Jailer 2 Movie Review

Superstar Rajinikanth and Nelson Dilip Kumar are back with a Sequel to their Blockbuster, Jailer in a Similar Setup produced by Sun Pictures. The expectations are high on the Sequel but the Promotional Material did not resonate as much with the audiences.

What is the Movie About?

Tiger Muthuvel Pandian (Rajinikanth) eliminates his son as well as Varma and shifts his family to an unknown location. The friends of Varma, the baddies gang are in search of the murderer. The rest is all about how Mutthu saves his family from them.

Performances:

Superstar Rajinikanth is elegant and stylish just like the first part. We see in him a simple look that is age-appropriate and decent costumes. The styling itself is a lesson for many ageing Superstars across India. The director also made sure that the 75 year old actor is not strained much. We do not see him doing any stunts. We hardly see him doing 3 minutes of stunts in the whole film. The rest is taken care of guns and bombs. He simply walks and does his stylish mannerisms and allows his swag to take over.

Among the remaining actors, Namo Narayana who played the role of Fruit Shop Murthy and Yogi Babu are entertaining. Namo Narayana in particular is the major highlight of the film. Suraj Venjaramoodu also gets a meaty role in the first half and he does well.

SJ Suryah, Vidya Balan, and Mithun Chakraborty form the main villains family but they are completely dud. SJ Suryah, in particular, is getting repetitive. Rajinikanth’s family – Ramya Krishnan, Mirna Menon, and Rithvik gets small roles and they are alright.

The cameos of the first part continue. Two more cameos are added in this film. They get whistles for their image but their characters lack proper meat.

Technicalities:

Nelson Dilip Kumar directs Jailer 2. The best part of his work is the first half where he brilliantly embedded entertainment and heroism. Its been a long time since a star film had such entertainment while balancing the commercial value. However, he faltered in the second half.

Vijay Karthik Kannan’s visuals are neat. Anirudh Ravichander’s songs are forgettable especially the one that comes in the second half. The background score does not hit out of the park but still delivers in the sequences where it matters. Editing is disappointing and the movie should have been shorter. The Production Values by Sun Pictures are adequate.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠First Half
2.⁠ ⁠Superstar Rajinikanth’s Swag
3.⁠ ⁠Adrenaline-Thumping Moments

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Second Half
2.⁠ ⁠Bland Family Drama
3.⁠ ⁠Not-So-Effective Cameos

Analysis:

Yes, we all have watched Jailer and loved it. When we step into the theatre to watch Jailer 2, we know what to expect and we also know what we would like to see on screen. The good news is that the director, Nelson Dilip Kumar, met all our expectations throughout the first half of the film. Almost every passing minute in the first half, gives an irresistible adrenaline rush. The screenplay, the comedy, the undercurrent hero worship elevations, superstar Rajinikanth’s screen presence and Anirudh’s background score – all of these things worked big time during the first half. The entertainment and action blocks were perfectly balanced in the first half and it ends up giving a very satisfactory feeling to the audience. How, does the second half matched with the promise shown in the first half? The answer is a ‘no’.

The Proceedings completely gets derailed in the second half. Suraj Venjaramoodu’s character gets sidelined and we get see SJ Suryah, Vidya Balan & Mithun Chakraborty in antagonist roles in the second half and it is where the film lost the plot. The proceedings gets very predictable and a bit forced during the second half and after a point it makes the audience feel exhausted. Unfortunately, even the drama and emotions around the protagonist’s family also did not work as much as it worked in the first part.

Cameos from multiple star heroes were the biggest USP of the first part, weren’t they? And, it’s not your fault if you expect a similar high moments through cameos in the second part. Yes, there are cameos in the second part as well but they did not leave as much impact as they did in part one. There were a few good moments here and there in the first half but they are few and far between. To an extent, it felt as if like watching a completely different film while watching the second half.

Finally, Jailer 2 is a mixed bag. The first half of the film has everything in it to become a blockbuster but a lackluster second half brought down the overall graph of the film. It is because of this mismatch in execution between both the halves of the films, it ended up giving a mixed feeling.

Bottomline: Blockbuster First Half, Weak Second Half!

Rating: 2.5/5