Speaking broadly, the structure upon which Nelson builds both his Jailer films is strictly pedestrian. They’re based on uncovering complex trade networks exporting priceless sculptures from Southern India. They’re also written around the tension that arises from discovering the powers that the next big boss, Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, must encounter as he climbs the corporate ladder of this idol theft enterprise. If Jailer was all about Muthuvel taking on the foot soldiers and middle management, the stakes only get bigger in this film as he schemes against those at the top of the pyramid.
This aspect of these films remains basic, but the difference Nelson makes is in the manner in which he writes individual scenes, even if we can predict exactly how and where each scene will end. Take the number of moving pieces that have gone into a scene in which the predictably timid Muthuvel must predictably explode into action. This is most evident in a sequence in which Muthuvel’s old friend and his pregnant daughter run into him as he’s trying to hide his murky past. This scene might use violence against pregnant women as a mere plot point, but by this point, the film has already developed characters who will do anything to find out more about Muthuvel’s real identity.
Nelson has also littered this scene with an army of quirky characters with clearly defined cues, resulting in an elegantly edited montage in which Muthuvel transforms entirely into Tiger. But if the scene works, it’s not just because it mirrors a scene from the first film in which he draws a hidden weapon from the back of his car. It works even better because ONLY Nelson could have thought of using a reaction shot of a character sleeping in the back of the same car as Muthuvel unleashing absolute hell.
By now, you’d expect to have figured out the patterns in the way Nelson stages these high-voltage scenes. But in Jailer 2, he’s created so many fascinating new characters that he could have chosen multiple variations to edit each sequence. I’m not just talking about bigger characters like Dileep (Suraj Venjaramoodu) or the extremely hilarious Moorthi, played by Namo Narayana. Take a second to recall the nameless henchman at Dileep’s lair who insists that a measly driver like Muthuvel must always remain outside when “bigger” people are talking. He gets all of three lines in the entire film, but it’s these three lines that sum up the essence of how Muthuvel’s been able to sneak into this secret network with relative ease.
The first half of Jailer 2 is stuffed to the brim with such inventive scenes where the highs of mass moments are balanced with laugh-out-loud silliness. What’s even rarer is seeing Rajini remain a spectator while the other characters are allowed to deliver the big laughs, even if it’s at his expense. It’s original and clever, and Jailer 2 stands to be one of Rajini’s funniest films in decades.
But it’s when we come to the second half that we’re reintroduced to another Nelson signature — the weak third act. Maybe it’s the very qualities that make his films so enjoyable in the first place that keep him from finding a seamless transition from his quirky, dark-comedy sensibilities to more serious territory. In Jailer 2, there's no lack of intent. Nelson repurposes the concept of family love by stacking Muthu’s family against another family that believes in the same values. Like how Muthuvel will go to any extent to protect his family, the Kalpaks too are just as doting, to the point where they’ll overlook three full containers of stolen idols as long as their family is safe.
But when you try to justify this loaded message in a film that has been relatively lightweight, it struggles to retain any emotional importance it deserved. An excellent idea in which Muthuvel must come to terms with the loss of his son is treated like an afterthought and the moral baggage of it is resolved too easily. And despite the film’s ambitions to address a message about family, it devolves quickly into a game of kidnapping family members as pawns.
And yet nothing describes the feeling of apathy you feel for much of the film’s later portions. If one were to try, it may be described as an itch you feel when a fun, self-aware comedy begins to start taking itself too seriously. It could also be the fatigue you feel in the way all scenes begin to play out in similar fashion. And yet nothing is to be blamed as much as the dryness of the cameos that have been forced into the film. These were the biggest highlights of the first film and the character graph of Tiger Muthuvel Pandian did a damn good job to justify his access to the absolute top tier of Indian gangsters. But in Jailer 2, these cameos reveal a lack of confidence, resulting in the hope that the presence of a superstar import will alone be enough to lift stale scenes.
But if we’re able to remain invested through these dry spells, it’s because Anirudh’s stellar score and Vijay Karthik Kannan’s brilliant visuals do not allow you to notice them. Just when you notice yourself feeling nothing in a scene, Anirudh sneaks in a score that makes you reconsider your thought and when the writing feels bland, there’s also Vijay Karthik Kannan’s cinematography that makes you feel the crores that has been spent on this year’s biggest Tamil film.
Which means that even when you miss the madness of the film’s first half and the characters that made it so special, Jailer 2 ticks enough boxes to service the aura of the biggest ever Superstar — an iconic Rajini character that has already become bigger than the movie.