Tum Bin 2 Hindi Movie Review

What is a sequel? Is it to carry the tale ahead? Is it to familiarise the viewer to the cast and overcome the need to establish the backdrop and the characters? Is it just a franchise? Or is it repeat the story with the fond hope that the audience has better things to do then recall the earlier outing? Tum Bin operates on the premise that the viewer has well and surely forgotten the tale told many years ago and will not guess the twists and turns that the latest damp offering has in store.
Also the film maker (Anubhav Sinha) tread and does so ever so slowly in foreign locales telling us the same story. The love triangle is arguably the most geesa peeta hua kahanin of our times. One can only augment it by a style quotient or by throwing in treatment that would overtake the content. This time it is neither. In fact, there is a scene in the film when the three principal characters cry out loudly in helplessness. They have the luxury and are paid to do it. The audience too are in the same mental framework, only they cannot scream their agony.
We have a couple out on a long journey with the guy Amar (Aashim Gulati – as stiff as Vinod Mehra) and his fiancée Taran (Neha Sharma). Soon the trip turns into a major tragedy with the adventurous Amar going out skiing and meeting with an accident. He is believed to be dead after many searches prove futile. Papaji (Kanwaljeet Singh) helps the devastated Taran and her siblings Manpreet (Meher Vij) and Gurpreet (Sonia Balani) overcome the tragedy. Into the scenario walks in a young man Shekar (Aditya Seal) who has been an orphan and thus empathises with pain and suffering of the recent tragedy.
You do not have to be a film buff to know that it is going to be love between Shekar and Taran and the conflict is sooner than later going to be with the return of the lost. In the meanwhile, you get a lot of gyan on how to live life, what love truly is and a near crash course on how you must deal with life and live. Yawn.
The movie stretches for about two and half hours with songs (a saving grace) punctuated every once in a way. The cinematography (Ewan Mulligan) is top class. Most of everything else is not. The cast simply does not click. For instance, Aashim Gulati looks like he is yet to decide whether he wants to follow Sid Malhotra or Aditya Roy Kapoor. Dazed he is throughout the film. Neha Sharma is a huge let down. She could give Kim Sharma the run for her money. With such thoughtless casting the film refuses to infuse any energy and the lethargy grows over you. Aaditya Seal is the guy who alongside Sonia Balani try to infuse some sincerity and energy respectively to the film. Not enough. Surely not to exchange valuable currency.

Rating: 1.5 stars
– Very lethargic
+ music and cinematography

L. Ravichander.