Scanty fun: Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2

Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 is one-dimensional with half the fun of its original edition, writes Deepa Gauri

AFTER PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA, director Luv Ranjan had to defend himself after being called a 'misogynist.' Five years later, in his second edition (rather than a sequel), Ranjan got a trifle worse in his one-dimensional narrative about love as seen from the perspective of guys.
The film is unapologetic in how women are reduced to caricatures and clichés while men (boys) get the fair treatment. They are the do-gooders with hearts of gold. Their lives, according to the Luv Ranjan 'school of romance,' go for a toss if they ever dare cross the path of a girl.
It doesn't matter if they are atrocious flirts; the women always come with issues. They are silly, mean, manipulative, emotional and never ever 'understand.' Well, as a movie that unabashedly takes the 'guy perspective,' there is little reason to look for even a semblance of balance in the 'Punchnama' series.
But where part 2 fails is in the lack of that spontaneous wit which crackled through part 1. Even when there were situations that were outright mean and misogynistic, you could chuckle through the movie for its breezy innocence.
The innocence is lost here. Here, Luv Ranjan tosses meanness into every female character that walks on screen other than of course the 'mothers' - to whom the boys will run crying to in due course.
Even the recreation of that 5 to 7 minute monologue by Kartik Aaryan fails to engage because unlike in part 1, when there was a touch of sincerity to his rant, in the second outing, it is an all but empty rant.
That is not to say Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 makes for terrible viewing; not at all. It just happens to be a very one-dimensional tale of three men and their horrible love lives narrated with a little quirkiness but not much fun. The film is what you call the typical 'time-pass' kind, where you neither engage with anything on screen nor get utterly repulsed (although anyone with a feminist bone might tend to disagree with all the so-called 'objectification' and 'commoditization' of women).
The men do their best. Kartik Aaryan as Gogo, Omkar Kapoor as Thakur and Sunny Singh as Sid are endearingly developed characters. All they need is a good drink after a tiring day's work, some innocent flirtation and liberal dose of live cricket. They are the quintessential 'boys.'
And who else can rob them of their fun but girls - although it doesn't matter that they go chasing the women simply not smitten by undying love but because they also wanted some fun. How then can they blame the girls if one of them turns out to be an emotional and financial manipulator, the other highly obsessed with her childhood friend, and the third, well, a liar.
Nushrat Bharucha, Sonalli Sehgall and Ishita Raj, as the three girls, as more scantily clad than the scanty humour in the movie, and they tick all the boxes in women stereotypes. Which is why after a point, the film just becomes too repetitive for its own good.
Perhaps Luv Ranjan forgot that a good hero is as good as a great villain, and unless you flesh out the 'other half' of the film, you end up with tiring gags being repeated and your story running round in circles.
Despite earnest performances by the cast, Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 never raises the bar in movie entertainment; it just ends up as a silly bar joke that goes on and on.