The highly anticipated sequel to 2021’s Pushpa: The Rise is a mess of incoherence and inconsistency.
Pushpa 2 Review and Rating: The whole nation, including North India, went crazy after seeing the character of Pushpa. Pusha Raj is a formulaic character of rag to-riches, if seen from a distance. Sukumar made it even more interesting by adding more ethnic detailing of the Chittoor region, especially the Tamil-infused-Telugu dialect and the Seshachalam forest locale. The extravagant egoistic heroism of Pushpa made us forgive a few illogics Sumukar too. Little bit of suspension of disbelief is needed for any commercial cinema. However, that too little suspension of disbelief isn’t enough to save this mega mess of incoherent inconsistent story haphazardly serving the none, but the craze mounted around Pushpa.
Pushpa 2 begins in Yokohama, Japan. Ask why? You won’t get the right answer except to prove that the Pushpa is now an international brand, and he is determined to take whatever he deserves, even so starving in a container for 45 days. So be it, despite the fact that both international-ness and adamant-ness of Pushpa is proven multiple times in Part-1 as well as Part-2. The logics of Sukumar are thrown out of the window the moment ‘Icon Star’ Allu Arjun enters the frame to serve the Pan-Indian mass-hero image. It’s okay, after all, it is a massy entertainer designed to entertain the masses. The one thing that shouldn’t have been given up is the character integrity of Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, the sole egoistic head-to-head challenger to the unbeatable Pushpa.
Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat played by much loved Fahad Fassil is reduced to a vain joker from the egoistic arrogant police officer. We get the cat and mouse game of Pushpa and Shekhawat, but we don’t feel the intensity that we experienced in part one. There has been more focus on how to elevate Pusha through grandeur and large-scale action sequences than through the intense dramatic dialogue exchanges between all strong characters in Pushpa, like Mangalam Seenu, Daksha, Konda Reddy, Govindappa etc. The characterisation of Pushpa doing too much self-serving spoils the thrill that we felt in the initial installment.
The grandeur of the Jathara scene is undoubtedly the best of the whole movie. The eyes are stuck to the screen at all the times when saree- clad Allu Arjun as Gango Renukamma Thalli does the performative dance placed at the right emotional spot giving Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna) to have her moment of song and a monologue. The best thing about this Jathara scene is that both elements of visual, narrative and emotional moments come back at the climax. This gives the importance to the Jathara scene beyond the fan service.
Rao Ramesh as Siddappa gets more screen space as he ladders-up to become the Chief Minister and Pratap Reddy (Jagapathi Babu) is introduced as a central minister and someone to look out for in the part three. Jagadeesh as Kesava shines without losing the grasp of his character that we see in the initial part. Sree Leela grooving for the ‘Kissik’ is an unnecessary element forcefully fit into the story– the classic trait of an ‘item song’. Ajay as Mohan, the stepbrother of Pushpa, get the due in this movie, completing the arc to the levels of satisfaction.
Just the arc of having an united family and a family’s surname is completed, the climax Puspa: The Rule pitched its path for its third installment, aiming for a trilogy- or even more, who knows! The publicly known fact of a trilogy should have been ended with a better bang that a high-stake Pan-Indian movie deserves than the laziest spur to evoke a simple jerk of a shock that successfully shocks only as a disappointment rather than excitement for the Puspa 3: The Rampage.
TF Rating: 2/5
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