Viduthalai Part 2: Vetrimaaran’s sequel is important despite its cinematic distortions

Movie: Viduthalai Part 2 (Tamil)In a fantastic action sequence in Vetrimaaran’s Viduthalai Part 2, Kumaresan (Soori), his eyes welled up with tears, pauses to speak his conscience with clarity: Yaarangaiya sudanum? Yedhukuiya sudanum? This lucidly captures the film’s essence and everything the Viduthalai universe stands for. But this sort of clarity — abundant in the film’s ideology and perceptiveness — is largely missing in its making. If Viduthalai was about the morally ambiguous fight between the police force and Perumal’s (Vijay Sethupathi) Makkal padai group, Viduthalai Part 2 is about what made Perumal the leader he is. And as Perumal takes over from Kumaresan, we get a sequel that’s much more radical, but also one that lacks technical finesse..It’s easy to see why Vetrimaaran wanted the sequel to be Perumal’s film. Backed by Vijay Sethupathi’s enviable flair to depict realness on screen, Perumal aka Vaathiyar is a deeply flawed man. And the film doesn’t shy away from depicting the leader’s limitations on screen. In another film, a hero introduction might not have begun with a blunder that speaks to the character’s reductive, ill-informed outlook on things. Before telling us about Perumal’s rise to being the people’s leader, Viduthalai Part 2 tells us about every small mistake that made his ascent possible. While we got a glimpse of his humanity with a throwaway scene of him asking consent before entering a person’s house during a deadly shootout in Viduthalai, the sequel is a pleasant extension. Perumal meets his match in Mahalakshmi (a brilliant Manju Warrier), who rocks a bob — a character detail that comes with its own unforgettable backstory — and wears Communism on her sleeve despite being the daughter of an evil mill owner. In a film that breathes and lives ideological politics, some of its best moments come from an unlikely love story that blossoms amid violence and chaos. It’s admirable that the makers found it important to flesh out such a basic emotion because, at the end of the day, love is political. But Viduthalai Part 2 is also a film where such moments of authenticity are followed by scene after scene of choppily cut footage that pulls us away from its world. Flashback portions are jarringly intercut with scenes in the present, where an unnerved Kumaresan and team navigate Armapuri’s thick forest roads with a handcuffed Perumal for company. It’s not new for a film of this visceral calibre to be rough around the edges. But certain editing and voiceover choices in Viduthalai Part 2 almost make it impossible for us to decipher what’s going on. Its rushed writing is visible, especially in portions where a random voiceover hijacks indecipherable dialogue, making it difficult for us to follow either train of thought. Vetrimaaran struggles to apply the same nuance from Perumal’s early days into the present portions, with the verbose dialogue unable to recreate the same impact. The sequel is filled with complex, intricate observations about the brutal workings of the police machinery. A government brass hat assigns a cop from the “oppressed community” for optics, news about an arrest is halted to get more funds, and a supposedly nice cop ultimately places his own interest ahead of his identity and politics. Viduthalai Part 2 also forces us to form questions about morality: Who is worse - a privileged cop or a selfish one? In a man-made tragedy, is the perpetrator wrong or the forces that willfully let the tragedy befall wrong? But as we barely begin to scratch the surface of these emotions, we’re thrown into the next scene. We do get fleeting glimpses of what the film could’ve been: a white flag is waved, but it’s stained with blood, a man who grieves the loss of his comrades realises that the blood on his hands is not just literal, and the jeep that once showed the way, suddenly comes to a halt — all visual markers of a seasoned filmmaker’s touch. As the film slips away, its last act tactfully pulls itself together with an incredibly choreographed set piece filmed masterfully by Velraj in the thick of fog and mist, moving us to bits. This only makes one wonder: if a film with all its distortions could still draw the curtains with such a powerful statement, how would Viduthalai Part 2 have been if this treatment was consistent? One can only wonder. If there’s anything Sruthi loves more than watching films, it’s writing about it. Sruthi Ganapathy Raman’s words can also be read in Film Companion, Scroll.in, and The Times of India.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 film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.