Hindustani 2 is a one-time watch for Kamal Haasan alone

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In 1996, the dubbed-in-Hindi Hindustani, featuring Kamal Haasan as Veerasekharan Senapathy, an ex-soldier, and his wayward son, was a Silver Jubilee hit with some popular songs. The film was called Indian in its original language—Tamil.

28 years down, we have its sequel, Hindustani 2 a.k.a. Indian 2¸ and while its local (as in Tamil) and pan-Indian performance will be clear in a week or two, the fact remains that it is Kamal Haasan coming back as a vigilante on a mission—he had even killed his corrupt son and escaped the law.

Yes, Senapathy, technically a fugitive from law, is now staying in Taiwan, practicing (and coaching students in) the traditional Varma Kalai, whose mastery can make even an old man (as Senapathy is shown after 28 years after he was already middle-aged!) be the epitome of physical fitness. He has also mastered this traditional hybrid martial art (I call it hybrid because it also involves other things) to uncanny lengths.

In Chennai, four youngsters who awaken people to wrongs in society though political satires and parodies on YouTube and call themselves as “Barking Dogs” are busy exposing several misdeeds and tragedies resulting from corruption, like a suicide or extortion. But their increasing helplessness leads to a brainstorming session where they realize that a man who had once called himself “Indian” was the answer to all the corrupt forces. But they do not know if he is still alive.

Their campaign “Come Back Indian” goes viral globally and Indian a.k.a. Senapathy, who is keeping track of things in his home country decides to return to India. He has already decided on exterminating Amit Agarwal (Gulshan Grover), a filthy rich and libidinous businessman who is shooting for his models-based calendar in Taiwan and is responsible for a poor young boy’s suicide,

Oh yes, before I proceed, the “Barking Dogs” are Chithra Aravindan (Siddharth, with a small back-story to explain why he is named Chithra—a feminine name), Aarthi (Priya Bhavani Shankar), Thambesh (Jagan) and Harish (Rishikanth). When Indian arrives home, as usual outsmarting the cops who know (How????) that he is due, he addresses the youngsters on video to cleanse the nation, starting with any corruption or wrong in their own families. He then goes on an exterminating spree of major evildoers who has caused economic or human loss to the nation and feathered their own nests.

These expeditions include learning Gujarati and Punjabi and ruthlessly killing tycoons like Dharshanbhai (Zakir Hussain) and Kishan Singh (Piyush Mishra). At every step, his would-be Nemesis, the cop Pramod (Bobby Simha) is after him but is outwitted. For Pramod, arresting the much-wanted vigilante is a mission—his father, Krishnaswamy (Nedumudi Venu) had failed repeatedly in 1996. Pramod almost succeeds, but not quite. The twist when Senapathy is arrested by Pramod and its aftermath is a dramatic highlight.

Meanwhile, the four friends decide to follow Senapathy’s advice and discover diverse corruption in their own families. Chithra’s girlfriend (Rakul Preet Singh) doing a small role indeed, joins them in the mission.

When they expose the wrongdoers among parents and siblings, the families are shattered and the youngsters disowned. In a bout of rage, Chithra now tells Senapathy to go back, and makes the nation joins the call as Chithra’s mother has died indirectly due to Senapathy’s advice. But Senapathy is made of sterner stuff. And so we get a flash of Hindustani 3, due next year, which I hear has been shot simultaneously! The total footage was about six hours, and the director-co-writer and team decided to split this sequel into two parts.

Shankar laces the film with all the technical polish and finesse that marked his Robot franchise without losing track of the core story and the emotional wallop—the sequence of Chithra’s mother’s death is a highlight and Siddharth is exceptional there. He keeps the length a shade too much and like many a good director, loses out to temptation when a long and incredible unicycle chase sequence is shown as cops go after Senapathy. This ruins the film’s emotional and narrative tempo.

The music is a sore point again, though I liked the catchy “Calendar” song featuring Gulshan Grover and Demi-Leigh Tebow, which is shot magnificently with astounding work by DOP Ravivarman, choreographers Bosco and Baba Bhaskar and V. Sreenivas Mohan’s VFX.

Kamal Haasan proves yet again that prosthesis and oodles of make-up cannot affect his performance, which he has been demonstrating right from his Chachi 420 times. His eyes, his body language and his intonations work magic. The fluid mastery at Gujarati and Punjabi is awesome. He gets great support from the youngsters and the rough and tough Bobby Simha as Pramod. And viewers will have to catch the film to realize how the main villains and their deaths have a basic element of wry humor amidst the seriousness of their offenses and brutal ends.  A standout performance comes from Samuthirakani, though Rakul Preet Singh is wasted.

After Vikram last year, this is another film at which Kamal Haasan’s ardent fans will go wild despite its inordinate length of 181 minutes. But for the rest, it is an easy one-time watch.

Rating: ***

Lyca Productions’ Hindustani 2  Produced by: Subhaskaran  Directed by: S.Shankar Written by: S. Shankar with Hindi dialogues by unknown writers Music: Anirudh Ravichander  Starring: Kamal Haasan, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Rishi, S.J . Suryah, Nedumudi Venu, Bobby Simha, Samuthirakani, Vivek, Gulshan Grover, Zakir Hussain, Piyush Mishra, Manobala, Brahmanandam, Kalyani Natarajan, Demi-Leigh Tebow & others