Indian 2 review: Kamal Haasan’s senapathy cannot save this hollow spectacle with heavy-handed political commentary

Indian 2 opens with Actor Siddharth who is standing in front of a green screen. He uses VFX animation to run his YouTube channel titled ‘Barking Dogs’. The channel creates parodies and satirical content, mocking the corrupt politicians and those who steal the hard-earned money of the common man. On paper, this idea sounds brave. In fact, we see many independent journalists and YouTube channels today who fight government oppression. But the way this idea is executed is rather underwhelming.

We see an almost comical parody of grave injustice meted out to a school teacher. There is also an animated character who is supposed to be a common man, except this character appears in live-action scenes randomly. Siddharth is Chitra Aravindhan. He added his mother’s first name as a suffix to his name because she wanted to climb the stairs of Tirupati temple on her knees.

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Indian 2: Performances

Chitra (Sidharth) and the founders of his YouTube channel Aarthi (Priya Bhavani Shankar), Thambesh (Jagan) stage a protest which gets them arrested. Disha (Rakul Preet Singh), Chitra’s girlfriend, bails them out. Chitra and Disha have a heated discussion on fighting corruption. DIsha strongly urges Chitra to stop attacking politicians on his YouTube channel, else he will likely get arrested and framed for crimes he didn’t commit.

Chitra then starts a social media campaign #ComebackIndian to find Senapthy, who is hiding in Taipei. Senapathy now teaches Indian Martial Arts to young children. Senapathy returns to India. He is almost caught by CBI officer Vivek and his men. He manages to escape the ambush and goes live on Facebook, urging his followers to follow the Gandhian ideals of non-violence while he follows Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s ideals.

Indian 2: Writing And Direction

The commentary on politics on Indian 2 is too heavy-handed. It seems like a force-fit and frankly, unconvincing in many places. Of course, the corrupt government official has questionable morals because he goes to Thailand for a massage. Of course the lustful man hooking up with multiple women on a cruise is a thief. Pray, where is the room for nuance? You might as well give these men devil horns so we know for sure that they are evil.

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Why not show what makes them act the way they do? What makes them corrupt? Why do they offer bribes and hush money? More importantly—why does Senapathy use Facebook? Why doesn’t he go for Instagram? I was very confused. Indian 2 is one of those films where action is everything and the plot is incidental. Gone are the days when an action hero contributed to the plot of the film. These days, the plot is written to justify the male lead’s heroism and frankly, barbaric acts.

Indian 2: What Works, What Doesn't

In one scene, a man of the cruise ship is (presumably) hypnotized when Senapathy recites a Sanskrit shloka. He starts acting like a woman, complete with lipstick and make-up. This scene is apparently supposed to be funny. The heterosexual man acts in an effeminate manner, complete with offensive, stereotypical hand gestures. The homophobic scene is disturbing to watch. It made me wonder—what were the filmmakers even thinking while writing this scene?

At 2 hours, 30 minutes Indian 2 is simply insufferable. The political commentary falls flat on its face. It is a textbook example of why good intentions don’t always translate to good cinema. The bizarre visuals, directionless plot and poor editing not only slow down the momentum but take away from the massive scale that the film does get right.

The first half of the film is slow. The film takes forever (around 1 hour 30 minutes) to get to the point. The back-and-forth editing before the interval is so bad that it is difficult to follow what is happening. Post-interval, Kamal Haasan begins his fight for India’s second independence. “15 August ko naya Independence Day manaya jaega”, he says. This time, the fight isn’t for freedom from the British but corruption. For me, the bigger fight was to make it till the end of the film without going for the exit doors.

Star Rating: 1.5/5

Indian 2 is now playing in theaters.