IBTimes India Rating: 2

A mild research on John Abraham's resume and one is sure to find out the reason why he plays best as a second fiddle in comic capers. "Garam Masala", "Dostana", "Housefull 2", and "Desi Boyz" had mainstream co-actors giving this gentleman a hand with this work. Unfortunately, In "Welcome Back" John is seen putting out gags all by himself.  

But it's not all his fault. The director and the ensemble cast need to share the blame equally for making a film that just cannot live up to its prequel.

Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) and Majnu Bhai (Anil Kapoor) have given up on their dark past to become respectable businessmen in the UAE. The transition comes with a price, which mostly was paid by the audience.

To watch these two walk the Middle-Eastern streets in shiny, fancy clothes is damaging, but what gets worse is the news of them having fallen for a con-woman Babita (Dimple Kapadia), who lays down a condition for the boys to look out for a groom for their sister, Ranjana (Dimple Kapadia).

Browsing for an eligible bachelor leads them to Ajju (John), who is not shareef  by Uday's standards and as luck would have it, he's Dr Ghungroo's (Paresh Rawal) stepson.

Just when things couldn't get any terrible, partially-blind Wanted Bhai (Naseeruddin Shah) walks into the story with absolute no purpose.

Director Anees Bazmee clearly appears confused and his film makes no sense after a point of time with all the characters thrown into the narrative at random. However, his failure to pull this one off is not only on him as the actors too haven't fared well.

John tries his best to fill in for Akshay Kumar, while Nana and Anil do a mediocre job of delivering one-liners. Shruti is only used as an accessory and Naseeruddin is unnecessary.  

In a nutshell, this film isn't as warm and welcoming as promised in the trailers.

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