'Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2' Movie Review: Vikram and Co. Run a Frantic Riot

Director: S. U. Arun Kumar

Writer: S. U. Arun Kumar

Cast: Vikram, S. J. Suryah, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Dushara Vijayan

Language: Tamil

The deliberate incoherence of Veera Dheera Sooran feels like the quirk of the Video CD era: when two disks are played in an incorrect order because of mislabelling, everything about the film seems wonky. The characters seem already established in a plot that’s taken off abruptly. The conflicts arise prematurely and tensions soar before you have even begun to understand the relational arcs in the drama. By the time you realise that you have inserted Disk #2 instead of #1, you are unfortunately privy to what’s in store, and the buzz, the operative word, is lost before it can build.

But for filmmaker S.U. Arun Kumar, the confusion in the viewer is part of the tall setup. Within the first 15 minutes, the plot of his latest film announces the crucial revenge angle between a set of characters that have barely been introduced. The lead character enters the fray soon after and he too gets going without skipping a beat. GV Prakash Kumar’s background score then suggests that we are late to join the proceedings, but since we are here regardless, it is best to maybe strap up and enjoy the ride.

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For the writer-director, this kind of manic energy becomes a great tool to dispense action that’s not only visceral but also a mode of expression. It’s an approach that a filmmaker like Jeremy Saulnier has made his own with films like Blue Ruin (2013) and Rebel Ridge (2024), where violence in an action film isn’t perfunctory, but a necessity to find the narrative resolution.

Kaali (Vikram) is a hitman-for-hire working for quarry owner Ravi (Prudhviraj) and his boorish son Kannan (Suraj Venjaramoodu), but en route to killing his target — the local SP Arunagiri (SJ Suryah) — he arrives at the conclusion that he despises both parties equally. As a victim of both circumstance and his own volatility, Kaali realises that he can find solace and protect his family only by exploiting those who have exploited him before. And violence is the only way to wade through the muck that his life is.

So, then, Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 plays out almost entirely as an onslaught of taut sequences that ultimately amount to a climax that one could never guess. Yes, as the title suggests, the film works largely in the favour of its leading man who emerges victorious in the most outrageous of ways. But the sheer complexity of the storytelling, underscored by the simple fact that we are watching the sequel to the first film, keeps us hooked to a great extent.

A still from 'Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2'

The action is staged commendably, and ranges from small nerve-wracking moments to elaborate single takes with gunshots, bloodshed, pyrotechnics and whatnot. A scene in the first half shows Kaali and his confidant Venkat (Baalaji S.U.) rigging up explosives on the path that Arunagiri is meant to take. The explosives are crudely made and could blow up in your face any moment, so when one of the two men has a sudden epilepsy attack and is millimeters away from setting the bomb off, the fragility of the moment is amplified ever-so-deftly.

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Another scene, part of the only flashback that sets some context in the story, features Kaali raising hell in the most unexpected of ways and then revelling in his own madness. Vikram, known to sink his teeth into every character he takes on, imbues the brute that Kaali is with a kind of showmanship that makes for many ‘mass’ moments, elevating the film even when the writing falters.

He isn’t alone in the pursuit either, as the ensemble cast of Suraj Venjaramoodu, SJ Suryah, Prudhviraj, Dushara Vijayan and others hold their own in a film that is sometimes too dense for its own good. Suraj as Kannan is part amusing and part annoying while SJ Suryah benefits from a rare role that’s not on a maniacal overdrive. It is Dushara Vijayan, though, who makes a solid impression as Kaali’s wife Kalaivaani; the long climactic scene, in particular, lends her the stage to express herself.

Another valuable contributor to the film is its physical setting, with Arun Kumar returning to small-town Tamil Nadu to lend the story a lived-in quality. Phoenix Prabhu’s stunts further illuminate this world along with Theni Eswar’s cinematography, which opts for simple, unobtrusive frames instead of “beautifying” the world.

Yet, despite all its inventiveness, Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 can also feel bloated and overdone. Without an articulate storyline to latch on to, the emotional core of the film feels empty and most sequences, including the best of them, fly past without much resonance. Arun Kumar’s writing too veers towards overambitious (and over-sentimental) and the constant ebb-and-flow in his narrative becomes a cause for concern, especially when one cannot simply fathom who or why is going on a killing rampage.

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Part 1 of the saga is likely to offer a clearer perspective, but Part 2 could have certainly afforded a little more agency in terms of character exposition. Relish the film for its left-field approach and its unique employment of action, but with the caveat that not everything will make sense.