Indian 2 movie review: 28 years after the landmark blockbuster film Indian came out, director Shankar returns with Indian 2, featuring Kamal Haasan,70, as vigilante Senapathy, who fights against corruption, yet again. As we know, Senapathy disappears at the end of Indian and no one knows his whereabouts. But now, there arises an urgent need for him to make a comeback and this story is what Shankar takes us through in the sequel. 

Story

The audience is introduced to Chitra Aravindan (Siddharth), who runs a YouTube channel called Barking Doga that he runs with three others, including Aarthi (Priya Bhavani Shankar) and Thambesh (Jagan). Barking Dogs focuses on creating content that is satirical and they use RK Laxman’s Common Man as the central character in their videos to expose all that is wrong with society, including corruption.

One day, a young woman dies by suicide and the Barking Dogs team stage a protest demanding justice as they believe she died because of a corrupt official. The cops arrest them, and in comes Disha (Rakul Preet Singh), Chitra’s rich girlfriend, to bail them out. Disha lectures them that as individuals, they can’t do much to bring about change as the powers-that-be are influential and far more powerful than them. Chitra realises that it’s only Indian thatha (grandfather) who can save the country and starts to trend ‘Come Back Indian.’

Now, do they find Senapathy? Yes, amazingly Nilesh (Kalidas Jayaram) spots him in Taipei and finds him running a martial arts school. He urges him to go to India as the people need him and Senapathy returns to India. CBI officers Pramod and Vivekh are on the lookout for him and they just miss catching him. When social media savvy Senapathy tells youngsters to clean up their own home before they help others, things start to go terribly wrong. Now, what does Senapathy do?

The good and the bad

Given that it is 2024 and 28 years after the first film, India – and Tamil Nadu – have changed quite a lot and evolved in many ways. It's undisputed that the political and social issues that affect the people of the country have moved beyond corruption. In this scenario, director Shankar’s story, which focuses on the same theme that the 1996 film did, brings up the question of how relevant this film is today and if it will make an impact. Indian in 1996 was a first-of-a-kind in numerous aspects and connected emotionally with the audience, thanks to well-written story and strong dialogues. Sadly, Indian 2 fails on this front.

Indian 2 has great cinematography, lavish sets, use of AI and other technologies, superb prosthetic work and so on but what’s missing is a strong story. Director Shankar stated that in Indian, we saw Indian thatha tackle corruption in Tamil Nadu but in this film, his vigilantism is spread across India. So, we get to see a man who has an obsession for gold running around like a horse in Gujarat, a rich man in Punjab buying a seat for himself on the Mars Mission, and another businessman gallivanting with a Miss World in Taipei. Hashtags trend in every state, from Odisha to Bihar to Kerala to West Bengal.

Senapathy is now a social media whiz in addition to being the great Varmam expert that he is. He takes out the evil and corrupt, but the question ‘why’ remains. In the first half, the story aimlessly meanders from one place and ‘enemy’ to another and they seem like action scenes stitched together to prove Senapathy’s heroism and avenger-like power. In between these, he delivers extensive political and social sermons (very lengthy dialogues) on all that’s wrong in society today. Senapathy is like a caricature of what he was in Indian. And this is a big let-down.

The only redemption in Indian 2 in terms of story comes in the second half with Aarthi (Priya Bhavani Shankar) and Chitra’s (Siddharth) family. Chitra’s back story, for instance, as to why he added his mother’s name to his and what happens to his family, connects emotionally, as does Aarthi’s. There are innumerable cameos in the film by various actors and they don’t really lend much value to the film. Even SJ Suryah (as Sagalakala Vallavan Sarguna Pandian), who plays a villain (yet again), doesn’t make any impact for the little time that we see him.

Kamal Haasan delivers a strong performance as always, but interestingly, it is Siddharth who has a very meaty role in this film. The actor has delivered; he and Kamal Haasan match up in their scenes together. Rakul Preet Singh and Priya Bhavani Shankar have been given some impactful dialogues, though their screen time is not too much.

Writer Sujatha is sorely missed in this film as he was integral to the 1996 Indian. His story and dialogue writing are unmatched and Indian 2, unfortunately, is not a patch on the first film when it comes to these aspects. AR Rahman had also orchestrated a fantastic BGM and songs for Indian, which Anirudh doesn’t match up to in Indian 2.

Indian 2 desperately tries to combine the old and the new, to present to us a story that’ll be appealing to the younger audience. Kamal Haasan says he’s fighting for India’s second Independence in the film. But the audience is left fighting to figure out what’s good in this misfire of a film.