Sandakozhi 2 Movie Review: The Violence  In It Is Fun

Sandakozhi 2

Starring: Vishal Krishna, Keerthi Suresh,Rajkiran, Varlaxmi Sarathkumar

Directed by:  N Linguswamy

Rating; *** ½ (3 and a half stars)

 In  the rugged rough and  coarse terrain  of Madurai,  it seems women are safer than men. In the new Vishal  Krishna-starrerthe two main  women characters lord  over the proceedings with no  care  in the world.They scream at  the men and treat them whimsically according to their moods.

 It’ s the men who are forever thrown into fits of rage,  not necessarily of  their own making.

In Sandakozhi 2 Vishal Krishna, rapidly growing into one of the more dependable star-actors of Tamil cinema, plays Balu, anNRI who must join his father’s outcaste’s business of being a law unto himself.  The only difference between  Kamal Haasan’sThevar Magan  and  this enjoyable mass entertainer  is the message of peace  that emerges  from the deftly staged action sequences.

Balu’s father(played with dignity and restrain by RajKiran) is a Gandhian. Peace is what he wants  in his county, even as arch rivals shower blows and  brandish machetes which  have seen  better ‘daze’.The machete, has always been a major player  in Tamil action films. Here  it makes its presence  felt in the climax where Vishal must  battle the female antagonist hellbent on revenge.

 It is an enjoyable reversal  of  gender roles. The man wants peace. The woman wants war.

‘Fear’  enough.

Predominantly  Sandakozhi 2 is a treatise on  non-violence carpeted with vibrantly conceived action sequences. In one  of them, Vishal in a crowded mela (which serves as  the main location  throughout the  plot) tackles his opponents physically  without letting his father and the other vigilant members of his gang  know he is breaking  the family rule:no  violence

Vishal takes centrestage in the revenge drama  without hogging the limelight  . Unlike his prominent  peers  from the South Indian cinema he doesn’t  dominate  every frame. On many occasions RajKiran  playing the  peace-loving patriarch is putcentrestage while Vishal, uniquely quiet in his assertions of heroism is akin to Ajay Devgan. Both Vishal and Devgan  believe action  speaks  louder than words.

The wafer-thin plot of  Sandakozhi 2 is never allowed to dissipate into  a state  of nothingness. Director Linguswamy has a strong grip over the grammar of  gore. He  splatters the screen with  stunts but doesn’ allow the  action to take over the plot. There are many plot points where the blood-boiling  vendetta  threatens  to spill over into an all-out blood bath.

The narrative holds back , reins in the rage . Just  like its reticent leading man. Evenly paced  and  defined by a sense of bridled  flamboyance and a feral fluency, this film finds Keerthi Suresh who was so wonderful as the legendary actressSavithri in Mahaniti, hamming away  to the hilt. She dances  well, though. The  other prominent female character  is  the arch-villain Pechi(Varalaxmi Sarth Kumar). Both the ladies concentrate on their makeup and  hamming while the hero and his gang round up what is possibly the only Gandhian interpretation  of  The Godfather.

 Now we know why boys have all the  fun.