Cinematographer Soumik Haldar’s debut feature film Abar Bibaho Obhijaan is one of those sequels that are better than their original. It’s a slapstick comedy of the Sajid Khan-Anees Bazmee brand, with the three men from the 2019 film directed by Birsa Dasgupta back for some more matrimonial misadventures.
The sequel begins with the two friends Anupam (Ankush Hazra) and Rajat (Rudranil Ghosh) desperately looking for a break from their monotonous married life — with Rai (Nusraat Faria) and Maya (Sohini Sarkar), respectively. Opportunity knocks in the form of Bullet Singh aka Gansha (Anirban Bhattacharya), the dacoit who was put behind bars in the first film and has now been released from jail.
Gansha has inherited property to the tune of Rs 100 crore in Thailand and has to claim it within three days. He wants Anupam and Rajat to get a share of his inheritance since they were instrumental in helping him woo Malati (Priyanka Sarkar) in the previous film.
Following the comedy template, things go topsy-turvy the moment the trio set foot on foreign soil. They get dragged into a financial fraud case, which triggers a series of hilarious encounters and twists and turns that keep the laughs coming.
The camaraderie of the trio is spot on and the chemistry between Anirban, Ankush and Rudranil shines through in their comic timing and the ease with which they deliver the punchlines.
As their wives/romantic interest, Priyanka Sarkar, Nusraat Faria and Sohini Sarkar add variety by bringing their own quirks to their characters. Saurav Das, the newest addition in the sequel, is delightful as gangster Michael. His exchanges with Ankush’s Anupam will leave you in splits.
The strength of Abar Bibaho Obhijaan lies in its screenplay written by Rudranil Ghosh. It is laced with humour and clever one-liners. The dialogues are sharp and make the most of the colloquial language. The climax, where Rudranil’s Rajat pretends to be dead, is the icing on the cake, with a clear hangover of the climax scene from Anees Bazmee’s Welcome.
Abar Bibaho Obhijaan is also a visual treat, with Animesh Ghorui’s camera capturing the beauty of Thailand’s landscapes. The beaches and bustling city life form the perfect backdrop to the dance sequences, set to music by Jeet Gannguli.
