Blast from the past

Saibal Chatterjee/ Indian film critic

In Indian 2, Kamal Haasan’s latest vehicle, Senapathy returns from the mists of time to continue his violent one-man crusade against the bane of corruption. The world has changed beyond recognition since we last saw the ex-freedom fighter (in 1996’s Indian), modes of communication have multiplied, and the quantum of institutionalised malfeasance has gone through the roof.  But Senapathy, now nearly three decades older, has lost none of his zeal. Unfortunately, his second coming has yielded a terribly drab, if visually and technically striking, outing. The new film’s delights, if any, are not only strictly surface level but are also delivered in ways that are too contrived to pass muster.  Indian 2, helmed by Shankar, a director with a track record of humongous hits, has left the Kamal Haasan fan base underwhelmed although nobody, not even the film’s staunchest critics, has found anything amiss in the enduring superstar’s performance.

So, what is wrong with the film? At first blush, it has antiquated written all over it. In the age of Baahubali, KGF and Pushpa, Indian 2 is a Tamil film that peddles time-worn ideas couched in contemporary stylistic flourishes. The disconnect between the film’s substance and its methods is jarring. There is no denying that Kamal Haasan, behind layers of prosthetic make-up, is still capable of holding the audience’s interest with his incredible ability to get into the skin of a character. But Senapathy is a figure from the past stuck firmly in the past.

  A still from the film. 

Indian 2 incorporates elements that appear to make it ‘modern’. It focuses on a group of young vigilantes, the Barking Dogs Squad, who use the power of social media to campaign against corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and police officials.

The activists are led by a character played by Siddharth. The man has a girlfriend portrayed on screen by Rakul Preet Singh. However, there isn’t much room in the narrative for good old romance. Members of the anti-corruption outfit are willing to go after their own errant relatives in their mission to weed out irregularities and dishonesty.

 Kamal Haasan looks impressive in the film.

The Barking Dogs realise soon enough that they cannot change the nation on their own steam. That is when somebody reminds them of the work that Senapathy did 28 years ago. They wonder aloud: is he still alive? Turns out that age is not even a number for Senapathy – it simply does not matter to the ‘superman’ who now lives incognito in Shifen, Taiwan, where he runs an Indian martial arts school.

The activist squad launches a “come back Indian’ campaign that quickly goes viral. Lo and behold, Senapathy responds to the appeal and reappears for another wave of serial killings that leave the cops flummoxed. Notwithstanding the physical signs of ageing on his body and visage, Senapathy is more than a handful. He is still a one-man demolition squad. He can fight in a zero-gravity environment or snatch a unicycle from a kid and take a band of hoodlums and a posse of policemen on a wild goose chase across Chennai.

  Director S. Shankar.

It is all so contrived that it strains credibility. Senapathy’s Varmakalai skills are still intact. He uses his fingers to manipulate pressure points on the body to physically and neurologically immobilise his adversaries. A blend of martial arts, a bit of pop science, vigilante justice and an unbreakable spirit propel the grand old man.

The bad guys that Senapathy confronts in his own grand, over-the-top ways indulge in malpractices that are rooted in the present day. One of them (Gulshan Grover) has fled the country after wilfully defaulting on bank loans, another (Zakir Hussain) wears gold and lives in a glittering mansion in a vulgar display of wealth, and still another is a government officer (Piyush Mishra) who brazenly manipulates the civil service examination and recruitment mechanisms to serve his own ends.

It is the way that the character of Senapathy is envisaged that is one of the reasons why Indian 2 seems like a blast from the past that is well past its sell-by date. He calls his mission another “freedom struggle”. He exhorts his followers to adopt peaceful Gandhian means of protest while he himself resolves to uphold the principles of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

  Kamal Haasan in a scene from ‘Indian 2.’

The film’s links with its precursor is also emphasised by the presence of investigative officer Pramod (Bobby Simha), who follows in the footsteps of his inspector father Krishnaswami (played by the late Nedumudi Venu), who pursued the Senapathy case in the 1990s but failed to crack it. Pramod vows to complete the task that his dad could not but Indian 2 ends before the man can get to his goal.  Indian 2 is a three-hour-long film. There is another film of similar length in the offing. Indian 3 has already been shot. It will go into post production soon and is scheduled to be released early next year. Given the massive misfire that we have just been subjected to, it is unlikely that the enthusiasm for the third installment will be sky-high.