Indian 2: Lot Of Anticipation But Less Substance (image: x.com/SivaHarsha_23)

Shankar directorial Indian 2 (Hindustani 2), featuring Kamal Haasan, reached theatres; so far, reactions have been mixed. As vigilante Senapathy returns to the country after 28 years to continue his battle against corruption, has it met the expectations of the movie audience?

The Times of India calls, “Indian 2 is a sequel of unwanted excesses”. Comparing to the first version, where Senapathy’s struggles were personal, in the second outing – the expansive narrative, an attempt to go pan-Indian, feels empty. “The problem with Indian 2 is that it is filled with writing that lacks nuance and characters who are caricatures. Even in terms of scenes, all the visual excesses that Shankar throws at them – grand sets, visual effects, and frames filled with people – hardly touch us as there’s no emotional connect,” the TOI reports. The director who pushed box office boundaries, now seems to be relying on tropes and visual cliches from his previous films, it added.

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“Kamal Haasan’s film is visually striking, but filled with political sermons,” write the Hindustan Times. India and Tamil Nadu has changed quite a lot and political and social issues that affect the people have moved beyond corruption. “In this scenario, director Shankar’s story, which focuses on the same theme that the 1996 film did, brings up the question of how relevant this film is today and if it will make an impact. Indian in 1996 was a first-of-a-kind in numerous aspects and connected emotionally with the audience, thanks to well-written story and strong dialogues. Sadly, Indian 2 fails on this front,” the HT reports. Though Indian 2 aces on cinematography, lavish sets, use of AI and other technologies, and superb prosthetic work, misses on strong story. “Senapathy is like a caricature of what he was in Indian. And this is a big let-down,” it adds.

“Indian thatha returns without fangs in a flashier sequel,” the Film Companion writes. Though the world currently is more polarised than ever before, the director chooses to focus on the same issues that he dealt in the first version such as corruption, medical negligence and educational fraud, the reviewer argues. “Indian was by no means a perfect film. It was still a film drenched in sexual innuendos – a marker of films from a particular time. But it still had just the right amount of rigour that made us root for its far-fetched world where a timeworn veteran could kick a man or two. Sujatha’s dialogue also made these characters firmly grounded reality,” it adds.

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Kamal Haasan’s vigilante returns with more grandeur in Indian 2, the Timeline Daily reviews. Besides the grandeur, issues, and use of technology, Shankar loses his touch of presenting a movie with gripping narratives and strong moral undertones, the review points out. “The movie however fails to meet the expectations of the a normal Kamal Haasan fan or Shankar fan as it goes on to the zone of predictability from the beginning. The movie evades this factor only when it approaches the end credits and when the viewer gets to know that Shankar made the second part, so that he can go for another edition of Indian, with Indian 3. But, interestingly, as we see it in the trailer, Indian 3 seems more promising with more action from pre-independence era and from the present day as Senapathy is in the hands of law finally,” it adds.