Jawani Phir Nahin Ani *** ½
Dir: Nadeem Baig
Starring: Humayun Saeed, Ahmed Ali Butt, Vasay Chaudhry, Sohai Ali Abro, Mehwish Hayat, Sarwat Gillani, Ayesha Khan, Uzma Khan, Jawed Sheikh, Bushra Ansari, Ismail Tara

To put it succinctly Jawani Phir Nahin Ani is a crowd pleaser. It borrows bits and pieces (and very small bits and pieces, at that) from movies such as The Hangover – four friends are off for a crazy week of fun to a party hotspot and the first half of the movie unfolds in a flashback – but it is very much its own thing. The plot is kind of nonsensical but it isn’t farcical – you aren’t really looking for much sense in movies like this but, for what it is worth, the plot does kind of hang together. It has slapstick humour but it isn’t crudely done. There are double entendres but they aren’t obscene. And there are enough pieces of sly wit thrown - an early scene riffs off the opening to Waar and the closing credits have a tip of the hat to PTV’s classic Fifty-fifty – in to keep the more high-minded amongst the viewers amused. Not all of the jokes land successfully but enough of them hit the bulls-eye for the movie to easily pass muster.

The cast obviously had a good time making the movie and the actors throw themselves into their roles. They all acquit themselves well but Sarwat Gillani as a gun-toting Pakhtun gal and Sohai Ali Abro as a selfie-obsessed, spoilt little rich girl have the most to work with and they don’t let the opportunity go to waste. A couple of catchy songs (the title track and the Fair & Lovely number) add to the fun and should find themselves integral parts of the coming shaadi season.

Cut to chase: Frothy, funny and good fun.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel **
Dir: John Madden
Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup, Tina Desai, Diana Hardcastle, LilleteDubey, TamsinGreig, David Strathairn, Richard Gere

The first Exotic Marigold Hotel movie, adapted from Deborah Moggach’s novel, had a certain sweet charm about it despite its predictable sentimentality. The movie focused on a group of British retirees who move to India to an old-age home (the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel of the title, run by a hapless young man desperate to make something of himself) and end up rediscovering themselves in the process of discovering a new country and culture.

The sequel picks up – more or less - where the first ended but since the stories of our protagonists have already been told the movie really has nowhere to go and either treads water or retreads old material.So to supposedly spice things them (and, supposedly, appeal to a wider international audience) we get Richard Gere, as an American guest at the BEMH. Gere’s Guy Chambers has Sonny (Dev Patel), the proprietor, all aquiver, because he thinks Chambers represents some big investors in his scheme to expand his businees. Chambers also has some of the female residents’ hearts going pitter-patter but he only appears to have eyes for Sonny the proprietor’s mother (the charming Lillete Dubey) which gets Sonny all in a tizzy, resulting in his ignoring his long-suffering fiancée (Tina Desai). But it’s all a bit much ado about nothing. The terrific British cast elevates the material but there’s only so much the actors can do. Dev Patel, on the other hand, is disconcertingly irritating with his cringe-worthy "Indian" accent  and his overly charged performance that borders on the slapstick.

Cut to chase: Unfortunately lives up to its title, a distant second to the original.

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