Movie Review: ‘Sardar-2’

Movie Review: ‘Sardar-2’

Actors: Karthi, Malavika Mohanan, Ashika Ranganath, S.J. Surya, Achyut Kumar, Nizhalgal Ravi, Yogi Babu, Ashish Vidyarthi and others

Music: Sam CS

Cinematography: George C. Williams

Producers: Lakshman Kumar- Ishaan Saxena

Written & Directed by: P.S. Mithran

For some time, Tamil star Karthi has been struggling for hits, and now he has come up with Sardar 2, a sequel to his superhit film Sardar. As the film hits cinemas in Tamil and Telugu today, let’s have a look at how it is doing.

STORY:

Vijay (Karthi) is an agent working in India’s intelligence division, RAW and has no good image there. He’s the son of former agent Sardar (Karthi), who was labelled a traitor and is dead as per the official records. Believing his father is alive, Vijay wants to save the country while also finding him. In this process, he runs after Black Dagger (SJ Surya) who poses an imminent threat to national security. So what is Black Dagger’s mission, what has Vijay done to prevent it, and what happened to Sardar, forms the rest of the story.

NARRATIVE-ANALYSIS:

Though Tamil director PS Mithran has crafted only three films so far, he has made quite an impression. His first film Irumbuthirai (Abhimanyudu in Telugu) dealt with mobile privacy, which gave goosebumps to the audience. Though his second film Sakthi hasn’t done well, it got appreciated for its content. His third film ‘Sardar’ is a blockbuster where he discussed the water mafia. While crafting entertaining commercial films, he delivers an inherent message too. This time, he touched upon the point of bio-war. Though he crafted a story with many layers, he failed to express his point properly. A convincing presentation is missing from Mithran now. Though the story is good, lots of chaos and confusion induced by Mithran make Sardar 2 a tough watch.

First of all, the way the Sardar 2 story is complicatedly written makes it tough to tell the story in a single line. Despite writing such a layered story, it works only when the narrative is simple and understandable. Otherwise, the audience will miss out on the experience of getting entertained by that story. In Sardar 1, Mithran presented the story of a traditional dhoti-wearing spy quite well as he discusses the water mafia. Coming to Sardar 2, one gets a doubt if he’s able to connect the story well to his team first. On one side, he says excessive use of antibiotics is dangerous, and on the other side, he says people using antibiotics should be killed. On one side, he wants to destroy the country, as his village and family were lost, but on the other side, he wants to build an efficient new generation. When a village gets shattered in the process of saving the country, many wonder why he says the whole country should be destroyed.

At least if the villain’s role is shown more strongly and seriously presented, it would have been convincing. But then it turns out to be quite funny and crazy. SJ Surya’s over-the-top antics have completely killed the essence of the character. With the initial drive, Sardar 2 promises an intriguing thriller, as the director narrates the story from the first frame itself. The hero’s simple introduction, his efforts with the team to prevent the villain’s wrongdoings made the film interesting. At the same time, a flashback episode of Operation Doku also raised the curiosity bar.

However, Sardar 2 turns out to be silly after the hero and heroine climb a running aeroplane and do a lot of comical action stunts. With the entry of the villain, this turned out to be even sillier. If the role of the villain is just a selfish guy who wants to destroy the country, it would have worked. Here, the emotional touch given to that character, his backdrop and his behaviour have no coherence. His goal is never understood. Especially in the scene where he takes a class on antibiotics, interest in Sardar 2 will be lost. Sardar 2 never picks up, as the hero’s role appears quite passive. The climax episode of the hero saving the nation from the villain’s bioweapon attack reminds us of the bubble episode from Rajnikanth’s Lingaa. Sardar 2 stands as a prime example of how to kill a good story, as it starts intriguingly but ends boringly.

PERFORMANCES:

Karthi delivered his best when it comes to performance in two roles, as his efforts are visible. Especially in the role of Sardar, Karthi amazes when the sensitive side of it gets unravelled. However, in the old-age Sardar role, Karthi looks ordinary with bad makeup. As Vijay, he has impressed. Malavika Mohanan got a promising role in the movie and performed well. Ashika Ranganath is okayish. Both heroines are used to the story’s progression rather than romantic scenes. It’s appreciated that they are not used for song-and-dance routines. While SJ Surya is expected to be a big strength in the villain’s role, in the end, he became a headache. His loud acting as Black Dagger and the confused role written for him made it unbearable. Yogi Babu and Nizhalgal Ravi tried to bring some laughs, but failed. Other actors, including Asish Vidyarthi and Achyut Kumar, are okayish.

TECHNICALITIES:

The production values of Sardaar 2 are stunning, as the makers spent more by carving the film on a big scale. However, how useful that was for the film is questionable. Though Sam CS provided a background score for a thrilling narrative, sometimes it sounded routine. George C. Williams’ visuals are interesting. Writer and director PS Mithran’s efforts cannot be looked down upon, as he worked hard in terms of researching for the story, writing the script and carving it out as a film. However, only if a story is narrated in a way that is understandable does it work. Otherwise, the confusion in writing and conceiving scenes, unwanted crazy villainy and unconvincing scenes make his efforts go down the drain.

Finally: Sardar 2, clueless Agent!

Rating: 2/5