Soodhu Kavvum 2 Review: A Dishonour To Vijay Sethupathi’s Phenomenal Dark Comedy

Last Updated:December 13, 2024, 18:08 IST

Soodhu Kavvum 2 pales in comparison to its predecessor, failing to capture the dark humor and cynical brilliance of Nalan Kumarasamy’s original.

Soodhu Kavvum 2 attempts to follow in the footsteps of its iconic predecessor but falls short in delivering the dark humor and philosophical depth of the original.

Watching Soodhu Kavvum 2 makes one realise the genius of the first part and its director Nalan Kumarasamy. More than the delicious dark houmour and wacky texture, the life of Soodhu Kavvum (2013) lies in its sarcastic pessimism. Nalan doled out a cynical comedy about a corrupt society beyond reckoning. Yet, his dark comedy made everyone overlook the philosophical core of his world. The title of the film Soodhu Kavvum (Evil Engulfs) is part of the Hindu god Krishna’s sermon in Bhagavad Gita, which goes: Dharmathin Vaazhvuthanai Soodhu Kavvum, Aanaal Dharmam Irudhiyil Vellum (Evil will engulf the dharma, but the good will always triumph in the end).” Though director Nalan’s film just takes part of it, ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ is a complete statement in the context of the movie. Evil engulfs. Period. The truth doesn’t triumph here, but that doesn’t seem to be a bad thing as it looks at life with a sense of sardonic humour that is soothing and pleasurable. 

Amidst the didactic social commentaries that are passed off as political drama, Nalan’s film was a wicked anomaly that operated from an ideological plane that was never known to Tamil mainstream cinema. A decade later, we get a sequel made by director SJ Arjun, who doesn’t seem to get Soodhu Kavvum. Thus, with Soodhu Kavvum 2, we have a wannabe dark comedy that is neither dark nor comedy.

Soodhu Kavvum 2 begins decades before the first part where we get to know how Radha Ravi becomes the CM of Tamil Nadu. While the righteous leader (Vaagai Chandrasekar) is supposed to become the CM, Arumaiprakasam (Karunakaran) as a newborn baby ends up sending the veteran politician into a coma. In a sense, Arumaiprakasam is the reason for the evil engulfing Tamil Nadu. The first part ended with him, a fraud, becoming a minister of the state. In this, he is the finance minister of the state for the second term and has amassed wealth by corruption. Instead of Das (Vijay Sethupathi), the schizophrenic and hallucinating kidnapper, we get his mentor Guru (Shiva). Guru is boring, and a lot has to do with Shiva and his performance which is flat. Without alcohol, Guru will hallucinate cobras which becomes a running gag in the film with diminishing returns. Like Das, Guru also hallucinates a girlfriend. He is projected to be the founder of the kidnapping technique we see in the first part. Guru, along with his two accomplices, accomplishes nothing in the major part of the film, like the director. When Vagai Chandrasekar wakes up from a coma and tries to redeem the state, Guru and his gang kidnap Arumaiprakasam for a contrived reason that is as silly as the whole film. Nothing is gripping in terms of a plot in Soodhu Kavvum 2 as it tries to emulate the aesthetics and the humour of the first part. 

However, it doesn’t even come close to doing so. There is an entire stretch of Guru taking his imaginary girlfriend to a doctor for a gunshot wound, which is an eyesore. The dialogues, the background score, the performances, and the execution of the sequence betray a lack of both artistic and technical capabilities. That’s pretty much the nature of the entire film. The frames are disjoint, the actors are out of sync, and the dialogues are random. In a film that lasts more than 120 minutes, there isn’t a single stretch that incites a laugh. Shiva’s ‘deadpan’ acting only justifies half of the adjective, and I leave it to you to judge which half. 

The problem with Soodhu Kavvum is elementary. It doesn’t have a purpose to exist. It doesn’t add to the universe, and neither exploits its potential. Rather, it is a subpar attempt that tries to cash in on the popularity of the title, but it only manages to squander the immense potential of Nalan Kumarasamay’s creation.