'Jailer 2' review: Far funnier sequel with some of Nelson's best writing, and also his weakest

This naturally begs the question: whether a Rajinikanth movie stops being a Rajinikanth movie when it’s “rumoured” to feature “too many cameos?” Does it become... something else entirely? Fret not, thalaivar fans. I'm happy to report that, no, it doesn't.

You see, despite Nelson being Nelson — a filmmaker whose quirky sensibilities are closer to A. Jagannathan (behind Rajinikanth's triple role, including the iconic Alex Pandian, in “Moondru Mugam”) — he finds ample space for the 'thalaivar' to dominate.

Because no matter how many secondary characters are brought to the room, they're all there to remind you of 'Tiger' Muthuvel Pandian's bravado, in case you begin to forget.

In “Jailer 2”, Nelson pulls off a different kind of surprise. Except for one little bit closer to the appearance of the INTERMISSION card, Nelson takes the admirable effort of not crowding his movie with too many characters and side quests — at least, that’s how it appeared to me.

Whatever creative choices that made the first “Jailer” look less like a Rajinikanth movie are done away with in the sequel, even when Nelson devotes the movie's entire pre-interval portions to give Muthuvel something else to do, before getting to the part where this movie begins digging up the emotional repercussions of what the former Tihar jail boss did in the finale of the first movie. But, strangely enough, there are pros and cons to this approach.

The manner in which Nelson operates in “Jailer 2” is more like one of the authors of the classic private eye novels — say, someone like Raymond Chandler (”The Big Sleep”). After a while, you begin to wonder how it all started.

Nelson drops Muthuvel and us so deep into the activities of secondary characters that, on first glance, have nothing to do with him, until it gets to the point where Nelson shows us why this long distraction (in a good way) was necessary.

All the characters in the strongly written first half exist for a reason. They are just channels for Muthuvel to reach the final destination while Nelson drops one belly-aching hilarious event after another.

In fact, “Jailer 2” — well, the first half of it, to be precise — features Nelson's funniest writing since “Doctor”. Of course, it’s easy to remember how everything starts in this film, but it's harder to recall the minutiae of every little comical detour Nelson takes here.

This time, he has a strong weapon in his arsenal — actor Namo Narayana, whose comedic side is brought out in characteristic Nelson fashion. I would even go so far as to say his character, Moorthi, overshadowed everyone else in the film, including Rajinikanth’s Muthuvel.

The exceptionally written gags are mined simply from the scenario where Moorthi is acting out of misplaced confidence and his ignorance of Muthuvel's past and prowess, while Yogi Babu and the audience get a kick out of seeing this guy trying to make a fool out of himself, while also making us wish that we had the same confidence! Nelson makes Namo and Yogi drop several gems, some of them drawn from pop culture — that bit with “Thor” and “Harry Potter” was pure gold!

Credit where it’s due. Nelson keeping the focus solely on Moorthi's arc — involving, of course, Muthuvel, with significant contributions from Suraj Venjaramoodu and Yogi Babu — is commendable, indeed.

That said, Suraj's character is disappointingly underwritten, especially when it's revealed that he is not the “chief” of whatever network Varman had teased in the first film. I also found the talents of gifted Malayali actor Hakkim Shahjahan underutilised.

Yes, this feels like a Rajinikanth film alright, but not without its share of pitfalls: for one, it risks alienating fans of some superstars who are brought back to, once again, offer support to Muthuvel from the background, while also introducing new (ineffectual) ones who are called in to do basically the same thing.

But here’s the nagging question: Why couldn't you have assigned the same duties to the ones we have already seen instead of diluting their presence when, in the trailers, you promised to repeat the same magic with the cameos that you pulled off in the first film? 

Unfortunately, this magic is sorely lacking this time around. It's heartbreaking, really, to the point you wish every filmmaker would stop — is “scamming” the right word? — people with this cameo nonsense. Nelson may be a Tamil filmmaker, but what he did with the cameos in “Jailer 2” is exactly what some Malayalam filmmakers have been doing lately, too.

I mean, when Malayali audiences are already being scammed in Kerala, it feels even stranger to see a Tamil filmmaker doing that with a movie featuring many Malayalis, with several portions set in... KERALA!

It makes me wonder: has any of the actors got anything to do with how these cameos are written/staged/edited? Or are time constraints and the pressures of the studio playing spoilsport?

Oh, and what about greed?

Because “Jailer 2” ends with the tease of another instalment. For what? How does it matter how BIG the villains are when we already know that wherever Muthuvel goes, he will get last-minute help from some “superstar” who tells him he owes him for something he did 20 years ago?

Where's the sense of danger, the sense of raised stakes?

And how many times are you going to call Anirudh to repeat the same score over and over again to induce the necessary elevation that cannot be generated otherwise?

And don't get me started on the special songs in this film. Speed breakers, in short.

So, in a nutshell, I’m not compelled to say “Jailer 2” is superior to the former, because when Nelson fixes what didn't work in “Jailer”, he ends up breaking what worked before. It's like taking antibiotics to fix one ailment, but then those same antibiotics cause another ailment as a side effect.

Film: Jailer 2

Director: Nelson

Cast: Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, Vidya Balan, SJ Suryah, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Mithun Chakraborthy, Ramya Krishnan, Yogi Babu

Rating: 2.5/5