Indian 2 Cast: Kamal Haasan, S. J. Surya, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Kajal Aggarwal, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Nedumudi Venu, Vivek, Kalidas Jayaram, Gulshan Grover, Samuthirakani, Bobby Simha, and Brahmanandam.
Crew:
Cinematography by Ravi Varman
Music composed by Anirudh Ravichander
Produced by Subaskaran Allirajah, M ShenbagaMoorthy, GKM Tamil Kumaran
Written & Directed by S Shankar
Indian 2 Movie Rating: 2/5
Shankar has delivered many cult blockbusters but his most memorable film still remains to be Indian / Bharateeyudu. In fact, the film made him one of the most sought after directors in Indian Cinema for giving such a strong social message against corruption with all commercial elements intact. Now, he has decided to bring back Indian with the sequel Bharateeyudu 2 / Indian 2 with Kamal Haasan reprising Senapathy character again. Recent sensational composer Anirudh Ravichander composed music for this one, that too after Vikram for Kamal Haasan. Movie released worldwide on 12th July and let’s discuss about it in detail.
Plot:
Social media influencers named “Barking Dogs” present current issues based on relentless corruption on their YouTube Channel in form of consumable videos. Chitra Aravind(Siddharth) and his group of his friends run this channel. Chitra’s father is a Vigilance Officer(Samuthirakani) and he supports Chitra in his fight for social justice. Frustrated with no change in the society with their continued fight, Chitra says Indian(Kamal Haasan) should come back in any form. He believes Indian could be alive.
He starts a social media campaign #ComeBackIndian. And proving his intuition right, Indian is alive in Taipei with a different name. CBI officer Pramod(Bobby Simha), son of Krishna Swamy(Nedimudi Venu) make it his life ambition to catch Indian. Now, Indian starts his mission and announces his plan to involve every citizen, making it a two track mission. But in this process, same people start hating him and say #GoBackIndian. Why? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
Bharateeyudu became a cult blockbuster because of the characters like Senapathy and the journey he goes through before becoming Indian Thatha. But here, asking him to come back and then go back both seem like references to Gandhian & Subash Chandra Bose movements in Indian Freedom Revolution like Simon Go Back & “Tum Mujhe Khun Do Mein Tumhe Azaadi Doonga”, respectively. The non-violent agitations needed people to be strong from inside while Azad Hindu Fauj needed similar yet bloody sacrifices. Here though, you tend to feel like Shankar took them both ideologies to extremes with people being too selfish for accepting any kind of sacrifice either in non-violent way or in violent way.
The idea of an once idolized man being demonized is great but old Shankar would have scripted everything around that aspect. Here, he just over stretched things for the sake of it. Emotional connect with Bharateeyudu, Indian thatha goes missing as he is reduced to a vigilante with Varmam kala explorer. While back stories behind the murders, the present scenario of corrupt system does seem to have been edited in a reflective way, still it seems random and last minute thought rather than a well crafted, executed process. Shankar still has it in him to think of brilliant ideas but his execution seems to have gone haywire with “stretching” every “stitch” issue.
Kamal Haasan has once again delivered a splendid performance but movie tries hard to be about Siddharth, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Jagan. It tries to make us connect with the two track mission of eliminating corruption from our families, as well along with the system. The kind of two parallel with two track Indian Freedom Movement did not come out on screen with same vigor and depth. SJ Suryah, Samuthirakani and many actors are part of the cast but no one’s character really stays with us as every headline seems to have been included in the story, screenplay.
Writing and execution wise this would be much more weaker film than I from Shankar. Anirudh Ravichander’s BGM did not work while he used original score themes composed by AR Rahman at several places as well. Cinematography and production values are top notch but writing and editing should have been far far better. On the whole, the movie ends to be a forgettable one from Shankar that too with Indian Thatha in the lead role.
Positives:
Kamal Haasan’s performance
Production Values
Several ideas
Nobility behind Two Track Mission
Negatives:
Scrambled Writing
Haywire Execution
Random scenes
Lethargic Narrative
BGM by Anirudh
Indian 2 Movie Bottom-line: Meaningless Come Back
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