It’s an absolute thriller

Star cast: Sunny Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Om Puri, Shivam Patil, Aanchal Munjal, Diana Khan, Rishabh Arora, Abhilash Kumar, Tisca Chopra and Narendra Jha

Director: Sunny Deol

 Rating: ***1/2

Ghayal, that had released in 1990, 26 years ago, had become one of the first milestone films of Sunny Deol’s career that later saw him in few more action-packed roles in films like Border, Gadar and the likes which went on to become cult classics.

Ghayal saw Sunny playing a youngster turned rebel who was forced to take laws in his hands because of an incompetent and corrupt system failed to deliver him justice. Ghayal Once Again thankfully continues where Ghayal had ended and this time too, Sunny, as Ajay Mehra, is seen fighting the system which is being treated as a puppet at the hands of a powerful business tycoon, Raj Bansal (Narendra Jha) and his psycho brother Kabir Bansal (Abhilash Kumar) who kill an honest, retired police commissioner and RTI Activist Joe D’souza (Om Puri who played the same character in Ghayal) who Ajay treats like family and a father figure.

However, Bansal and his gang were totally unaware that their act of murdering D’souza was accidentally captured in a video that was being shot by four youngsters who were on a nature’s trail for a picnic. One of the four kids happens to be the son of an eminent lawyer (Sachin Khedekar), who decides to hand over the only evidence of Bansal’s recorded crime to him in order to save his son and his friends. However, the girl who had the evidence had made a copy of the video out of lawyer’s knowledge and they decide to hand it over to Ajay Mehra who runs a newspaper called Satyakam and manages to make a credible name for himself in investigative journalism. Ajay steps in to help the victims get justice whenever the system fails to do so. The name of his agency and the fact that he is a man of principles who stands for truth and fights for justice no matter what makes us believe that this film in some way is a tribute to Dharmendra’s black-and-white classic, Satyakam. This is just a perception.

Anyways, Bansal, who keeps a hawk’s eye on Ajay and his gang, and their every next move, gets to know about the copy of the recording and decides to destroy those four kids and Ajay Mehra in order to save his own son, who had actually shot Joe D’souza. How these brave and smart kids manage to stay strong and put up a tough fight with a stronger opponent like Bansal, how Ajay Mehra helps them in their fight for justice and emerges triumphant is what this action thriller is all about. And you have to watch it to believe it.

Ghayal Once Again is a pacy, racy, edge-of-the-seat action thriller with tremendous dose of pumping adrenaline, action and drama that will keep you engaged and glued to your seats throughout. Thank you Sunny Deol for not going the stereotype way, keeping it a song-and-dance-free film and not spoiling the screenplay with unwanted songs popping in from nowhere. Yes the film does have a song which appears in the beginning and is done with before the actual drama unfolds. Sunny as Ajay Mehra, who still hasn’t completely gotten over the bitter memories of his daunting and traumatic past, but still decides to fight with the system, has done a brilliant job. There is no one who matches Sunny’s passion and anger. The fight scenes are absolutely raw and real where Sunny’s dhai kilo ke haath are seen delivering enough punches to his fans’ delight.

The chase scenes are absolutely thrilling and engaging. The screenplay and direction are slick and sharp. The film does have glimpses and scenes from the first film and you don’t really mind calling this one a sequel and rightly so. The dialogues are impressive. Narendra Jha, as Raj Bansal, delivers a terrific performance and is an actor to watch out for. Jha can do wonders if cast in good villainous roles and even other character-driven roles. The four kids, who are shown fighting the system and who Ajay Mehra is seen being an anchor to, have done a very good job, especially Shivam Patil who plays Rohan is quite impressive and so is Aanchal Munjal. They are confident and doesn’t over act even once. Abhilash Kumar as Kabir Bansal has done a good job. Tisca Chopra is okay and Manoj Joshi does full justice to his character of a corrupt politician. A briliiant actor like Zakir Hussain is sadly wasted in the role of a police commissioner.

For all those who had seen and loved Ghayal, you will love Ghayal Once Again equally if not more. And for those who still haven’t seen the original, buy a DVD and watch it, but before that, go watch this one as this is the right film to have an action-packed, thrilling weekend.