Kaalidas 2 TamilYogi Review: Scene of a policeman being distracted by Vaalee on a theatre screen as a murderer is escaping behind the back of the policeman speaks volumes about Kaalidas 2. It is a movie that strives to be serious, yet continually subverts itself in strange, confusing ways. Led by Sri Senthil, the idea of the missing child in a bustling apartment complex is actually a gripping one to start with. I was hooked awhile. Crowds have an inherent eeriness, with anyone possible of guilt. However, when Bharath intervenes and inquires, the movie begins exposing its cards prematurely, swapping suspense with unavoidable misleadership, and progressively, that initial interest starts to fall through its fingers.
The action of the story takes place in one huge apartment house, where almost half a million people live, during a New Year party. During the celebrations, a little girl of three and a half years old by the name of Mithra, goes missing. This sense of chaos is initially organic, the panic sets in, suspicion is aroused, and the police are called in. This arrangement was the beginning of an investigative thriller, one that may have delved into human behaviour in times of pressure and unraveled a dark mystery.
Bharath, as an investigation officer, intervenes with his team, where one of them is a female Assistant Commissioner. Even at the early phases of the story the plot starts to constrict its suspects, paying a lot of attention to a bunch of bachelor boys living in one of the flats. One of them is soon singled out, and, surprisingly, this suspicion is forcefully advanced in the very early portions of the film.
Here my interest began to drop. By the fourth reel, the movie seems overconfident with regard to the identification of a suspect and it is almost commanding the viewers to accept him as the suspect. But, rather than creating tension, it actually worked the reverse on me. It was clear that the story was trying to be deceptive too conspicuously, which watered the suspense. I was left wondering the purpose as opposed to the mystery.
The next morning, this situation becomes darker as Mithra is discovered dead. Meanwhile, the series of killings by the local bullies starts to develop in the outside of the apartment complex. The movie subsequently tries to form a relationship between these murders and the death of the child. Paperwise, this stratagem of layers is quite impressive, yet in practice, it was more than needlessly convoluted than interestingly complicated.
The manner of writing some characters was one of the most obvious weaknesses to me. What might have been an emotionally rich or narrative-rich grandmother presence is left as weirdly suspicious. The manner in which she is all too obviously suggestive to be unintentionally suggestive, serving as a kind of hint that makes the mystery more easily decipherable instead of deepening it.
In the same vein, the female AC officer, who is supposed to actually add to the investigation, is dispensed with. When she did come around I never truly felt that her presence was justified, like she was placed in the story without a definite role. This feeble characterisation goes further to include a number of others.
Such actors as Kishore and Abarnathi have a great screen presence, but the script does not provide them with the material to shine. Even Ajay Karthi, who is a major player, seems to be holding back in scenes that require greater emotional outburst. I continued to believe that with a more subtle writing, these performances would have taken the film to a new level.
In a film that is based on research, plausibility is essential. Regrettably, Kaalidas 2 stumbles in a number of such instances. One of the sequences that I found to be interesting occurs in a theatre. A killer is viewing a movie and he is followed by a policeman. The staging is entirely anti-intuitive instead of being discrete. The officer is in front of the screen and the suspect sits behind him.
Throughout this sequence, the movie Vaalee is shown on screen and the officer becomes distracted by watching Simran that he loses his focus. During this moment of lapse, the murderer recklessly commits a second crime, and gets away. This moment that should have been a heated, edge-of-the-seat scene turns comical, accidentally, breaking the immersion.
Another example is the character of Kishore, who is presented in an environment of a butcher shop. The scene has the potential to be gritty and unsettling, especially with a late-night inspection by an AC officer. Rather, the atmosphere is strangely smooth, more like candlelit dinner than butcher shop. The fact that several workers were present at such an odd time, poses some logical questions that are not answered.
The background score by Sam CS is important in sustaining the tone of the investigative nature of the film. I liked that it serves the story, particularly when it is necessary to add some tension. But there was something familiar in some passages with which I could not have been unacquainted. Certain songs were redundant and diminished their effect.
The film has a problem with pacing. The basic event, the disappearance of the child, is almost 10-15 minutes in time to become thoroughly established. Up to that point, the story appears to be aimlessly floating along. The interval block, which theoretically is supposed to be a high point, does not create the needed momentum.
The latter half makes the situation even more complicated by adding some distractions like a flashback, a love song, and even a song. These ingredients water down the tension which the film attempts to create in the beginning. As opposed to making the story tighter, they make it appear disjointed and uneven.
The movie does make some effort to redeem itself with twists during the climax. I did consider some of these twists to be conceptually good. They may have provided a satisfactory payoff in a tighter written screenplay. But, I felt uninvolved in the story emotionally well before these twists started.
The other significant case is the motive of the crimes. The movie attempts to tie together several murders on one strand, yet the justification to the first murder is weak. These dire consequences on the basis of an unconvincing motive become hard to believe. This loose structure creates a lack of credibility to the whole story.
Nevertheless, I would not completely rule out Kaalidas 2 because of its flaws. The fundamental premise is promising, and hints of an interesting investigative thriller are visible in its lines. I liked the effort to create a multi-tiered story and the effort to make the film simple and family-friendly.
The ending hints at a continuation, possibly setting up a third instalment. Although the intention to create a franchise is obvious, I think that the priorities should be set on the enhancement of coherence and performance first. It is a dangerous step to expand a story which is already having a difficulty with consistency.
Ultimately, Kaalidas 2 is a movie that is between thought and action. It has the right ingredients of a gripping thriller but it is not the combination of ingredients that I was expecting to be delivered.
Rating: 2.5/5
