Tamil cinema’s recent trend has been to cash in on the success of a film with a sequel. While there are films such as Baahubali which were decided to be made as two parts, film-makers and actors who need a hit badly opt for the easy route of making a sequel out of the blue. VIP 2 joins the list of such films as a story has been weaved to another story that had a satisfactory ending which, the makers would’ve considered as a safer bet.
Vellai Illa Pattathari 2 follows the trials and tribulations of Raghuvaran (Dhanush) who’s now married and finds him once again to become a VIP (a jobless engineer i.e). And obviously, a villain has to be introduced to make our lead the ‘hero’ and there enters Kajol, making her comeback to the Tamil industry after more than 2 decades. She looks fabulous and steals the show with her reactions despite being pitted against the hero. Where the films work is how they’ve written Kajol’s character – someone who isn’t evil but has a different mindset. Getting to Dhanush, Raghuvaran seems to be one of his best characters ever as he feels very natural in the boy-next-door image. While he brings the mass factor in a few scenes, some ‘gethu’ scenes don’t work and we often had to watch him utter a punch dialogue to Kajol and walk again in slow motion towards the cam. Not to mention the umpteen Thirukurals used as punch dialogues.
Amala Paul has very little to offer as her character is often used to evoke laughter with the husband-wife fight comedy. Talking about it, despite sounding like jokes from a Tamil magazine, they predominantly work and manages to make us chuckle. Samuthirakani’s role is now that of a mellowed down dad and he pulls it off perfectly – so much that we wish he had some more screen space. The other person whom we wish we saw more was Vivekh. That man deserves it.
One of the major pluses of the film is the fact that they’ve stayed loyal to the original script and have made sure they keep the essence of it. The Mofo bike, Harry Potter (Raghu’s dog) and much more help in retaining the original’s flavour. The first installment’s music was a huge pillar of support for the film and to be honest, Sean Rolden couldn’t create the magic Anirudh did. The crowd erupts when the background score of the original film is used and that shows how much of a success it is. It’s also the reason why the punch lines and action sequences don’t create an impact. The songs too aren’t worth remembering. They also stick to some cliche dialogues such as “Yaaru da avan, annan an thambi ah,” only to get an answer such as “friend’u.” While the climax evoked different opinions from many, I personally liked how they finished the film.
Overall, VIP 2 is a mediocre attempt to cash in on the success of its predecessor. While the characters work, the story and screenplay is very predictable and offers nothing much new to the audience. At the end of it, I wish there was a Thirukural that said not to do sequels if there isn’t a reason for it.
My rating for VIP 2 – 3/5
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