‘Vaazha 2’ movie review: Improves upon the original, with a theme that resonates

A little while into Vaazha 2: Biopic of a Billion Boys, one gets the feeling of being taken from one neatly engineered event to the next. Rather than one overarching narrative, the anticipation and excitement are all concentrated into shorter bursts, with each such sequence having an inherent rhythm, with a slow buildup and then a crescendo, when either all hell breaks loose or emotions overflow in a torrent, as it happens in the latter half.

Even in later recollections of the film, it comes to mind as episodes, like the uproarious theatre sequence of a hapless policeman caught amid a young, cat-calling audience in the dark. Or, another episode set inside a school where an evil-minded teacher’s attempt to implement strict measures in the school builds up to an extreme, drug-induced fight, which then segues into a sequence which apportions a good part of the blame to the outmoded methods of some of the teachers. One of the less enjoyable episodes is perhaps the tasteless gag around circumcision. Each episode has the logic of a short-film, rather than the nature of instant gratification of reels, to which the Vaazha gang is often compared to because of the presence of many popular reel figures.

At its core, the Vaazha series is a story of losers, but emerging from the second instalment is a story of the unlikely success of four youths—Hashir, Vinayak, Alan, Ajin—who began making relatable videos set in their rural neighbourhood, went viral enough to get noticed by filmmakers and once they got their chance, pushed their limits to put up performances laced with humour and pathos. They bring their own verve into the film, with a good part of Vaazha 2 almost feeling like an extension of the highly popular short videos of Hashir and gang. The writer and the filmmaker also chose to retain their real-life names, adding to the relatability factor.

In the second instalment, writer Vipin Das, in the company of debutant director Savin SA, borrows part of its template from the successful first part, especially the story of youths losing their way and messing up their future, but it adds a lot more too. Although the film veers into preachy territory for a small passage, much else is organic, evoking the feel of situations that might have originated amid a real set of friends. The way it tackles the current trend of migrating for higher studies to the United Kingdom or other countries and the gap between dreams and harsh realities, will resonate with quite a large number of youngsters.

But what might resonate universally is the wholesome way in which Vaazha 2 brings together various strands of sibling rivalries into a smoothly-edited sequence of understanding and acceptance. Although quite a few such situations in the film, including this, are cliche-ridden, they still work because of the packaging and the treatment. The background score and the songs by a team of artists led by Ankit Menon, go a long way in elevating many of these sequences. The writer reimagines characters for actors who are often typecast, especially Biju Kuttan, who gets one of his most memorable turns on the screen. The women characters get only shorter screen time and fewer dialogues in this bro-coded film.

Vaazha 2 improves upon the flawed original, managing to pack in a lot that a young crowd can identify with.