Fukrey Returns

Fukrey Returns ( Slackers Return) is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. It is a sequel to the 2013 film Fukrey. The film stars Pulkit Samrat, Manjot Singh, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Priya Anand, Vishakha Singh, Pankaj Tripathi, Rajiv Gupta, and Richa Chadda. Fukrey Returns was released on 8 December 2017.

Plot
After their admission into college, life in Delhi is enjoyable for Vikas "Hunny" Gulati, Dilip "Choocha" Singh, Lali, and Zafar. Hunny and Zafar are dating Priya and Neetu respectively, planning to marry them.

Bholi Punjaban is released from jail after 12 months. She sends her henchmen to fetch the quartet. The four are brought to her place along with their acquaintance Pandit. She asks them about their plan to fool her. As the boys convince her, she gives them one chance and invests some money to open a Lottery Shop for them. People are given numbers to which they invest some money. Choocha begins to distribute leaflets around the city and more people invest. Meanwhile, Minister Babulal Bhatia who belongs to Janta Vikas Party, argues with the CM over the next election and bets him to win. The police around the city conduct raids on drugs and fake lottery shops. After finding out the quartet's shop, Babulal orders the lottery to change the winning number that Choocha got from his dream, and everyone who invested money is angered. The people gather around to beat them but they escape by jumping off a flyover in the river. They regain consciousness at a construction area and are spotted by Panditji.

Choocha discovers that he has a new ability to see the future, and calls his new ability Deja Chu. He sees a tiger in a cave & boxes that they believe to contain treasure in his latest Deja Chu. The group is later caught by Bholi who is angered due to their foolishness, and orders to kill them, but Choocha's Deja Chu impresses her and she forgives them. Bholi asks them to find the treasure to which they agree if she releases them. Babulal fears that people will recover their money so he invites the boys to his residence. Panditji is sent in disguise to keep an eye on them. At dinner, the boys are forced to take an oath to help Babulal for their welfare in return. The next day, the boys take the blame instead of Babulal who misused people's money while Bholi goes to the CM to hand some factory papers related to Babulal and after the boys leave, police arrive and raid all the lottery shops in Delhi. The boys return home and see the disappointment in their loved ones. They decide to scheme up to earn more money. The next day, at Pandit's place, Choocha is forced to see a dream where Lali holds a tiger cub.

Meanwhile, Babulal discovers Bholi's plan and ambushes her place. However, he forgives her murder on the pretext to find the treasure. To do so, Bholi calls Hunny for it who requests a tiger cub which she sold. The four friends and Bholi's guards return to the park where they are joined by Priya and Neetu. They dig a hole and enter a cave where they are spotted by the cub's mother. However, after escaping, they are led to a factory with huge stack of illegal goods. They learns that the products are worth ₹ 400 million. Babulal arrives at the place only to discover that the warehouse actually contains Babulal's trade inventory. He is angered and orders to banish them but the police arrive on the scene; while estimating worth, Zafar called the police knowing Babulal bought this from China. Choocha proposes to Bholi to which she responds with a kiss, surprising everyone. Later, the four friends inaugurate an electronics shop with the products they found in the warehouse. The film ends with Hunny, Choocha, and Zafar respectively marrying Priya, Bholi, and Neetu in Goa.

Cast

 * Pulkit Samrat as Vikas Gulati aka Hunny: Lali, Zafar and Choocha's best friend and Priya's husband
 * Manjot Singh as Lali Halwai: Billa's son and Hunny, Zafar and Choocha's best friend
 * Ali Fazal as Zafar Khan: Lali, Hunny and Choocha's best friend and Neetu's husband
 * Varun Sharma as Dilip Singh aka Choocha: Hunny, Zafar and Lali's best friend and Bholi's husband
 * Priya Anand as Priya Sharma: Hunny's girlfriend-turned-wife
 * Vishakha Singh as Neetu Singh: Zafar's girlfriend-turned-wife
 * Pankaj Tripathi as Narayan Pandit "Panditji"
 * Rajiv Gupta as Minister Babulal Bhatia
 * Richa Chaddha as Bholi Punjaban: a former gangster; Choocha's love interest-turned-wife
 * Nalneesh Neel as Mangu
 * Sanjana Sanghi as Katty
 * Pallavi Batra as Namita (hotel receptionist)
 * Purnendu Bhattacharya as Brijmohan (Delhi Chief Minister)
 * V S Prince Ratan as News Reporter
 * Ishtiyak Khan as Tiddey
 * Neelu Kohli as Choocha's mother
 * Chittaranjan Tripathy as Eunuch
 * Shreekant Verma as Babulal P.A.
 * Nataša Stanković in a special appearance in the song "Mehbooba"

Production
On 30 January 2016, a sequel to Fukrey was announced, featuring the original cast, again directed by Lamba and produced by Excel Entertainment. Filming began in August 2016 in Delhi.

Soundtrack
The music of the film is composed by Shaarib-Toshi, Sumeet Bellary, Prem-Hardeep, Jasleen Royal, Gulraj Singh, Shree D and Ishq Bector while the lyrics have been penned by Kumaar, Satya Khare, Aditya Sharma, Shree D, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, Vipul Vig and Raftaar. The first track of the film titled as "Mehbooba" which is sung by Neha Kakkar, Yasser Desai, Mohammed Rafi and rapped by Raftaar was released on 15 November 2017. The soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 16 November 2017.

Critical reception
The film met with mixed reviews from critics.

Times of India gave it a rating of 3.5/5. Koimoi gave it a rating of 3.5/5 and wrote, "Retains the magic of the first part". Bollywood Hungama gave it a rating of 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Fukrey Returns begins on a great note but then turns silly and unconvincing becoming a fun, clean film that works despite the illogical and slightly unconvincing plot." Deccan Chronicle gave it a rating of 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Choocha's hilarious act saves this gritty comedy." Kriti Tulsiani of News18 gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that, "Watch Fukrey Returns if you like but don’t expect the spark of the original. Plus, the giggles are more like a reminder of the original Fukrey and nothing more." Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 saying that, "Blame it on the success of the original or the four-year-gap between the two films, Fukrey Returns isn’t even a patch on Fukrey. Fukrey Returns is a tedious 141-minute watch which is unfunny, unintelligent and repetitive." Namrata Joshi of The Hindu said that, "The novelty and freshness of sleeper hit ‘Fukrey’ wear down drastically in the sequel." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and said that, "This Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma starrer is relentlessly juvenile. The situations are so tired and contrived there’s nothing that even such capable hands as Richa Chadha and Pankaj Tripathi can do, to retain our interest." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that, "Fukrey Returns comes nowhere near being the rip-roaring ride that the 2013 sleeper hit Fukrey. For a film that aspires to be a full-on laugh riot, Fukrey Returns is a bit of a trudge."

Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that, "Fukrey Returns is a sequel that wants to be bigger, better and funnier than the original. In all fairness, it does manage to fulfil its ambitions on two accounts. It is bigger, it is funnier but it's certainly not better." Uday Bhatia of LiveMint wasn't impressed with the movie and said that, "Fukrey was rooted in the everyday: the comedy seemed to arise naturally from the slackers’ surroundings. The sequel, though, has the desperation and unfocussed energy of a work that's not sure why it exists." Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that Fukrey Returns is "a clumsily conceived sequel, a foolhardy endeavour to milk a fluke, an outright bore". Suhani Singh of India Today felt that the "film has little apart from Varun Sharma" and gave it a rating of 1.5 out of 5.

Sequel
A sequel titled Fukrey 3 releasing on 28 September 2023 with the cast of the previous two films minus Ali Fazal, reprising their roles and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba as the director.