'Bharateeyudu 2' Movie Review

'Bharateeyudu 2' Movie Review

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Priya Bhavani Shankar, SJ Suriya, Bobby Simha, Samuthirakani, Vivek, Venu, Kalidas Jayaram and others.

Music: Anirudh Ravichander

Cinematography: Ravi Varman

Dialogues: Hanuman Chowdary

Producer: Subaskaran

Writer – Director: Shankar

'Bharateeyudu' is an iconic movie delivered by Shankar and Kamal Haasan 28 years back. Though it is a Tamil film for its namesake, people across the country were impressed with it. The movie was a huge blockbuster in all languages. After all these years, Shankar and Kamal reunited once again to make a sequel of 'Bharateeyudu'. The trailer and other promotional content did not meet the expectations and let us dive into the review to find out more about this film.

Story:

Aravind (Siddharth) and his friends run a YouTube channel named Barking Dogs. Through this channel, they expose the corruption and injustice in the society. But his efforts to stop corruption reach nowhere through these activities. He believes that Senapathi (Kamal Haasan) needs to comeback in order to clean all the corruption in this country. He starts a social media campaign named 'Come Back Indian'. His efforts work out as Senapathi who was living in a Chinese Martial Arts training centre decides to come out. What does Senapathi encounter after returning to the country? How will he react to it? What change does he bring in the society? What challenges did he face? Answers to all these questions form the rest of the story.

Analysis:

There is one scene in 'Bharateeyudu 2' where hundreds of men from the police department aim their guns at Senapathi. But the 100-year-old man easily escapes. All of them chase him in cars while he simply hops on a skating scooter and escapes from them rapidly. Though we understand that logic should not be considered every time, this is beyond logic and cinematic liberty. This is even more crazier. We wonder if Shankar who made 'Shivaji', 'Aparichitudu' and 'Robo' has come up with such a lackluster scene. In another scene, Senapathi gets attacked by the public with stones, sticks and even brooms. Keeping the reasons aside, having such a beloved character getting beaten will pierce your heart. They even curse Shankar for giving this situation to a man like Senapathi. We have seen many young directors and heroes spoiling old films by remaking them but legendary names like Shankar and Kamal destroying the image of their own iconic blockbuster is quite sad. It is a film that gives us a great story of a fighter who fought in Independence and how he became a vigilante against corruption. Many dreamed of that character arriving in reality and cleaning society. The emotion in that film breaks your heart. The action gives you goosebumps. There is everything in that film. AR Rahman's music is evergreen. Every technician gave their 100% for that film.

People expect at least 75% of the original's quality in the second part but it fails to give even one-fourth of what 'Indian' offered. Shankar captioned the film 'Zero Tolerance' but it should be 'Zero Emotional Connect' instead. Despite Shankar slowly losing his Midas touch, his mark was evident in 'I' and '2.0'. But there is not one scene where he shows his signature throughout a three-hour movie like 'Indian 2'. In a career spanning over 3 decades, 'Indian 2' can be termed as his weakest work without a doubt. Shankar wanted to make 'Indian 2' as one film. But it turned into two parts midway. It is common for a Shankar project to cross the budget limits. With the accident on the sets and lockdown, the project was kept on hold for more than 2 years. The budget became way too much due to this. They would have thought that making it in two parts might cover the losses as we can clearly see that they forcibly dragged the story and sequences in 'Indian 2'. Just like 'Bharateeyudu', Senapathi kills one person after the other. Every kill takes at least 15 minutes which shows the level of lag in the screenplay. Kamal puts on a different getup every time and starts revealing all the crimes the person did. He then kills him and escapes smoothly. This is what happens every time. This is what Senapathi does throughout the film. It brings a lot of excitement and thrill in the first part but they do not have any emotional connection in the second half. He becomes more of a killer than a man who loves his nation.

'Bharateeyudu 2' starts off on the note that our country has not changed even after all these years and that is why the youth asks Indian to come back. The movie is good till that point and everything is set in place for Senapathi's grand entry. Everyone expects the movie to go to another level after his entry but it is not what happens. His introduction itself disappoints the audience. Indian suddenly turns into a Chinese Kung Fu master. People still hope that things will change once he starts killing corrupted people but they turn out to be a tedious watch. While Senapathi goes about with his killings, Siddharth and his gang catch corrupt officials by spying on their own families. This thread tests the patience of the audience. It gives us the feeling of watching a serial and the second half gets dragged even more. The frustration reaches a peak during the pre-climax scene. We wonder what Shankar wanted to say after watching people turning against Senapathi. There is no special surprise at the end as he stops the story midway and drops the trailer of 'Indian 3'. It looks good but people who got vexed with 'Indian 2' needs to be offered something great in 'Indian 3'. For now, 'Indian 2' is a major disappointment.

Performances:

Despite using heavy prosthetics on Kamal's face, he showcased a wide range of emotions in 'Bharateeyudu'. His body language was a huge asset and his emotional connection with the audience through the Senapathi role hugely benefitted everyone. Also, he played both father and son which helped him in presenting the required variation. But all of them went missing in 'Bharateeyudu 2'. The make of Senapathi is quite bad and we feel impatient when he appears on the screen. We are not saying anything about Kamal's efforts and experience. He did a great job but bad prosthetics did not help him at all.

It is true that Senapathi's character did not resonate with the audience like before. Siddharth did a very good role. Rakul is seen as his girlfriend and had nothing much to do in the film. Her screen presence is good. Priya Bhavani Shankar, Jagan and the other actor who played the hero's friends' role were fine as well. As said earlier, SJ Suriya did not have a lot to do in the second part but he will have more significance in 'Indian 3'. Bobby Simha is okay and the other big actor too did what was necessary for the movie.

Technicians:

Young sensation doesn't really disappoint the audience when it comes to music but 'Indian 2' is one such rare film where he completely misses the mark. It is one of his weakest works. Anirudh might have delivered songs after watching the movie as he delivered something that we never expected i.e. mediocrity. The background score too fails badly on many occasions. Ravi Varman's cinematography is great as the grandeur can be seen throughout the film. The production values are great but they were in vain. Telugu dialogues are good and what should we say about Shankar?

By going back 28 years, we can see how he downgraded in terms of story, writing and screenplay. While his taking and grandeur are still intact, Shankar is known for emotional drama that connects with audience. It is nowhere to be seen in this flick. Shankar might have had a few failures along the way but none of them were as bad as Bharateeyudu 2'. He looked like he was disinterested and the movie is very slow. The regular sharpness in a Shankar is nowhere to be found.

Verdict: 'Bharateeyudu 2' - Zero Emotional Connect With The audience.

Rating: 2/5