Aurakan- I mean Rajinikanth, and Nelson are back in a a rehash of their first collaboration together, as the sequel follows the adventures of Baash- I mean Muthuvel Pandian, as he unsuccessfully tries to live a double life as a naive supermarket employee/ car driver while his past waits to catch up with him.
Nelson’s strategy to surround Rajinikanth with a motley crew of characters upto various hijinks — some funny, others not so much — made the first part a box-office success. He repeats the exact same formula this time around too, to meandering effect.
From Kerala to Goa, the film takes us through lots of lush green backgrounds where most of the confrontations are set — Suraj Venjaramoodu as Dileep makes the most impact in the first half as a Varman regen, and manages to make smoking look cool in front of the Superstar himself. (Vinayakan, incidentally, makes a crazed cameo dancing to Yaakkai Thiri, no less)
Nelson’s trademark of deadpan humour and random nonsensical sub-plots in full display, even as Thalaivar gamely grins through some painful sequences. (You can almost hear him wondering aloud at times if it was right to green light this sequel)
Is this the Rajinikanth film with the least number of scenes accorded to Rajinikanth? With a zillion villains around (SJ Suryah's Bodhi Kalpak is afforded the most number of shenanigans), a hotchpotch ensemble around the central character (many return from the first part) and the never-ending number of cameos to boot, Nelson reserves Superstar strictly for aura-farming moments. And there are many. One too many.
Akin to Mahesh Manjrekar in Coolie, this time it’s Mithun Chakraborty as a baddie in a wheelchair... neither, of course, manages to emulate Hector Salamanca. (Someone stop Tamil filmmakers from watching Breaking Bad, please)
Mild spoiler: Rajinikanth texting Vidya Balan good morning and not getting a reply was oddly hilarious.
And finally, Anirudh, as usual, painstakingly carries the film on his creaking shoulders, with a series of explosive interludes and background scores. At some point, it’d be nice if filmmakers repaid him with a script to match his score.
Unfortunately, most of the cameos draw loud cheers — including one in the very last scene, who’s already been Rajinikanth’s most interesting villain in recent years — which means planning for Jailer 3 has probably already begun.
Thalaivar could have just said yes to Petta 2 instead.