Yaariyan 2 Is  A ‘Sparkly , Christmassy’  Feelgood Treat

Yaariyan 2

Rating: ****

Yaariyan  2 is not just a big improvement  on the first Yaariyan , it is also a  lot better  than some of the  big-budget fiascos that  have been thrust into our numbed faces for  quite  some time,  perhaps  from the prehistoric ages, who knows how long we’ve been tortured  by listless Ail-listers?

Coming from T Series who gave  us the  mother of all disaster  Adipurush some months  ago, Yaariyan 2 a worthy remake of a smart city-slick Malayalam  film Bangalore Days , about three siblings and how  by staying together they overcome personal  hurdles.

While  both Mezaan Jafri and  Pearl Puri do well as  cousins,  it is Divya Khosla as  the  third sibling who pours her soul into making her character Laadli an endearing mix of naivete and determination when her marriage threatens to collapse even before her mehndi has dried.

 Why is  her husband(Yash Dasgupta) so sullen and aloof. Is he gay? Luckily for  Laadli her husband is just grieving, so wipe off that sweaty brow.

I love the way Laadli brings together her grieving husband and the grieving parents of  the girl her husband loved. This itself could have been the film. Yaariyan 2 chooses to walk that  extra mile to bring us that much-needed smile that has gone missing in  recent violent and vacuous spectacles on  screen.

The tone of Yaariya 2 is  infectiously nurturing. These are  not intellectually  elevated  characters. But they know the worth  of  every heartbeat that flows from one  loved on to another. Divya Khosla especially is  a revelation. With her  determined  bid to play the  starry-eyed  ingénue who deals with heartbreaks one at  a time, Divya shows  a marked  improvement since we  last saw her on screen.

 Her Laadli is the  epicenter  of the conflicts that come in a  rush of resonance in a film that doesn’t  play down its emotional  velocity  but  instead  celebrates  each protagonist’s  joys  and  sorrows with a restrained  impunity.

Actors in even the smallest roles leave a  lasting  impression. This is not a film that  would allow you  to ignore its  attention to  minute details, or allow you  to  look at the  goings-on as just another  rom-com.Yaariyan 2 is a special film with some of the most ear-friendly songs I’ve heard in a long long time , especially Arjit Singh’ s Oonchi oonchi deewarein and  Sachet Tandon’s Simroon tera naam which  have been shot with an exquisite play of light and shade.