#Indian2 Review

#Indian2

Tamil - 2024 

Starring : Kamal Haasan , Siddharth, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Bobby Simha, Nedumudi Venu , Rakul Preet, Jegan, Samuthirakani, Vivek and SJ Suriyah

Directed by Shankar

Plot : Senapathy who is now living a peaceful life in Taipei City, returns to India to aid Chitra Aravindan a Social Media Activist who exposes corrupt officers. What follows is a cat and mouse between Senapathy, The Police and the Corrupt Officials .

Performance wise, Kamal as Senapathy is decent. The Prosthetic looks very bad at times which makes the performance also look average. The Antics of a 100+ Old Man is explained but is not justified properly. After Kamal , Sidharth gets a meaty role and has done a decent job. Bobby Simha as the Police does exactly what Nedumudi Venu did in the Prequel. Other than this , Jegan , Samuthirakani, Vivek, PBS and Rakul get a very minimal role and have done what is required for that minimal role. Samuthirakani and Vivek from this lot get a better role. SJ Suriyah in a Cameo shines. Same with Nedumudi Venu too. The Villains casting could've been much better and powerful. Except SJS , Everyone else like Gulshan, Zakir, Piyush etc looked so out of place and their performance was amateurish.

Technically the film is partially successful. Ravi Varman's Cinematography work is top notch. Especially in moco bot and songs. Anirudh's BGMs are average. His re-rendition of ARR Bgms are great other than that , his bgms are strictly average. Editing by Sreekar Prasad could've been much much better in terms of sharpness and crispness. Special Mention to Muthuraj's Terrific Sets and Production designs. 

The Film opens on a promising note with explanation about Sidharth's Gang and the current level of corruption. The film then quickly progresses about Senapathy and his whereabouts. Post that, the Murder sequences start that actually begin to look very funny and spoofy. The Seriousness of Prequel with respect to this was missing. It felt as if they were making fun of the Prequel. There is a thin line between showcasing unique punishments, which when crossed looks like a joke and that is exactly what Indian 2 does.After a very uninspiring First Half, The Second Half starts which again goes very haphazardily and somewhat concludes on a very shaky note. The Entire Pre climax chase and climax fight looked very silly.

Coming upon the Negatives, The writing part felt very subpar. The film discusses on some important aspects such as how Media influences Mass Decisions , Self awareness about being Anti-Corrupt , etc but none of them land at the intensity it was supposed to be . This is mainly due to the bad writing. The Dialogues which were the major plus of the Prequel felt too bad and horrible in this . The Prosthetic which looked good in someplaces looked very funny and bad in major places. Also due to incomplete characteristions , the Emotional Connect with the core characters were completely missing. The Villain Characterisations all are inspired from real life characters. If you get the references, then you will understand the villain seriousness but if you don't, the villains will look caricaturish to you. The Climax Shirtless Fight which was meant to be mass looked very funny on screen considering the character's age on mind.

Coming to Writer - Director Shankar , his vision is applaudable, his making is terrific but his writing is very wobbly in this film. The Core plot which was very short felt like it was stretched beyond a point to make it a Two-Part film consciously. Due to this major of Sequences felt repeated and Dragged. Also thr Insertion of 3 Songs back to back within the first 30 mins really ruined the pace. Unfortunately, this might be Shankar's Most Underwhelming Project till date on par with 2.0 and once again is a proof that good intentions and messages do not always translate into good movies. The Project which demanded 6 years, demanded a better writing. Still can be watched once for Kamal's Saving Grace performance forgetting the Prequel and watching this as a standalone. Loved the Lead for 3 which was actually the really fantastic part of this average outing.

Highlights : 

1) Innovative Idea regarding Sid and his team's work 

2) Incorporation of Real Life incidents into a fictional situation 

3) Kamal's Earnest Performance 

4)SJS Cameo and Last 10 mins

5) Lead for Indian 3 : War Mode

Overall : Indian 2 is a Underwhelming film from Shankar that highly depends upon the Nostalgia of Indian and the aura of Senapathy played by Kamal. Though these are exactly what salvage this film till an extent , the same cannot be said with the remaining half.

Rating : 2.25-2.5/5

Television Rights: Kalaignar TV

Satellite Rights : Netflix