Lifting the mood with some laughs

MOVIE: Tamizh Padam 2 CAST: Shiva, Iswarya Menon, Disha Pandey, Manobala and Satish RATING: 9/10 REVIEWER: Mala Lutchmanan

SHIVA (Mirchi Shiva), the “universal cop”, has left the police department and returns to the tranquillity of his native village, Cinemapatti.

A caste riot breaks out and Shiva’s help is enlisted. He successfully quells the riots and is then requested to rejoin the police force, but he refuses to do so. The antagonist appears in the form of P (Satish), a dreaded don who is a menace to society and causes Shiva a personal loss. Does this loss make Shiva rejoin the police force?

Director CS Amudhan is credited with being the first director to introduce the spoof genre to Tamil cinema.

With his compilation of troll-worthy moments – from Baahubali to Bairavaa, Veeram to Vivegam and Santosh Subramaniam to Saamy – Amudhan

has spared no one in Tamizh Padam 2, including politicians.

The biggest strength of the movie is the fluid narration that takes a dig at top stars such as Rajinikanth, Ajith, Vijay, Suriya, Karthi, Vikram and Sivakarthikeyan.

Amudhan also uses appropriate punchlines to create an organic flow of humour, seamlessly moving from one scene to another.

Another strong point of Tamizh Padam 2 is the manner in which it exposes the mindset of the industry when it comes to scripting a woman lead in a movie.

Shiva single-handedly carries the movie with his uncanny dialogue delivery and trademark humour.

His larger-than-life screen presence is remarkable and his brilliant performance in Tamizh Padam 2 adds to his commercial success as a bankable actor.

Satish as the antagonist, by his own admission, doesn’t act in the movie. It is the costume department that lends to the excellence of his character, changing his character from that of a mainstream villain.

Iswarya Menon, who plays the heroine, has performed her role remarkably well.

Kannan’s music is much appreciated, with some melodious tunes topping the charts.

Tamizh Padam 2 makes for compelling viewing to chase the blues away.