2 Harihar Nagar, begins with the establishment of friendship between the four leads in their school days [a stamp of Siddique-Lal school of filmmaking from Kabuliwalla onwards]. Next, a voiceover tells us about the progress our beloved rascals have made in life since we last met them.
So, Govindankutty with an abbreviated Goku (Siddique) as his name has become a successful builder, married but still childless. His justification; there is still romance in his life. So, children can wait.
Mahadevan (Mukesh) has become a successful new age guru, giving pep talk to school kids in the Gulf. His love life on the other hand is another matter as he is separated from his wife. Appukuttan (Jagadeesh) is a dentist with twin boys. The last one in the group, Thomaskutty (Asokan) is kissing bachelorhood goodbye as he is going to marry shortly.
It is Thomaskutty's betrothal and wedding for which the four reunite in Harihar Nagar and try to reignite the youthful mischief for a few days, which they had missed after being separated from each other.
The story is not much different from the original. In the original, four bachelors tried to woo a beauty who had come into their neighbourhood, which led to commotion, action and suspense in the second half of the film. Here in the new version, Lal keeps the story and the mould the same. The only difference is that the protagonists have grown older [but not necessarily wiser]. Still, it works mainly because it is rooted to the original, and the makers have taken care to make us nostalgic by showing us the snippets of the first part when the credits roll in.
The first half is full of wacky dialogues, situations and, in the second half, the terrific twist in the climax makes it a crackling show. 2 Harihar Nagar is just what intelligent filmmaking is all about and, no wonder, this delightful comedy is a winner from the word go.
