'SOTY 2' looks like carnival of cornball antics

Mumbai: To his credit, the high-profile Karan Johar gave us three stars, or maybe just two, in "Student of The Year. Now, the sequel promises to give us two stars again.

They are Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria, one an industry girl and the other an outsider -- so Kangana Ranaut should be happy. The other protagonist Tiger Shroff is already a star. He balances out the glam-factor on both sides.

This is "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" dropped down to ground level.

Tiger jumps high, somersaults and flips through the trailer with high-octane gusto. He is a pleasure to behold. The two debutante leading ladies can't even dream of matching strides with our Tiger in the woods. They don't even try. Strutting in brief skirts, they look like eyecandy at their candiest. Can't run because the high heels are too high, types.

The first "Student Of The Year" gave us at least one fine actor in Rishi Kapoor, who played the gay principal with a crush on the sports coach. The principal in the sequel, Sameer Soni, looks more like wallpaper that has seen better days, more crushed than crush-worthy.

The love triangle (yawn!) has the two girls as possessive props, or so they seem in the trailer. Maybe they are more fleshed out and less skimpy in the film itself. Who knows? All kinds of miracles happen in the magic of the movies. "Student Of The Year" gave us the incandescent Alia Bhatt.

Every frame of "Student Of The Year 2" looks too over-saturated with colour and laden with gaudiness to leave any room for even an iota of incandescence.

The campus of St. Teresa brims over with exuberance. This is Enid Blyton's world spiced up with some sexy spectacle. This is a world of elitist education where students drive in to campus in Porches and leave with two girlfriends for an evening of pleasure after receiving their education in the Karan Johar school of enlightenment.

Besides verifying the already known fact that Tiger Shroff is the most agile star of today, "Student Of The Year 2" doesn't have anything new to offer. Except, of course, the clothes and the vehicles. The faces have changed. But the battles are still purely infantile. Bright but bland.