Singam 2

The original Singam was a treat to watch. An emotional yet strong police officer story with all the commercial ingredients to make it a perfect Tamil entertainer. Singam 2 is not quite there. Too many characters, bad music and not so great villains make this movie longer and boring.

Singam 2 shows a quick recap of Singam before leading into its theme, just to let you know that they are following the original track that was laid (which also means that we have to provide screen space for all the characters from the old film - what a pity). Tamil cinema still hasn't reached a stage where they can do something like a James Bond franchise with unrelated movies and yet do fantastic at the box office. I am sure we have the capability but many directors still are hung up on song and dance.

So what's new! An item number with Angadi Theru Anjali, local and international baddies, Hansika, and Santhanam.

Singam 2 is all about Suriya. If at any point you removed all the surrounding characters (esp family, love, and comedy), the movie would still make sense. And if the director had made any attempt to remove a few of those characters, the movie would have been slightly better too.

Hansika as an infatuated school-girl adds just color to the Tuticorin backdrop. Santhanam's sequences are not very enjoyable but his mockery of scenes and dialogues from the first movie are definitely a treat. Three villains and one of them calling himself the King of the Indian Ocean (absolutely ridiculous), I definitely think that Prakash Raj did a much better job in the first movie. Rahman does a good job in playing his part as one of the bad guys.

The movie takes us to all sorts of places. Starting from Tuticorin to Chennai, Kerala and then South Africa as well. Scenes are quick and short but predictable and weak.

Don't even get me started about the music. In this one, DSP fails to make your feet tap. After the first song, you are convinced that the first movie's soundtrack was worth every minute of your ear.

I find it very difficult to continue this review because of the confusion the screenplay creates by having so many scenes. In the end, all I can remember is Suriya finding a way to ensure that every bad guy is out of business. Beyond that everything about Singam 2 is waste of time. Having said that, a theme to just oust baddies is quite horrible because that's been the premise of Tamil Cinema for generations. So director Hari doesn't churn out anything interesting.

Going at this rate, actors like Suriya, Vijay and Vikram will become a forgotten trio if they don't invest their time and talent in working on meaningful scripts.