Sunny Deol’s acting takes the standard path. He hollers when he is angry, he scowls when he is flummoxed, and he breathes fire when he means business. It is a style that belongs to the Stone Age. It is amply clear from the very outset that the quaintly antiquated Ghayal Once Again is unlikely to achieve its avowed goal. He has produced, written and directed the film himself, thereby ensuring that he is in virtually every frame.
Ghayal Once Again has an array of efficient supporting actors - Nadira Babbar, Tisca Chopra, Ramesh Deo, Narendra Jha, Mohan Joshi, Zakir Hussain, Harsh Chaya and Sachin Khedekar - but the spotlight is squarely on the very, very angry and focused-on-vengeance Sunny Deol persona.
The former boxer is surrounded by a quartet of youngsters who swear by his messianic zeal.
Having completed his jail term, Ajay Mehra is now the editor of a crusading newspaper titled Satyakam.
One of the girls who joins his fight, the daughter of a high-flying, workaholic woman, blogs about the wages of flawed parenting. And that is among the film’s many pet peeves.
Even the villain’s wayward son is given the benefit of doubt by his own parents - and eventually even the hero - and absolved of personal culpability for turning out to be the obnoxious brat that he is.