After a slew of underwhelming films, it seems like Sunil got sucked into another of one such browbeaten comedy. 2 Countries, the remake of the Malayalam hit, didn’t retain the impact and the quality of the original evidently, considering the lacklustre execution and haywire comedy-tracks. Ullas (Sunil) is a 30-something man who is willing to do anything for money. To further his greed, he promises to marry the village goon, Patel’s wheelchair-bound daughter.
However when he gets acquainted with Laya (Manisha Raj), his childhood sweetheart but more importantly a richer prospect, he ditches Patel’s daughter. Now Ullas finds that Laya who is to inherit a huge fortune, has her assets frozen, because she is an alcoholic. Ullas in a drunken stupor doesn’t pay attention to Laya when she admits that to him before the wedding. After a few difficult days with his alcoholic wife, he flies to Canada along with Laya, to flee from Patel.
In Canada despite some friction, Ullas on finding out about Laya’s difficult childhood leading to alcoholism, and her otherwise good nature begins to fall for . But when Laya finds out about Ullas’ initial reasons for getting married, she seeks divorce. Ullas claiming that Laya, an alcoholic is incapable of taking decisions gets the court to send her to rehab, while Laya gets treated out of spite towards Ullas, such that he doesn’t get her inheritance. How the couple ends up together despite the odds forms the rest of the story.
Sunil sticks to his trademark style of comedy, with loud and expressive punchlines and squeaky voices. To his defence, it does work in favour of the film in parts, where you can’t help but chuckle. On the whole otherwise, one can barely call 2 Countries, a comedy. Manisha Raj looks beatiful on-screen and also delivers a decent performance. Music is nothing to be excited about while the camerawork too is unremarkable.
Running two hours and 41 minutes, 2 Countries, is long and tiring. The moments in the story between the husband and wife which could’ve been quite heartwarming if paid attention to were wrapped up in a hurry. The forcible and fake accented Telugu of the NRIs in the film was painful to follow and impossible to take seriously, saying the least. As much as you look forward to see what happens in the actual plotline, you are distracted with the mish-mash of random scenes, sequences and Tollywood references. While the story borrowed from our Malayali neighbours bears worth, the adaptation groans under the weight of poor execution.