A witty, uneven yet engaging romantic comedy, De De Pyaar De 2 explores age-gap love with humour, nostalgia, and emotional warmth, delivering charming performances even as its stretched narrative wobbles between breezy fun and conflicted modernity. Review by Arnab Banerjee. 

De De Pyaar De 2 is a contemporary Hindi rom-com featuring Ajay Devgn, R. Madhavan and Rakul Preet Singh, blending comedy, family drama and emotional conflict. With age-gap romance, strong performances and relatable modern themes, the film appeals to audiences seeking fresh, feel-good entertainment rooted in today’s relationships and cultural complexities.

A Breezy, Wobbly Stretched Rom-Com That Charms – Just About

Director: Anshul Sharma

Written by: Luv Ranjan, Tarun Jain

Story: Luv Ranjan

Starring: Ajay Devgn, R. Madhavan, Rakul Preet Singh, Gauthami Kapoor, Javed Jaffrey, Meezaan Jafferi, Ishita Dutta, Suhasini Mulay

Cinematography: Sudhir K. Chaudhary

Music (Songs): Yo Yo Honey Singh, Jaani, Aditya Dev–Payal Dev, Avvy Sra, Sagar Bhatia

Duration: 146 minutes

Rating: ★★½

That an older gentleman should tumble helplessly into infatuation with a sprightly young woman is hardly the stuff of headlines; it is practically a civic tradition in our cinema. But that a vivacious, bubble-gum-bright twenty-something should lose her heart to a much-married man with two full-grown offspring is an exotic rarity—particularly in the hallowed halls of Hindi films. The former trope has been inspected from every possible angle: by R. Balki with his Big-B-powered reverie Shabd, by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s Aks, and even by Basu Chatterjee’s Shaukeen, that unabashed comedy of lecherous seniors on the loose. Yet the idea of a 50-plus man seeking romantic renewal with a partner who isn’t his first, but his wife—round two—remains something our storytellers regard with the suspicion usually reserved for budget overruns.

A Modern Twist on Familiar Tropes

Enter De De Pyaar De 2, starring Ajay Devgn, R. Madhavan and Rakul Preet Singh—an outing that glides along as a romantic comedy under Anshul Sharma’s direction, with Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain on writing duties, and functioning as a surprisingly sprightly sequel to De De Pyaar De.

And yes, it is 2025. We have long bid adieu to the cheerless archetype of the eternally suffering wife (Main Chup Rahungi), forever genuflecting at the altar of patriarchal expectation. Instead we meet a New Age woman—Tabu, luminous as ever—who departs her marriage with enviable grace, practically gift-wrapping her husband’s second innings.

Having met the estranged first wife in De De Pyaar De, we now graduate to the soon-to-be-estranged parents. In this chapter, 28-year-old Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh) ushers her 52-year-old beloved Ashish (Ajay Devgn) into the presence of her parents—Rakesh (R. Madhavan) and Anju (Gautami Kapoor)—who, in an effort to exhibit their progressive credentials, insist on referring to each other as “Rajji,” as if marital harmony were a government-issued certificate of modernity.

Alas, even this united front of enlightenment cannot conceal their horror when their grown daughter brings home a suitor who is not only older than Papa Rajji but also divorced and already seasoned in the business of child-rearing.

Laughs, Kalesh and Narrative Overstretch

The film charms because it never pretends to be more than it is: a breezy, lightly chaotic exploration of contemporary relationships. A touch of editorial pruning might have cured it of some tonal hiccups, while allowing its sharp repartee and the characters’ delightful talent for conversational self-sabotage to shine brighter.

Once the preliminaries are dispensed with, the film lifts off with unexpected confidence, occasionally even surpassing its predecessor. Writers Luv Sharma/Tarun Jain and director Anshul Sharma, picking up the baton from the original, keep reminding us—rather vociferously—that their characters are “educated, progressive log,” though they waver midway, as if the sheer modernity of it all were proving a bit much. For if accepting a man nearly double their daughter’s age is the true test of their enlightenment, then the ensuing fireworks are a masterclass in cognitive dissonance.

Naturally, the customary fun-and-games ensue. After all, what self-respecting desi mom and dad—no matter how “modern”—can welcome a prospective son-in-law who could just as easily be their contemporary, without producing at least a modest avalanche of kalesh? And since co-producer Luv Ranjan wields the pen here (as he did in the first instalment), we know to expect that signature cocktail of the new and the nostalgically old: Suhasini Mulay as a grandmother endowed with formidable recall, Ishita Dutta as a serene, heavily pregnant sister-in-law, Tarun Gahlot as the dependable elder brother, and Meezaan Jafferi giving textbook “green flag” energy.

There are several such uproariously funny moments, but they are scattered rather sparsely across the film’s overstretched 147-minute runtime. The creators seem to have taken a premise poised delicately between a modernised Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and full-blown screwball comedy—and then tugged at it so insistently that the narrative very nearly frays at the seams.

Performances That Lift the Film

At times, I suspect that the lingering DDLJ and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai hangover—still enchantingly potent nearly three decades on—may be more hindrance than help. Filmmakers seem unable to wean themselves off the grand, cathartic, declaration-laden climax, the sort of emotional crescendo designed to justify a three-hour pilgrimage to the theatre. It is as though the finale, not the film, has become the raison d’être of the entire cinematic experience.

At times, De De Pyaar De 2 feels like too good to be true. Yet the portions that land—particularly Ayesha’s steadfast refusal to be instructed by the men in her life on whom to love and how to live—elevate the film beyond the expected.
Overall, the film glides along with an airy, good-humoured charm—buoyed chiefly by Madhavan, who leads the procession with effortless panache. Impeccably dapper, he seasons the narrative with just the right dash of comic buoyancy, yet can pivot to quiet, affecting emotion with such deftness that one can hear an entire theatre discreetly reaching for its handkerchiefs.
Rakul Preet complements him beautifully, injecting sparkle and vitality while deploying her lachrymal talents with surgical precision—never too much, never too little, always just right.

Ajay Devgn, however, appears content to remain in his well-worn comfort zone, serving up his trademark stoicism and poker-faced delivery with unwavering devotion. It is a performance less inhabited than repeated, though not without its familiar, if limited, charm!