Despite moving on a similar-seen before path, the film still scores well in terms of entertainment basically due to its young realistic feel, local language, enjoyable dialogues and performances specifically written from the point of view of its 3 victim boys projecting the girls as simply mean, ignorant, greedy, money-minded and wicked witches just there to exploit their foolish boyfriends using them to the maximum. So where the boys are truly going to love it, the girls would more likely hate it for their silly, dumb and unpleasant portrayal throughout.
Describing the theatre experience, the film right away comes to the point with its 3 male characters speaking their comic dialogues in a typical Delhi-NCR lingo with many annoying beeps. But the young viewers easily get to understand what's being said (behind the beeps) mocking the questionable Censor Board, that insists on muting some key words even in a film given an ADULT rating pointing towards all confusing standards. Introducing the three girls next, PKP2 goes on maintaining the young feel and the well written dialogues, executed superbly on screen do not disappoint at all till it says intermission.
In the second half, though the viewers can easily judge that its nothing new from the team progressing on exactly the same format of its prequel, they still don't mind enjoying it as the fun continues in its final hour too, but following a strictly one sided mindset ridiculing the three girls. Moreover it all ends on another high point in the police station sequence wherein once again it's the boy playing the winning stroke insulting the girl for not coming up with the truth in front of her father.
In few words there are three basic reasons why PKP2 works majorly for the young boys despite having a stale subject talking about the same things. Firstly, because here we have a completely natural actor Sunny Singh who never lets you miss the most loved character of the original i.e. Liquid (played by Divyendu in PKP1). Secondly it's the realistically written dialogues of the film every boy can easily relate too, making an instant connection with the viewers. And thirdly it's the superbly executed 6.30 minutes long monologue brilliantly performed by Kartik that receives a roaring applause from the audience as if it was their personal feelings expressed by the man on screen so truthfully.
In the performance section, I would like to rate Sunny Singh scoring the most (playing Chauka) as it was certainly not an easy task to match up the performance of Liquid in the original and that too with a contrastingly different (and strong) physical appearance not suiting his sheepish character at all. Next is Kartik Aaryan playing almost similar role as in PKP1 but again coming with a fabulous monologue scene deserving all the attention. And then Omkar Kapoor playing it real cool in a pretty decent manner as the main financer of the trio irrespective of an illogically written character constantly being fooled by his greedy girlfriend.
Coming to the girls, Ishita Raj scores the maximum (especially due to her belly dance scene), followed by Nushrat Bharucha working hard on her dumb character that at times also turns to be hamming in some specific sequences. Sonalli Sehgall looks hot and beautiful taking a few steps further than the prequel and the supporting cast does a fine job too including Sharat Saxena, Mona Ambegaonkar and the two girls playing Nushrat's (Cheeku's) friends. Technically PKP2 becomes better in art direction, cinematography, editing and background score supporting the theme aptly, but this time its vision as well as the writing becomes more biased supporting the boys in particular.
Stating the downers, PKP 2 doesn't offer anything worth mentioning in its soundtrack and one frankly misses a song like "Ban Gaya Kutta" in its various sequences. The basic characterization also turns out to be hugely contradicting when we get to see a supposedly talented and educated person earning 3 lacs a month (Omkar) being fooled so easily by a girl met in a gym, living alone in a big apartment. And then the otherwise confident boy (Kartik) forgetting all his smartness once the girl says 'Yes'.
For friends who think the film is once again misogynistic in nature as earlier, it's actually not the same as seen in PKP1 which did have some major features pointing towards the same. As per definition, a misogynist is a person who hates, dislike, mistrusts or mistreats women. Whereas in PKP2 the boys are all loving, trusting and believing in their girls wholeheartedly right till the end and it's the girls only who repeatedly ditch them on purpose either for money, security or being plain dumb like the one portrayed by Nushrat. As a result, the three girls simply get projected as someone highly selfish, intolerable, manipulative and always looking for money or security in their man, instead of love or togetherness.
In comparative terms, where PKP1 could easily be called as a fine satire on love and cracking relationships among the youth, PKP2 is a more comical take on the subject conceived specifically from a male point of view as being the key sufferers.
Interestingly, sex doesn't become any centre of attraction of the script this time for a change and it's the humour that takes care of every shortcoming of the film providing a fine return of your money and time spent on the multiplex outing.
Having said that, though PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA 2 surely deserves a good rating for its entertainment factor well taken care of, it still remains 'a guilty kind of enjoyment' derived from a one dimensional project sidelining its female characters.
