Film Review: 'Maari 2': A sequel that needn’t have been made

An angry Tovino Thomas, who plays the villain known as Beeja aka Thanatos aka the personification of death according to Greek mythology, wants to take revenge on Maari because the latter had murdered Beeja’s brother, a scheming lawyer. Whether he manages to kill Maari or not is what audiences are supposed to be left waiting for through the movie.

But this doesn’t happen for we know right from the beginning what is to come. The predictable plot ensures a girl saunters into Maari’s life and helps the rowdy turn over a new leaf, and despite 100-plus attempts by various gangsters to take Maari’s life, he doesn’t die. He remains alive like a cat with nine lives and finally, becomes the ‘daddy of the baddy’ and beats him to pulp in the climax.

What happens in between can entertain viewers in parts, in terms of Dhanush’s playful expressions in the first half mixed with timely and funny one-liners by Sani (Robo Shankar). Sai Pallavi plays Dhanush’s love interest in the film and begins as the confident autorickshaw driver Arrathu Anandhi, who can confront any rowdy with ease.

Somewhere along the journey, however, she goes from being independent and self-sufficient to meek wife who becomes ‘shy’ if Maari even speaks. The height is when she too begins sporting Dhanush’s trademark rudraksh bead on a black thread, post their wedding! Her sincere, one-sided love for the don — that he constantly fails to acknowledge throughout the first half — only gets her nearly killed. Let’s just say that the love story is destined to have a tragic end from the beginning.

Moving on, no attempts to compare the film to the prequel have been made so far, consciously, but it hits like a truck when it comes to the music and background score… rather the lack of it. The prequel had a ‘mass’ factor to it largely due to Anirudh’s compositions but Yuvan Shankar Raja completely fails to score. Pun intended. The title track is weak, the duet is unnecessary and what makes the Rowdy Baby track alone stand out is Prabhu Deva’s stunning and unique choreography coupled with the lead pair’s dance moves.

Balaji Mohan’s voice or touch seems to be missing in the film, which makes us wonder why this sequel was made in the first place. Vasuki Bhaskar’s costumes don’t make a shattering impact, neither does the cinematography. Tovino and Krishna’s (Dhanush’s friend Kalai) acting skills are commendable. A plus point is that the former has dubbed for himself, which keeps at least some aspect of this film realistic. The only brownie point the Maari 2 team earns is for the film not being slow-paced and most of the dialogues don’t seem unnecessary; surprisingly even the punch phrase senjiruven isn’t done to death.

If you’re wondering why there hasn’t been a mention of Varalakshmi Sarathkumar (Vijaya Chamundeswari IAS) until now, that’s because she is barely there in the film, let alone make an impact. For all the (forced) wisdom on women empowerment that our darling don spurts, we wish a better use of the female characters had been made. Moral of the story, if anyone felt Maari was bad, then this sequal is its dad.