'Indian 2' Review: A very interesting take on vigilante concept is completely abandoned in this overlong, unrealistic social drama flick

Indian 2

OVERVIEW:

'A film that borders on being over the top and being bearable, but fails to even do something original and fresh'

This film is a bit tricky for me to give my opinion, just because the film felt better for me in its latter half. To hop onto the 'negatives' part, lets give credit where it's due. The initial moments of the film were good with some nice ideas sprinkled and the motive of having social issues, and somewhat hard hitting.

The second half definitely got better for me, personally. The progression in the plot with certain moments made some sense in a film that almost made a mess of itself. The aspect of Senapathy's ambiguity in terms of characterisation towards the end was good.

To just pounce on the badly written aspects of the film and demean it might be a bad step. I can probably try to be a bit diplomatic. The film doesn't try anything fresh or impactful in the first half. The most disheartening fact was that the film's worse moments were the one of Senapathy. Yes you heard me right, the film suffered whenever 'Indian' came on screen. The prosthetics really made the job worse by hiding the performance.

The dialogues, which was a silver lining in its predecessor, found its worst companion in this sequel. It was neither sharp nor hard-hitting. The clarity and sparkling cleverness the first film had is absolutely missing in this picture. The absence of Mr.Sujatha or any good writer does make a huge difference in the quality of a film, especially when we realise it is a sequel of a masterpiece.

Yes, there were very few moments where the film found its right path and its pitch of delivering it. It doesn't get preachy but evokes a facepalm everywhere. The film's social awareness moments just felt like a rehash of what the director had done previously, just recycling his own best scenes into a mishmash of so-so scenes.

The one thing that really intrigued me was this one bit of true writing, where the actions of Senapathy is questioned. This terrific subplot of 'disadvantages of being a vigilante' and the consequences of adhering to truth and justice is squandered by the lacklustre vision.

The burden of doing justice to its dignified previous part and Shankar's attempt to adapt to the new generation methods of proceeding with the film's social issues undeniably bogged down this flick.

The visual grandeur in certain scenes couldn't hide the film's evident flaws in its writing. The character arcs felt too sketchy and music doesn't create a strong impact.

To conclude, Indian 2 barely manages to engage you but it doesn't come off as a better product even when seen as a standalone flick.

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