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Indian 2 – A Short Review

How the mighty have fallen.

Shankar, the man who once gave us Robot (Enthiran in Tamil) and Sivaji, and Kamal Haasan, one of Indian Cinema’s all time greats, the finest of fine actors who made us cry in Sadma and laugh in Michael Madana Kamarajan and marvel at in a movie as recent as Vikram (2023), come together to deliver a huge, huge disappointment. And that’s putting in mildly.

The story starts okay, with Siddharth (Rang De Basanti) and his team of social media vigilantes appealing for the return of Indian ‘Thatha’ (Indian grandpa 🙂 ) to fight never ending social evils, and voila! we have Senapathi, now teaching his special martial arts in a small school in Taipei, react almost immediately, & make his return to India, as the bane to industrialists, babus, & other such indulging in bribes, black money & what not.

So we have a horribly made-up Kamal Haasan (how did make up from the 90s look better than 2024??), punching an embarassed-looking Gulshan Grover with his index finger in the navel (I kid you not), with Mr Grover turning into an effeminate man blushing at Indian thatha’s sight (again, I kid you not).

And did I tell you just before this travesty, we are made to witness a gold plated tortoise (yes…a tortoise) crawl up the navel of a barely dressed model who we have seen dance in an item number for no reason!

And so the movie progresses.

As Senapathi streams live (!!) on Facebook from museums & goes after social evil!

S J Suryah, sporting the gaudiest of dresses and shoes, makes an appearance as the main man to be taken down, & probably the main man to be taken down again in Indian 3, a sequel to this sequel well in the works.

Who’s going to tell Shankar & Kamal, again – all time greats in their fields – to stop with the embarrassment?

I, for one, hope they change things around & Indian 3 looks & feels like a totally different film.

A small story change right at the top, with a younger actor picking up the reins from Senapathi, with Senapathi secretly guiding him, & being the kingmaker behind the new king of anti-corruption, would have done great service to the whole movie.

Other departments are strictly okay, with Anirudh’s background score & music being the worst of the lot, all noise with no room for subtlety.

Watch Indian 2 on Netflix, where it is streaming now. Though it isn’t a recommendation, perhaps just for love of the great Kamal and Shankar.