Film Review: 'Indian 2 '- Zero Tolerance | Yes, of course for audience

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 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 28 years after that 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 even deaths. While most people stay aloof to the degeneration, a handful of YouTubers, Chitra Aravindan(Siddharth), Thambesh (Jagan), and Aarthi (Priya Bhavanishankar), voice out on behalf of those affected by these issues. They land in trouble before Chitra Aravindan's girlfriend Disha (Rakul Preet Singh) bails them out. While these issues go out of hand, they start a campaign the hashtag 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 agrees.

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 from, it all goes south for Indian 2. Hereon, Indian 2 becomes a mix of Shankar's previous films, Anniyan, Indian, Gentleman, Mudhalvan, though 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, but even they are from Indian 1 - the background score by AR Rahman and the tagline, Makkalai Vizhungum Unaku Indha Mannil Idam Edharku? However, Senapathy's killing of Dharshan and Kishan Singh 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. The final nail in the coffin is when Senapathy throws a kid off his unicycle for his save himself and also blackmails the engine driver of a Metro Rail train to go reverse from where it started, showing that the film deviates from the whole theme of Indian as we know it. 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, that too not as a mere comedian. 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 justice to his talent, and also delivers a better screenplay, and everything else that are fundamental to filmmaking. The tagline, Zero Tolerance, not only applies to Senapathy but to the audience as well, who are struggling to sit through this movie.