Goli Soda 2 – Bursts of fizz but not consistent enough

Bharath Vijayakumar

Vijay Milton pulled off a surprise with his Goli Soda. While that film followed the template of an action flick between the underdogs and the powerful, the very fact that it had adolescents replace our mass heroes was what set it apart. Furthermore, we as the audience did not have much clue as to where the film was headed to. What began as a film like 'Marina' took the action route midway and we were surprised. With a spiritual sequel like Goli Soda 2, that surprise is not going to be there and it gives all the more reason for the plot to be solid.

Goli Soda 2 follows the lives of 3 youngsters who are fighting it out to climb the ladder (society) through sheer hardwork and determination. But it is never going to be easy as they are pulled back with brute force. The evil factor in each of their cases is different – Caste, Power and Money. The reasons may be different but it is violence that is used to oppress them and finally they decide to retaliate with the same weapon. The very fact that the film follows 3 different tracks is what actually works both ways - for and against the film. While the parrallel narration with intercuts does seem to add a sense of urgency and heightened drama it also possibly reduces the emotional connect which might have been more had we got more time to spend with limited characters.

There was a sense of uneasiness in the form of tension in the first part and when the kids hit back it was a solid payoff. Here things are more rushed and while we feel the angst and a certain jubilation when the villains get a taste of their own medicine, things never go full throttle. Somehow here you feel the villains are evil for the sake of it.

The acting overall is just about decent. It keeps oscillating between realism and masala mode. Effort has been put in for the stunt sequences to keep it real and also imaginative. Again this too works in bits and pieces. Much like Kaala this is also a film that speaks for the less privileged. There is a reference to Periyar and Ambedkar and there are dialogues directed at God and about our casteist society. They make sense as standalone bits and pieces but the film operates more on the masala front and takes the easy route as the solution. This isn't a complaint as such because the film intends to work this way but even as a masala it is quite uneven with some tension filled stretches like the one before the interval and then some ordinary stuff in between. The casting of GVM too is a dicey decision. Some of the twists or surprises at the end do not work because of this casting decision. You do know for sure as to which side he is going to take.

Bottomline:

Goli Soda 2 does have fizz. But whether it gives the high that the first installment gave is a different question.

Rating: 2.5/5