Direction: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Around half an hour into the film, a wannabe politician reasons why Saheb (Jimmy Shergill) hasn't died even after his upper body was gunned: because it's him whose hands he has to die. He is Indrajeet Singh (Irrfan Khan in a brilliantly nuanced role) or the new Gangster. And, we sense the arc of the entire saga building, or the reason why this sequel has been made.
Government is willing to dethrone the anarchy of Saheb, who was left paralysed in a shootout by the Gangster of the previous part (montages of which opens the tacky title credits of this film), who wanted to attain his power, and since then he is routinized into a wheelchair. The new Gangster is no different. He, in fact, promises to destroy Saheb's kingdom in front of the memorial statue of his great-grandfather at his dilapidated ancestral home. He has his love interest in Ranjhana (Soha Ali Khan), daughter of an MLA (Raj Babbar), who is traded off to Saheb as his second wife (logically third as his very first wife is dead).
This new lady Ranjhana, and ever hysterical, and now even more vulnerable Biwi (Mahie Gill) are, quite obviously, the pivots of this lust-betrayal-politics tale for which they play their evoking beauty as their prowess.
Tigmanshu Dhulia knows his North Indian small town roots very well, which is evident since his debut Haasil (2003). He masters in creating lively characters that seems to come straight out of such place, imbibing them with greater details and giving them believable dialogues of that sort. Be it Irrfan's character who has got his mannerisms well with his flaring moustache; or that of an archetypal politician (Rajeev Gupta) who is so illiterate to technology that he gets confused when the video-conference camera is turned suddenly to other persons sitting in the same room!
Such powerful writing has been a forte of Dhulia for which I, personally, reckon him as a better screenwriter than a director. No doubt, he's one of the finest dialogue writer at present in this country among the likes of Vishal Bhardwaj.
Though loaded with applause-seeking, witty dialogues, the film at once or twice appears convoluted; but we are made to believe it: like when Indrajeet's younger brother (Pravesh Rana), a newly recruited policeman and a clear reference to Dabangg's Chulbul Pandey, is coincidentally posted at Deogarh where the entire plot is based, to which Indrajeet finds as a divine intervention.
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns moves with a structured dramatic narrative that usurps you into itself but some loosely edged and abruptly cut scenes jerks you off to indulge with the characters anymore.
There's been infinitely many movies based on the plot of betrayal among two men and a woman, and with every permutations and combinations, the climax may come predictable. But it's the ambition of each character making some calculated moves, in this one, that serves us a satisfying and most befitting climax with a hint to return again.
No matter you liked the first part or not, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns is eloquently entertaining and won't disappoint you anyway.
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