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Director Nelson Dileepkumar’s Jailer 2 may exhaust you, then lull you into a stupor with its bottomless supply of excesses.
Sequels mostly work if the previous film possessed some internal logic to continue from. But while Jailer (2023) was a quirky and fun watch, it was also full of laughable plot holes that didn’t come with enough stakes to set up a worthy second instalment. And now, possibly, a third.
In Jailer 2, Rajinikanth returns as ‘Tiger’ Muthuvel Pandian, a retired warden who once terrorised inmates at Tihar jail. The first film established Muthu (a callback to the 1995 Rajini film of the same name) as a man whose influence reaches far beyond that of any prison warden and spans several states.
Jailer 2 carries that forward along with his skill to hide in plain sight. Working as a driver for a bumbling small-time thug, Muthu continues his crusade against an idol-smuggling mafia. The film builds up to a face-off between him and Bodhi Kalpak (SJ Suryah).
Suryah’s trademark theatrics are a few shades more muted in Jailer 2, which makes Bodhi one of the more interesting characters. He manages to infuse some comedy into his role, often through his bewilderment at the lengths Muthu is willing to go.
It says something about a Kollywood hero if even Suryah’s character is mystified to the point of doubting his nemesis’ stability.
As Anirudh’s pounding, screeching score ratchets up and the film flits from one big explosion to the next while sprinkling meagre bits of an actual plot along the way, you’re left wondering what it is that Muthu even wants?
Cameos come and go, offering little satisfaction to an oversaturated audience. Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar and Jackie Shroff are back with Hrithik Roshan in tow as a ‘surprise’.
Aside from bringing with them considerable star power, their presence contributes barely anything beyond convenient plot twists. Jailer 2 seems to have no use for their individual calibres as actors. The trend of cameos, seen in Vikram (2022), Leo (2023), Coolie (2025) and others, has by now lost its glamour.
Further, Jailer 2 doesn’t even seem to want to put to use all of Rajini’s talents apart from his ability to walk stylishly away from a building he just blew up.
The first half, which is more or less entertaining, is anchored by Suraj Venjaramoodu as Dileep, one of Bodhi’s men. He too is wasted by Jailer 2’s insatiable appetite for bloodbaths. The second half drags on, full of death and destruction, to a conclusion that matches the absolute disregard for coherence seen so far.
But what really rankles about Jailer 2 is its women characters.
Ramya Krishnan reprises her role as Muthu’s wife, Viji. She was cast in Jailer entirely because of her unforgettable screen presence as Neelambarai in Padyappa (1999) and then completely sidelined.
If her no-consequence appearance in the first film was a disappointment, her treatment in the sequel is a downright unmaking of everything Neelambarai represents to her women fans.
Neelambarai has endured as a flawed but feminist icon in defiance of the misogyny she was originally written with. She gave us a Kollywood heroine who didn’t back down for anyone; who refused mindless diffidence to male mediocrity.
Her one truly problematic trait in Padyappa that has since been highlighted by feminists was her misbehaviour with working-class characters. Though that is inexcusable, it’s also necessary to remember that she was written that way with the sole intention of portraying the Tamil stereotype of an arrogant woman.
If Ramya was truly cast to honour our collective nostalgia, surely she’d have been given a more meaningful role? Instead, the film is a regressive Tamil man’s dream of Nilamabarai’s utter domestication. Viji is around to make countless dinners, serve food, be scared, be clueless, occasionally cry and make silly decisions.
Meanwhile, Vidya Balan plays one of the villains, Kantha Kalpak. Again, another gifted actor is squandered. Her menace is conveyed exclusively through her unreasonable violence, low-cut blouses, a Neelambarai-esque arrogance and the fact that she’s the only woman character who smokes. Occasionally, Muthu flirts and leers at her, regardless of the wife he keeps putting in danger.
Even in the one moment when women are shown to fight as well as the men, they’re all sexualised.
Jailer 2 has no intention of being anything more than no-brainer entertainment. It's packed to the seams with mass moments and shallow callbacks to Rajini’s most beloved hits like Moondru Mugam (1982). There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. The same approach made the first film immeasurably fun to watch. This just feels like a tiring repetition with more explosions and bigger guns.
And the scheduling tragedy that released Jailer 2 and its misogyny mere weeks after Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy now risks overturning any introspection on toxic masculinity the latter may have inspired.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.
