Over the years, Bollywood have churned out numerous sequels hoping to cash in on the popularity of its predecessor. Invariably, many of them have hit the bull's eye such as "Dabaang 2" or "Singham Returns"; while others like "Ab Tak Chappan 2" have bit the dust. This weekend we have Anees Bazmee with the sequel of the hilarious blockbuster "Welcome" . Now the question is whether "Welcome Back" be as successful as its prequel after all such movies with a nonsensical story-line depends solely on the cast & screenplay???

Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) & Majnu bhai (Anil Kapoor) have mended their ways (or so they believed) & led an upright life which they still found hard to be accustomed to as they were now paying hafta to small time crooks. Both of them were still single & harbored hopes of entering into matrimonial bliss after they get floored by Rajkumari Nandhini alias Babita (Ankita Shrivastava). In fact, she was no royalty as she along with her mom, Poonam (Dimple Kapadia) conned people on the pretext of romance & these two dimwits happened to be their latest victims. At around this time, Uday realises that he has a step sister in the form of Ranjhana (Shruti Hassan) & the search for a suitable groom for her takes them to Dr. Ghunghroo's (Paresh Rawal) household again. When they are told that Dr. Ghunghroo had a son Ajju (John Abraham) (step-son actually), they have no qualms in fixing the alliance expecting him to be as cavalier as his father & cousin. But the truth was Ajju barely had a semblance of such virtues as he was an infamous gangster who ruled the roost in Mumbai.

In the past decade or so, the kind of movies that Anees Bazmee have created has been pathetic to say the least as none of them barely had a plot though there were a couple of hilarious ones like "Welcome" and "Singh is Kingg". His latest venture "Welcome Back" is no different , but unlike it's prequel this one severely suffers from lack of smart dialogues and witty one liners. Inspite of an able cast at his disposal, the film fails to sustain a smile on our face for more than a scene or two which leaves us perplexed wondering whether the humour sense of the makers was so poor. In the technical department, the grandiosity of Dubai was aptly showcased through Kabir Lal's lenses while the other aspects doesn't deserve much of a mention.

Anil Kapoor & Nana Patekar are the life source of this movie and they have done it in style especially the former who was bang on as the stylish, tapori lingo spewing bhai. As for the other veterans, Paresh Rawal doesnt get much riotous lines while Nasserudeen Shah & Dimple Kapadia were over the top. It's kinda known that John can break a shoulder much more easily than shoulder a scene with his comic timing like Akshay. He fails miserably as expected just like his co-star Shruti Hassan & we are left wondering as to why both of them were even casted in the first place.

Verdict: "Welcome" was not a great movie by any stretch of imagination but it was rollicking to say the least & when compared to it's sequel, it seems like a classic now. Anywaz the sequel will surely cash in the initial but will struggle in the long run as it wont have the word of mouth in its favour. The humour is so trite that there is an oft repeated dialogue in the movie "Yeh Toh Mazaak Tha" which seemed more like a cue for the audience to laugh rather than serve any other purpose. In short, give it a miss!!!

Rating: 1.75/5

Regards...Ben

Such A Poorly Made Film..One Of The Worst I Have Watched

If Welcome (2007) was like spreading lots of peanut butter on a brown bread slice using a butter spreader, its sequel is like sprinkling white bread crumbs on a bowl of stale peanuts that belongs in a dustbin. The latter does not even make sense.

The Shetty brothers (Patekar & Kapoor) have left the underworld and are now in the real estate business. Their sister's in-laws Ghungroo (Rawal) and his wife are leading a peaceful life. But out of nowhere, both the parties find that they have a sister (Hasan) and an illegitimate son (Abraham), respectively, to euphemistically dispose of. As bizarre as it may sound, this sister and this son meet and fall in love and engage in tonsil hockey all in a matter of hours. But since the Shetty brothers have shed their criminal threads, they do not want Ghungroo's wife's illegitimate son to marry their Donald Duck of a sister because he is a local Mumbai don. As you see, the tables have turned and all that we have on the table are stale peanuts.

There seems to be a competition among the actors to come up with the worst performance. I was excited to see disgraced actor Shiny Ahuja's name pop up on the beginning credits, but unfortunately he wins the competition, followed by beasty Abraham (god damn Baazigar over here) as the runner up. The remaining take home consolation prizes, with the exception of Patekar, who is the only reason the film does not totally slip into nothingness.

Numerous songs stuffed inside the poor screenplay that play in tandem produces the right amount of boredom in its audience who by the end of the 150-minute film are sure to consult their therapists. The film gasps for a story, which looks repetitive if you have enjoyed the prequel, and the small amount of humor that it does have is mindless slapstick that induce nothing more than a titter. As a result, the screenplay tries to entertain itself by allowing its characters to play antakshari in a graveyard with two fake bodies doing rounds around them.

If you're still inclined to spend money on the film, all you have to do is visualize and consider this sequence: the illegitimate son hops from one camel's hump to another to another and so on to save an underworld don from a sandstorm that's breezing in. Poor camels.

BOTTOM LINE: Anees Bazmee's Welcome Back is sure a mindless comedy with frequent doses of action and songs that may appeal to some, but the real question is, is this a sign of Bollywood's tread into darkness?

GRADE: F.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES