Movie Review: It may be a spoof, but take your brain with you

From demonetisation to incidents that happened after the demise of Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Amudhan has made a spoof out of everything and anything around — and he has succeeded remarkably! Considering how sensitive the film industry is and the issues he deals with, it’s definitely not easy to make a full-length spoof that runs for more than two hours on the big screen.  

The film begins with an undercover cop (Shiva) helping the officials to control a caste-related riot in Madurai, through his impeccable speech (in fact, he takes two idlis with him to explain what communism is — an obvious reference to a scene from Vijay’s Kaththi ). In the very next scene, he loses his wife to a bomb blast, and decides to avenge Mr P (Sathish) the man behind it. How his wife dies (as morose as this may sound) itself is hilarious. 

Shiva’s mission doesn’t end there — he wants to find another girl, fall in love with her and get married. So what ensues are some hilarious romantic sequences with Gayathri (Iswarya Menon) that are spoofs of of popular scenes from Remo, Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and a lot more. Amudhan’s intentions are clear from the very first scene — to make the audience laugh yet leave them intrigued. 

Tamizh Padam 2 , enables one to realise how filmmakers in the industry write clichéd roles for heroines (like how the film’s hero wants to fall with a ‘loosu ponnu’) and how chauvinistic ‘soupsongs’ have become a trend. 

Scenes that imitate Deputy CM O Panneerselvam’s meditation at the Jayalalithaa memorial, Vivegam’s climax fight sequences and the references to Game of Thrones’ Khaleesi in the flashback sequences will leave you in splits and will stay in your memories after the movie as well. Sathish’s characterisation as Mr P is quite interesting. This time, he generates laughs not with his oneliners but looks! From 16 Vayathinile ’s Rajini to Mankatha Ajith, his character takes potshots at some of the popular grey characters Tamil cinema has witnessed. A surprising factor is that he even sports Akshay Kumar’s look from 2.0 and makes a joke out of it though the 

film hasn’t released. 

While the first half of the film is engaging, the second half is bit long. The item song and some scenes could have been left on the editing table. However, the film picks up a pace in the flashback portions before the climax. Sometimes, when the imitations of scenes get little tiring, the props used — like a picture of Sathish with Obama, a Sathyaraj Alwa Kadai confection box and even Sathish’s costumes serve as interesting elements.  

Composer Kannan’s background score not only gels well with the funnier scenes but also elevates the mood of the audience otherwise.  

Saving the best for the last, it is undoubtedly the lead character Shiva, who solely holds the film and entertains the people, making this the best performance of his career so far. His dialogue delivery and charming screen presence leave us wanting for more. Overall, Tamizh Padam 2 is fun ride that’s worth your money.