Hindustani 2 Movie Review: Kamal Haasan Shines Bright, As Do The Stunts

Hindustani 2Devesh Sharma, Jul 12, 2024, 13:36 ISTCast:Kamal Haasan, Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Bobby SimhaDirector:ShankarGenre:Drama, ActionDuration:3 hours 0 minutesCritic’s rating 3.5/5In Shankar’s Hindustani (1996), Kamal Haasan played an old freedom fighter named Veerasekaran Senapathy, who turns into a vigilante after seeing the corruption around him. He doesn’t spare his own son (Kamal himself in a double role) and kills him for being corrupt. After 28 years, Shankar and Kamal Haasan have come out with not one but two sequels. At the end of Hindustani 2, you get to see the trailer for Hindustani 3, which is going to come out in 2025 and talks about armed revolt against the British, among other things.The current film starts off as a social media campaign against corruption. Chitra Aravindan (Siddharth) runs a watchdog website which brings to life the wrongs prevalent in the society. His girlfriend Disha (Rakul Preet Singh) wants him to stay out of these armchair tactics as she feels they don’t bring about a concrete change in the society. When he’s harassed by the police for his efforts, Chitra realises that mere posting of videos isn’t enough. That a harsher method is needed to root out the rampant corruption. He starts a social media campaign to bring back the vigilante known as Indian. After a while, Senapathy responds to the hugely successful campaign by killing one of the people responsible for multiple crimes against the society. Like in the first film, he becomes an unstoppable killing machine capable of infiltrating the tightest security and killing his targets. This time, his vision is pan-Indian or even international.Just as we resign ourselves to more gimmicky murders, the film takes a serious turn in the second half. Shankar shifts focus on the fact that revolution doesn’t come easy. Inspired by Senapathy, Chitra and his friends, along with a hundred others, start reporting their family members involved in corrupt practices. Later, finding themselves alienated and ostracised by the very society they wanted to change, they begin to question their earlier choices. They begin to think that they have paid too high a price and that their sacrifice isn’t worth it. At this crucial juncture, Senapathy himself gets caught by the police. How he extracts himself out of the situation and turns things around…well, you have to wait till January 2025 to see that…Shankar has always been known for providing us with some hugely imaginative scenes. Mudhalvan (1999), Anniyan (2005) or Enthiran (2010) are prime examples of his craft. The present film takes some time to get into the full Shankar mode but when it does, you can’t take your eyes off the screen. The 20 minute long stunt sequence towards the end where Senapathy is shown riding an electric unicycle is alone worth the price of the ticket. Another sequence of note is the zero gravity murder sequence which will surely thrill the viewers. However, the film as a whole isn’t as gripping as his earlier efforts. It’s also extremely political, taking a rather radical stand for ending corruption. Shankar has always been vocal about that in his earlier films too and is going to treat it on war footing in the third film of the present series.One can only talk in superlatives when it comes to Kamal Haasan’s acting skills. He loves playing around with prosthetics and wigs and has a whale of a time doing that here too. He’s 69 years of age but jumps and kicks like a man half his age. It’s Kamal’s film all the way and his screen presence and acting chops make you forget the haphazard screenplay. Siddharth too is in fine form as a young man with a conscience who wants to do the right thing but is unsure of his actions afterwards. Rakul Preet Singh plays the supportive girlfriend to a T and perhaps would have a better arc in the sequel.Watch the film for its superbly executed stunts and for another masterful performance by Kamal Haasan.