There is this wonderful Tamil movie called ‘Sathi Leelavathi’ where Kamal did more than
a cameo as a bumbling-Kongu-speaking-doctor. We watched that movie many times
only for Kamal’s portions, well, even for Kalpana’s portions and for that dog
Sabapathy. 😊 Such was the gravitas that the man had
and the adoring following that he commanded.
Fast forward 30 years, in #Indian2 too, Kamal does a bit more than a cameo (45 mins screen time in a 3-hour movie qualifies as one, doesn’t it?). Well, the comparison ends there, I think.
Indian 2 promises
to deliver a Double Track Mission, where a centenarian Kamal twists his digits
to Varmify the big baddies while he exhorts the ‘gullible’ youth to use their
phones to fight the baddies at home. Swachch Ghar. Swachch Bharat. Swachch
Duniya. Right? Right.
As viewers
we are also taken on a Double Track:
- where
an all-prosthetic Kamal, just ambles along and writes the same old ‘You greedy
oaf! Why must you live?’ rhetoric in all languages at odd places including the underbelly
of a baby tortoise! Where is the SPCA, I say? Oh, he creates it using spit in
vacuum also! What an imagination, SirJi!
- where
a sample ‘privileged’ youth expose their own family members who are corrupt,
inept and incompetent.
And
honestly, the second track was better than the former!
There, I
said it. Here is a Kamal movie where one did not look forward to him appearing
on screen. What a great downfall?!
It is not
as if the second track is something worth watching. It was kitschy,
mega-serial-like, you-knew-everything-including-the-camera-angles-beforehand,
the big reveals were yawn-inducing – come on, I am getting tired just typing
all that. Yet, it was just that bit more watchable purely for the premise of
how a family/society would react to one of their own turning against the family.
One could
relate to that portion as I was reminded of a recent interview by an Indian influencer
saying that corruption is the oil that runs the machinery of the government! Corruption
is so all-pervasive, that people are even questioning how a vigilante movie
fighting corruption can succeed!
Perhaps
this is the worst album of Anirudh. I guess he was fell asleep by what he saw
on the screen – so much so, he had the same BGM on loop for the entire 2nd
half!
Less said about Shankar the better. The man lost his touch roughly after two-thirds of Endiran (Robot) itself. All the references to his own movies in Indian 2 are probably an indication that he is about to hang his boots. Maybe he should, Velpaari or not.
No, I am
not going to talk about the garish sets, more garish costumes, unwanted
Bolivian ‘item’ song with a Miss Universe 2017 thrown in, irony of CBI
convincing the judge to release Indian…
I thought that Billa2 was the worst sequel (or was it a prequel?) ever made in Tamil movies. Now it can rest easy as the second worst.
Indian2 –
Double Track Mission – Both Unaccomplished!
PS1: KH
said that he did this movie because of #Indian3. Will people be so naïve to
come and watch anti-aged KH doing the same thing again, i.e., serving trash? I
doubt it.
PS2: The
subliminal message of Gandhi-track (go the non-violent way) and Netaji-track (unweed
through violence) is a good premise. It is easy to pick up the knife and kill the
baddies. Quite digital, it is. But to resist it and take the Gandhian approach
in life – so wonderfully captured in History of Violence/Leo - is fraught with
extreme struggles and one must face numerous greyish situations inducing oodles
of self-doubt; often one will be tempted to #GoBack and once you do so, it is
so difficult to #ComeBack as well. It is tough to be a Gandhi. (Well,
I had to think long and hard to write something good about the movie. So,
appreciate me for that! 😉)
#sriGINthoughts
#reviews #Tamil #Indian2
