bhaag Jayegi’ raises some hopes. The first major achievement from director Mudassar Aziz is that he has kept the character chemistry of the first movie intact.

The form of Bagga and Kailoole continues in this one. The jokes around sophisticated Urdu of Afridi and rustic in your face Punjabi attitude of Bagga remains the high point looks like in the upcoming movie.

Then you add the twist of mistaken identities where one Happy is picked up for another Happy you feel the premise of the story is right.

The trailer also gives an indication that the movies have a laugh a minute speed and twists at more points than we can expect. The movie also has some new competent actors in place like new face Jassie Gill and has some peppy songs too and that was the highlight of the first Happy too.

You also need to note that the movie comes from Aanand L Rai who is the current golden boy of the box office. As of now, he understands audience pulse and it is reflecting in the way this movie trailer has shaped up. The film has the earthy charm of all Aanand L Rai movies to date.

The only challenge that this movie will have to mount is that the first movie was a sleeper hit. No one expected that movie to do well or even get noticed. It did both. So, like every sequel this movie will carry the burden of expectations and that at times is the undoing of most movies.

The trailer of ‘Happy Phirr Bhaag Jayegi’, however, does not point to a half-hearted attempt. The setting in China where a dash of Chinese situation humour is added is making this sequel appear surely watchable.