‘Gadar 2’ teaser: Sunny Deol returns to Lahore, extracts a wheel

A still from ‘Gadar 2: The Katha Continues’

The makers of Gadar 2: The Katha Continues unveiled the film’s teaser on Monday. Starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, the film is a sequel to the 2001 blockbuster Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.

In the first film, set in 1947, a Sikh truck driver with a golden heart, Tara Singh (Deol), falls in love with Sakeena (Patel), a rich Pakistani woman. Their romance plays out against the bloody carnage of Partition, and continues after the creation of East and West Pakistan.

In Gadar 2, set in 1971, we see Tara Singh journeying once more to Lahore, the seat of Sakeena’s home. He is described in voiceover as ‘damaad’ (son-in-law) of Pakistan. We glimpse posters of ‘Crush India’, a populist anti-India slogan that emerged in Pakistan during the 1971 war. Standing tall in a hostile crowd, Tara Singh once again blows his gasket, uprooting a giant cartwheel this time instead of a handpump and flinging it with force.

The 69-second teaser ends with Tara kneeling mournfully in a burial ground. The film presents, once more, the mingling of personal emotions and nationalistic pride that made the original a hit.

Gadar 2 is directed by Anil Sharma, who also helmed the 2001 original. The director’s son, Utkarsh, who played Tara Singh and Sakeena’s son Charanjeet in the first film, will reprise his role in the follow-up.

The original Gadar was recently re-released in theatres ahead of the sequel. Gadar 2: The Katha Continues will arrive in cinemas on August 11, 2023. Like its predecessor, which had famously locked horns with Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan, Gadar 2 is also in for a box-office clash, with Sandeep Reddy Vanga-Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and Akshay Kumar-led OMG 2 releasing on the same date.