The best thing about going to watch a movie like Son of Sardaar 2 is that you enter the theatre with zero expectations. Willing to let go of your better and finer senses for the duration of the film, you are prepared for excesses of all kinds and for the sensory assault that lies in store for you, simply to indulge in some moments of harmless fun and laughter.

The makers of Son of Sardaar 2, however, had other plans for its audience. A sequel that has no connection to its predecessor, it leads us into a genre of filmmaking that can best be described as ambitious. Though replete with colourful characters, the standard shenanigans, and sprinkled liberally with boisterous song-and-dance sequences in spectacular locations, Son of Sardaar 2 tells us a story so loaded with value education lessons that it can put a preacher of morals and ethics to shame.

A storyline featuring multiple characters in complicated romantic relationships starts off proceedings on a predictable note, but the film’s robust humour quotient in the first half fortunately keeps matters from progressing towards a didactic route. An outrageously chaotic sequence of events and some genuinely funny scenes ensure that the interest level is sustained at a consistently high level. But the second half disturbs the happy-go-lucky momentum of the story and strains the patience of the viewers by adding elements (like substance abuse and an unnatural death) that are best left out of a comedy film. When every character’s back story is dug out and dissected in public at the scene of a wedding party, the film devolves into an "emotion and action ka bhandar", which seems like so much extra, unnecessary baggage. The film’s not-so-subtly delivered memo that everybody has a past that may or may not be honourable but that they deserve a chance at a better future anyway, appears misplaced. The complex issue of Indo-Pakistan dynamics is, however, handled in the film in a humorous and clever way.

What keeps the story together is the performance of its ensemble cast of actors who, to be fair to them, are all at the top of their game. Sought to be projected as the proverbial good guy, Ajay Devgn as Jassi Randhawa, the titular character, wears an expression of injured innocence for the most part, bringing on the laughs only when he finally breaks free from its shackles. Mrunal Thakur as Rabya is wonderful as the independent, modern woman, determined to get her ex-lover’s daughter Saba (Roshni Walia) married to the man of her dreams. Jassi and Rabya’s love story is handled beautifully by both actors, their on-screen chemistry not getting in the way of the comic element of the film, rather adding an additional dimension to it. More than Jassi, it is Rabya who is the focal point of the story. She commands the action, falling in love and out of it, making her own decisions and taking responsibility for them.

Nonetheless, Ravi Kishan as Raja, the super-rich sheep breeder and the father of Saba’s boyfriend Gogi, is the one who steals the spotlight in Son of Sardaar 2. Effortlessly comic, he lights up any scene he is part of, with his larger-than-life persona and his battalion of formidable-looking step-brothers and henchmen. His over-the-top patriotic fervour and his regressive attitude towards family pedigree and family honour elicit laughter more than they incite the audience’s judgment. Chunky Panday in a bit role as Saba’s estranged father also adds some memorable moments to the climax, which consists of a hurried and convenient disentanglement of the plot twists to ensure that the film ends on a note of "all’s well that ends well".