Nadodigal 2 - Finesse is not its strongpoint but an important tale nevertheless!

Bharath Vijayakumar

You know for certain that a sermonizing tone is a given in a film directed by Samuthirakani. The characters would talk sense and more importantly would say a lot of right things. But they would do so directly to the audience and this is what would put off a section of the audience who don't mind message in a film but what if giving message directly to the audience in speeches becomes the film in itself.

Nadodigal 2 does have what you might call sermons. But this is a film where I did not mind it much. First reason was that I was obviously prepared for this but the pleasant surprise was that there was a certain justification to this on screen. The principal characters in the film are social activists and raising slogans to make the public aware becomes a part of their routine. So when Sasikumar or the other characters start advising, it really doesn't feel all that odd!

The core of the film is about an intercaste marriage and the hero needing to save the couple from bloodthirsty casteists . But the film devotes less space for the actual conflict which is actually a very interesting one and this crux of the film is reason enough for it to be named Nadodigal 2. The general vibe of the film is reasonably decent. There is never a point where we are fully engrossed with the proceedings nor is there an instance that puts us completely off.

The film wants to make pertinent points. Say for instance the transgender character. To the film's credit, this is a full fledged character and not a single scene appearance used as an excuse to preach. But again, very minimal effort is put into using this character seamlessly as a part of the film's narrative. There is a dialogue in the film where Sasikumar says that age old problems cannot be fixed with a single step and he is only trying to move forward in that direction. But in the film all these problems are done away with in a jiffy.

Bottomline:

A little more effort in creating a certain mood throughout (as in the first part) and this film could have been much more. All said, this is a well intentioned film with important progressive ideals. Just hope that Samuthirakani can lean towards being more subtle!

Rating: 2.5/5