Very Irritating Picture, twice over

With the sequel fever turning into a rage in southern cinema also, Tamil actor Dhanush unspools the continuation of his three-year-old massive hit ‘VIP’ (Raghuvaran B. Tech, dubbed into Telugu in 2015) into yet another flick from his home production banner. After being released during the long weekend of August 11 in Tamil, it has travelled across into the neighbouring territory in the local version.

The first film managed to strike a chord with the youngsters for the close-to-reality kind of a feel while taking a closer look at the lives of engineering graduates. As Raghuvaran, the angst which the hero shows with the suffocating environment in his domestic life and the soft interlude of romance in his life personified by Amala made it a sleeper hit. The sense of purpose which the hero shows in the film to do a fair and honest form of business, in the notoriously corrupt world of real estate had a naiveté which appealed.

In the second incarnation however, he has the beard and the old model Luna, his proud possession. However, he is shown more as Rajinikanth’s son-in-law with hyper, slow motion shots, artificially built-up confrontation sequences with Kajol, the strong, ambitious antagonist and lets the film float at will. Carefully carrying on with the hangover of the earlier one, he builds a base alright but loses the game trying to do too many things.

His key attraction, Kajol stays rooted to the same slot which is reserved for the independent woman characters in Indian cinema – arrogant yet forced to submit to the emerging situation in the climax. Hence the competition that he seeks to build up to confront the power lady and take her on wilts as a shadow-boxing exercise, when he turns an activist. By the time the film ends after a 135-minute run, one suspects the open-ended conclusion is the hint being dropped for a third version very soon. Of course, being ambitious about exploiting the franchise value is a natural thing in cinema. The catch is, if the recent one manages to create an impact and infuse confidence in the producers to keep going further.

Cinema : VIP 2
Cast : Dhanush, Kajol, Amala Paul and others
Direction : Soundarya Rajnikanth
Genre : Comedy-Drama
Plus points : Ambitious attempt
Minus points : Incoherent pace

- K Naresh Kumar