Cast: Kamal Haasan, Siddharth, Priya Bhavanishankar, Jagan, Rakul Preet Singh, Bobby Simha, Vivekh, SJ Suryah, Nedumudi Venu, Thambi Ramaiah, Renuka, Samuthirakani, Kalyani Natarajan, Kalidas Jayaram, Delhi Ganesh, Gulshan Grover and Zakir Hussain
Director: Shankar
Music director: Anirudh Ravichander
Rating: 2/5
Synopsis: As corruption is at its peak across the nation, a bunch of YouTubers start the hashtag of ComeBackIndian that trends globally. Senapathy comes back after 28 years but does he succeed in executing Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's ideology yet again?
'Indian 2' is not just another sequel but the successor of a film that amassed three National Awards in July 1997. Obviously, the expectations from the audience were high on Kamal and Shankar, who have come together 18 years after a mega success.
For the second part, Shankar retains a couple of characters– Senapathy and Krishnasamy from the 1996 story and has freshly cast Siddharth, Priya Bhavanishankar, Vivekh and Bobby Simha as core characters. While it was understood that modern day corruption would be the backbone of the story, has the team stayed true to it? Let's see.
The story opens in Tamil Nadu, where corruption is prevalent across government and private organisations. Some of these end in fatality. While several people are aloof, a handful of YouTubers Chitra Aravindan(Siddharth), Thambesh (Jagan), and Aarthi (Priya Bhavanishankar) voice out on behalf of those affected from these issues. They land in trouble before Chitra Aravindan's girlfriend Disha (Rakul Preet Singh) bails them out. While all these issues go out of hand, they start a campaign with the hashtag of ComeBackIndian that trends globally overnight and even reach the user Sen Indian in Taipei. Nilesh Krishna (Kalidas Jayaram), an Indian working in Taiwan, traces Senapathy and urges him to go to India, and he accepts.
The buildup until here is fine and Shankar succeeds as a filmmaker with these make believe moments for a few minutes in the first half. While we expect things to go uphill in 'Indian 2', it all goes south for'Indian 2'. Hereon, 'Indian 2' becomes a mix of Shankar's previous films, Anniyan, Indian, Gentleman, Mudhalvan, thankfully not Boys and Kaadhalan. Senapathy arrives in India to use, no, to 'flaunt' all his Varma Kalai techniques similar to Anniyan's punishments. There are only a couple of whistle-worthy moments in the first half which are also from Indian 1– the background score by AR Rahman and the tagline of Makkalai Vizhungum Unaku Indha Mannil Idam Edharku. However, Senapathy's killing of Dharshan and Kishan Singh. They not only get preachy and stretched but are also laughable.
The second half too has hardly anything to offer and we are already looking at the countdown timer to this 180-minute film. The intentions are great as the core remains the same. But the execution falls flat. Kamal's prosthetics as Senapathy is a swinging pendulum. It goes from good to bad to worse and back to being a little better again. Thanks to lockdown and other production hurdles. Despite this, Kamal Haasan has delivered a beautiful performance, which is his cup of tea.
It is good to see Vivekh on screen and he isn't a mere comedian in the film. Siddharth plays a heavy role and carries it well as it is more like an extension of his real-life to an extent. The others have nothing much to offer, especially SJ Suryah. It is unjust to underuse a performer like him. We hope Indian 3 does that. Not only that but delivers a better screenplay, and everything else that are fundamentals of a film. The tagline of Zero Tolerance not applies to Senapathy but to the audience as well, who are struggling to sit through this movie.