Spoiler-free Review of “JAILER 2”

Nelson Dileepkumar’s sequel to his 2023 Rajinikanth starrer, Jailer, is a sincere and earnest attempt to improve on the original. Nelson has taken inspiration from his own hit film, Doctor, and combined this with the basic template of Suresh Krishna’s 1995 megahit film, Baasha.

In addition, Rajinikanth’s role is markedly different from many of his post 1995 roles. He is featured in limited action sequences, does not feature in any romantic duets and does not even dance to any of the songs.

Nelson augments this with an impressive ensemble cast that features S.J. Surya, Mithun Chakraborty, Ramnya Krishnan, Vidya Balan, Mirnaa, Yogi Babu, Namo Narayana, Bhagavathi Perumal, Bjorn Surrao, Rithvik, Jatin Sarma, Hakim Shahjahan, Anna Rajan, Meghna Raj and Kottayam Nazeer. There are also special appearances by Mohanlal, Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Schroff, Shiva Rajkumar, Vijay Sethupathy, Vinayakan, Vasanth Ravi, Poorna and Nora Fatehi.

Former Jail Warden, Muthuvel Pandian (Rajinikanth) is living incognito in a small town near the Tamil Nadu-Keralam border. Muthuvel Pandian allows himself to be used as a driver by wannabe-criminal Moorthi (Namo Narayana) to get at a smuggling ring led by Dileep (Suraj Venjaramoodu). When Dileep discovers the true identity of Moorthi’s “driver”, he decides to take decisive action, beginning a bloody series of events.

Rajinikanth looks decidedly frail and jaded and this is probably the reason for his limited physical activity on screen. S.J. Surya brings spark into his role but is not the level one has come to expect of him. Ramya Krishnan is in a subdued role while Vidya Balan, in her full-length Tamil debut, has screen presence but limited connection to her role or the audience.

The comedy by Namo Narayan, Yogi Babu and Bjorn Surrao has its moments, but they are not sustained and longer than necessary.

Rithvik impresses in his limited screen time while Mirnaa is given little scope.

Bhagavathi Perumal is the best of the others. The many guest appearance add to the overall appeal of the film.

Most of the first half is taken up by comedy, dominated by the Nelson brand of dark comedy. However, what worked magnificently in Doctor does not have the same effect in Jailer 2, largely because the comedy sequences were clear distractions from the main narrative. The length of the distraction does not help its effect. When the focus eventually shifts to Muthuvel Pandian’s story, the screenplay is dominated by gratuitous violence, much of which is quite graphic. The string of guest appearances are not enough to sweeten the extended screenplay which, at a running time of 165 minutes is uncomfortably long.

Anirudh Ravichander is far from his best, failing to impress with the songs or his background score, with the latter sounding like an experiment that went wrong.

The major highlight of Jailer 2 is the stunning cinematography by Vijay Karthik Kannan (Jailer, Doctor and Aadai). Breath-taking use of light, unusual angles and creative framing make the film a visual feast that can be savoured even after repeated viewing.

There is enough in the film to delight fans of Rajinikanth, including some choice lines geared especialy for the front-benchers.

As a director, Nelson Dileepkumar, deserves praise for the attempting something different for this sequel. The dark comedy works in places and is undoubtedly behind the huge success of this film at the box-office.