Karthi continues with his double role of father Chandra Bose and son Vijay Prakash. The first film had the son in angst about the fact that his father was a traitor, which is what everyone believed. The sequel has a similar emotional arc, and this time, both the hero and the villain are in some kind of angst. But instead of stressing these emotions and creating some drama to go with the spy stuff, ‘Sardar 2’ is 179 minutes of the most generic “the bomb is going to go off”-type thrills that are far from thrilling. SJ Suryah hams it up as the villain, but it’s an act we have seen many times over. As for the women, Malavika Mohanan and Rajisha Vijayan, have very little to do. Ashika Ranganath is the real heroine of the film, but even her role is all over the place. The film needed better stunts, more twists – basically a do-over from top to bottom. That’s the basic storyline and the quick review. A longer analysis follows, and it will contain spoilers. So be warned.
I don’t remember Sardar too well, so I looked up my review and this is what I’d written. “An engaging spy thriller that sticks close to the genre… There’s a lack of tension and… The film doesn’t bring you to the edge of your seat… Still, it is a solid addition to Hollywood-derived actioners like Maanadu and Vikram.” And that’s all I expected from the sequel, written by Nambi and directed by PS Mithran. That’s all I really wanted – and if the film turned out better, that would be a bonus! But the sequel is a letdown. In the first Sardar, the villain wanted to control all the drinking-water supply in India. Here, the villain wants to do something with a new strain of bacteria, and the story becomes a sort of lesson on how we have abused antibiotics and have become immune to them. This lesson comes to us twice, the first time from Faiza, the veterinary doctor played by Ashika Ranganath, and the second time from the SJ Suryah character, who calls himself Black Dagger.
Sardar 2 is filled with names and terms along these lines – namely, the kind we get in Hollywood movies. There’s an Agent Walrus. People keep talking about things like “safe drop location” and “crash speed value” and “vector breach at the base” and techniques developed by Mossad. A lot of this has to be dumbed down for the local audience. I understand this. But it’s too much when a seasoned RAW agent bends down to open a door and is surprised that the lock is smooth. Apparently, he doesn’t know it’s a touch screen. But even amidst this silliness, there’s something Hollywood delivers: the stunts, the thrills, the twists and surprises. In our films, there’s only so much we can expect in terms of action set pieces, which are the usual chases and shootouts, but even these seem to have been shot and cut in a hurry. There’s not one physical act that stays in mind.
But even a generic action movie can be elevated by emotions, and there’s enough scope in Sardar 2 for drama. Faiza has issues with her mother, just like Vijay Prakash had issues with his father. This emotional angle could have been exploited for a scene or two. As for Chandra Bose, he is paralysed by guilt over an incident that also affected Black Dagger, who is a creation of his own trauma. Again, this emotion could have been exploited for a scene or two. If you recall, the James Bond films with Daniel Craig had major dramatic moments involving the villains, amidst all the spy stuff. But here, even the spy stuff is some generic bio-terrorism thing. Everyone knows that the bomb will be defused. The real challenge in these movies is, therefore, the nail-biting journey to that point. But in Sardar 2, they seem to have given up towards the end. Yogi Babu plays Agent Django. The villain decides to put aside his villainy and does some five minutes of comedy. This portion is very ill-placed, but I laughed at the sheer silliness of it.
There are hints that a good movie could have been made from this material. I liked an idea that involves testing on poultry brought from another country, and how the source could be traced through the customs chain. But an idea is not a scene. It needs to be set up well. It needs dialogues that hide the fact that this is “information”. The person who brings up this idea is Faiza, and how convenient that she just happens to be a vet! Sardar 2 might have still been generically bearable with a shorter running time, but the film is a minute short of three hours. Malavika Mohanan plays a spy who could have been interesting, but she does get the film’s most powerful line. She tells Chandra Bose that if you really want to be a spy and save the country, you have to look at the big picture and not keep bursting into tears thinking about the plight of villagers. But then, when has a Tamil film hero ever been able to do that!
