TUM BIN II Review

A young woman is all set to marry her beau. An accident occurs and her boyfriend dies. She breaks down and becomes a bundle of tears. But soon enough, she composes herself strongly and decides to work hard, to save her beau’s name and business. She takes decisions and sticks to them. She owns up mistakes, and proposes first, if required. She does not wait, for a ‘sahara’.

Fifteen years later, another young woman in a similar situation, becomes a bundle of tears too. But this woman chooses to remain that way,till the end, until a man comes to give her ‘sahara’.

Almost as soon as the film starts, we find Taran (Neha Sharma), little Miss Sweet n Innocent, dressed in an off-shoulder evening gown, standing on an ice-capped mountain-top, doing something like a Surya-Namaskar which then transforms into a dance with her soon-to-be-husband, Amar ( Ashim Gulati). Thankfully, the song, is distractingly good and so are the locales.

Calamity doesn’t waste time, and strikes at the expected point. Thus starts the unending saga of tears, confused emotions and more tears. With the central character of Taran being a girl who is easily ‘brainwashed’ into varying ideas of love, duty and happiness, one cannot expect much else either.

 It must be mentioned that Tum Bin II is better than the original in two aspects. First, is the cinematography. The brilliant frames of mountain-reflections capturing Taran’s face during the casting credits, calls for a standing ovation. What a visual beginning. If only the film was worth it.

 And second, Kanwaljeet Singh. Brilliant performer. I heave a sigh of relief, that unlike in the first Tum Bin, where the intense Vikram Gokhale had been reduced to a silent viewer, here ‘Papa Ji’ talks, walks and decides to live. In fact he is the first one who tells our teary eyed heroine to get up and move on.

And ‘move on’ she does, within minutes.

As soon as Mr. Sweet Guy Shekhar (Seal) ‘bakes’ his entry into Taran and her family’s lives, she is whiffed off to a long drive, where our sweet guy becomes the fusion of Shekhar and Abhigyan of the original film. Shekhar here is meeting Taran for the first time alone, but cheekily , like a curious Bua, starts asking her personal questions. She answers promptly with poetic lines dripping with melancholy. It’s so instant that it seems she has rehearsed the lines earlier that morning  and was just waiting to be asked.  I can’t but help missing the original Pia, who had the guts to draw the lines with her business partner and be vocal about her dislikes in a similar car drive.

 The ‘business meet’ here turns out to be a pleasure reunion with two of Shekhar’s giggling gay friends, and later it is more of a meeting of stolen glances. The cinematographer again masters at catching reflections.

Shekhar takes the chance and now becomes a ‘Brahmakumari’ and starts giving lessons on simplicity and happiness. He tells her, happiness can be a cup of coffee. She gets motivated and grabs a champagne. ‘Mr. Brahmakumari’ instantly becomes ‘Saint Kabir’ as his ‘disciple’ starts on a ‘drunk dance’. Many of us in the theatre are laughing, when later Shekhar , returns home carrying a sleeping Taran in his arms and informs her sister with an earnest face, “Who Khush thi.” Oh!

Their outings get ‘legalized’ with the gay friends gaily agreeing to help Taran build her Patisserie.  On one such ‘outing’, Shekhar aka ‘Mr.Brahmakumari’ now becomes Akshay Kumar of Khatron ke Khiladi, and almost drags Taran from the car to the end of a dangerous looking cliff, and imagine imagine! They jump off it into the water! And no, they are not hurt, in fact, in the chilling water, they get aroused, and in true Hindi film style Aditya Seal, seals the deal, with a kiss. 

Almost instantly,as if through telepathy, in some never known place,  Amar( who , just in a  towel, seems to have gone for a spa session) opens his eyes, comes out of his coma and sings ‘Country roads, take me home’.

Amar is no less than a celebrity. Strangers at the airport celebrate with dholaks when he arrives. He is the typical ‘take it easy’ guy. 

He takes it easy, when he meets his teary eyed father after eight months of disappearance and casually throws him a flat “How are you Papa”. He takes it easy, in later days, even when his girlfriend starts behaving more like his elder sister.

But Taran, the helpless kitten, on the other hand , is again lost. People lose their hearts in love. Taran, has lost her brains too.

What to do. So between holding hands with Shekhar and 'boohoo' ing with her sisters , she memorizes Amar’s medical prescriptions.

Papaji notices, takes charge again and gives her a brain-booster dialogue.

It shows instant result. The very next morning, a brainwashed Taran, dresses for ‘the occasion’, drags Amar all the way to a Gurudwara , only to dump him there and declare love for Mr.Brahmakumari.

Amar of course, ‘takes it easy’, says ‘No issues at all’ and quickly becomes her ‘best friend forever’. He is so cool about it, that he starts loving his rival Shekhar too. So much so that, now the three of them go for outings! Ouch!

Such easy acceptance shatters Mr.Brahmakumari’s dreams of a bollywood fight, and he decides to break mirrors instead to utilize his muscles. 

Soon, bored of mirrors, he thinks of breaking Taran’s heart instead and goes on to play the bad guy. But his acting is poor, and he gets caught. His ‘secret’ is out too with Papa Ji ditching him big time.

One is again reminded of the mature confession scene of the original film, where brilliant acting hadn’t needed words.

This Shekhar, seems like a confused con as he attempts to make a ‘hasty’ exit and escape. We wonder why?

But finally ‘take-it-easy’ Amar has woken up. He now sees the opportunity of a lifetime for some good dialogue-baazi. So when ‘helpless kitten’ Taran, wishes to speak to Shekhar ‘one last time’, Amar grabs the chance and rash-drives her to the airport.

Flashback to Pia, who handled a similar situation alone. Singlehanded, driving through snow, persuading officials, reaching Shekhar to saying I love you, she did it all with gusto and power. 

Fifteen years later, our female protagonist is frustratingly dependent, and is just a shadow of her man.She just blinks her glycerinated eyes and waits for assurances.  As the two men try to give her up to each other like a trophy in the end, she chooses to just stand in the background and squeeze out more tears. Not a flinch when Amar addresses her as a ‘Bechari’.

More ‘quotable quotes’ follow and by the end of the climax scene, you realise, that you have already picked up your bags and are ready to leave. You are not even interested in knowing who got the girl. 

Because after all this brainwashing melodrama, cool guy Amar too is a changed man, and has become Mr. Brahmakumari II.

Tum Bin II, if not anything else, will surely do one thing for the audience. It will persuade you that you still love only Sandali Sinha as Pia and only Priyangshu Chatterjee as Shekhar. And that you still love the original film much more than ever.