Shankar’s desire to bring back Indian Thatha to fight against injustices in the country finds its wrong expressions in Indian 2. That utopian future, the director hems for the audience which makes them believe everything is possible turning out a comedy in Indian 2. Perhaps, the weakest of his all creations so far. All larger-than-life concepts he has introduced on the silver screen could connect with the masses. The scale was high, really high. As it becomes a disengaging affair in Indian 2, almost the entire running time of the film, any justification would fail.

Indian 2 has a good start. The ‘Barking Dogs’ vigilante group sounded a young version of Senapathi though he started it very late. After witnessing some core social injustices around, Chita Aravindan (an earnest Siddharth) who leads the group decides to put #comebackIndian on social media.

The film takes a u-turn from its past glory very soon. In his prosthetic makeup, Kamal Haasan looked very pale and unappealing. Neither his social media presence nor dialogs work. Shankar’s favourite terrain Lancham (bribe) sequences are a cringe fest. Wondering, how a director well aware of the pulse of a mass audience and depicted much of their filmsy ambitions already, could ignore the pitfalls of such a weedy script. While enacting Senapathi in a sequel of Indian which earned him a national award in 1997, Kamal too overlooked the plight of his masterpiece character. Is it excusable?

Indian is a loner in part 2. There isn’t a single moment we emotionally connect with him. His zero tolerance for injustice hardly inspires us. A protagonist we stood by ends up as someone with no soul. Come back or go back is the question.

The other cast in Indian 2 also suffered in their wafer-thin roles. A hopeless Bobby Simha and an unconvinced SJ Suryah are some of them. Kamal Haasan’s pretty long unicycle rides and the Thatha heroisms are nothing but a comedy of errors.

Such a dispirited sequel, Shankar! Do come back with an original in the final act of this Trilogy next year.