Hindustani 2 Movie Review: Time will keep flying. Stars will come and go. The box office will witness dry spells and golden days. But the one thing that will always remain constant is patriotic films. It has emerged as one of the favourite sub-genre (or genre) for many filmmakers. Time and again, it has been proved that it will always remain the flavour of every season. So, 28 years later, S Shankar brings back the sequel to Hindustani where love for the country runs high. Once again, it’s not so much about protecting the motherland from external enemies and invaders. Why go there when India is plagued by her own corrupt and immoral children?
At the outset, it is re-established that ‘corruption causes cancer to the nation’ and that ‘corruption kills’. Much like Kamal Haasan, the megastar, who doesn’t promote alcohol, paan masala, and smoking, his Senapathy too doesn’t endorse corruption. The film begins with the popular song ‘Gaadi Waala Aaya Ghar Se Kachra Nikaal’ that became associated with the government of India’s cleanliness campaign, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Dumpsters are loaded with more garbage than they can accommodate, there is waste mismanagement and workers assert that they can’t do a better cleaning job because they don’t get paid enough.
So, Hindustani 2 is about cleaning up the country, literally and metaphorically. A re-enactment of the garbage sequence is done by Chitra Aravindhan and his friends who run a YouTube channel called Barking Dogs to spread awareness about corruption and wrongdoings in society. As they go about doing their bit as dutiful citizens, Chitra encounters an unfortunate incident where a poor woman named Sunita jumps off the building of a government office.
She’s the first educated member in her family and she aspires to be a teacher. When she goes to apply for the same, the government officer demands Rs 8 lakh as a bribe. Sunita and her brother then lodge a complaint against him and as a consequence, she is accused of providing fake documents and certificates by the officer. This incident leaves a profound impact on Chitra, who feels that bringing former freedom fighter turned vigilante Senapthy – a hunting dog and a crusader in the former’s words – is the only solution to clean up India.
Chitra and his friends take to social media and begin their search for Senapathy with the hashtag ‘#ComeBackHindustani’ that goes viral globally. Soon, he gets traced to Taipei, where he runs an Indian martial arts school. He returns to India and resumes his journey of killing every corrupt official in the system that’s anti-poor, openly supports bribery, and is filled with red-tapism. But here lies the problem. Yes, it’s true that Hindustani is Senapathy and Senapathy is Hindustani but the whole of the first half is spent in re-introducing him. It’s only towards the end of it that the film finally picks up. Unfortunately, too much time is lost by then.
This is 2024 and Shankar stays true to the era that may also be dubbed as the digital age. Through the narrative, he portrays the power of social media and how it can also be a tool to bring about change. It’s through a virtual live session that Senapathy declares that it’s the youngsters who should take matters into their own hands and practice zero tolerance against corruption and vice. But with digital platforms also come incessant trolling and soon after Senapathy goes live, some of his ideas and words trigger netizens, who begin labelling him as an ‘anti-national’.
Everything looks great on paper. And Hindustani 2 is a great attempt. But it still falls short. It lacks the freshness of Hindustani and the makers try their best to make the canvas, magnitude, and scale bigger and better. Unfortunately, the film loses itself in its own ambitions. And while it stays true to its larger-than-life feel, dramatic tonality, and flamboyance, that also becomes a weak link for Hindustani 2. In short, it lacks the depth, the gravity, and the layered intricacies of the subject it had set out to explore. Halfway through it, you’ll feel as though you’re stuck in a labyrinth as Senapathy keeps aiming at one corrupt official after another giving them a cold-blooded death.
But Shankar makes sure that Hindustani 2 rides high on the nostalgia quotient. Much like Senapathy in the prequel, we see him using Varma Kala (a traditional Tamil art of vital points) to bring down those unscrupulous and power-hungry people by rendering them lifeless, paralysed, effeminate, and animal-like. Brownie points go to the filmmaker for bringing back late actor Nedumudi Venu’s Krishnaswamy, Senapathy’s arch nemesis, through the use of CGI and body doubles! It’s magical what technology can do and Hindustani fans will truly rejoice in the conversations between Krishnaswamy and Senapathy.
There were two characters in Hindustani – Chandu’s assistant and an RTO employee – voiced by Laxmikant Berde and Johnny Lever who rendered some much-needed comic relief through their banter. Interestingly, we get to see animated versions of them in the song Dada Aara Re. Kamal Haasan’s prosthetic artist also deserves applause. Besides these, there’s nothing much working in favour of Hindustani 2. In one scene, Senapathy says that the fight to fix the system is like the second war of independence and that there are two ways to deal with the situation – the Gandhian approach and Netaji’s approach. But this conflict isn’t properly explored either.
In another sequence before the intermission, Senapathy arrives at the residence of a rich Gujarati businessman. We get a glimpse of his lifestyle wherein every piece of furniture in his house is made of gold – bed, commode, you name it! Here, even the pillows are gold-coated. Senapathy takes it upon himself to teach him a lesson and holds him responsible for creating a massive void between the haves and the have-nots.
The conversation between them also involves Senapathy dishing out a moral lecture on how consuming powdered gold can affect his kidneys. The mode of communication in this stretched-out sequence is Gujarati. While it may have been a deliberate attempt at national integration and inclusion, it may become a deterrent for most audiences. Even the Hindi subtitle (filled with errors) won’t help.
Ulaga Nayagan Haasan, unfortunately, doesn’t get the opportunity to display his acting prowess in Hindustani 2 and that’s just plain sad. His Senapathy seems to be bereft of his signature edginess and panache. Siddharth gives it his all and shines in many scenes. His Chitra seems like a reincarnation of Karan Singhania from Rang De Basanti, another young revolutionist. Gulshan Grover (as a version of Vijay Mallya), SJ Suryah, and Bobby Simha are good but they don’t get to do much. Rakul Preet Singh and Kajal Aggarwal Kitchlu suffer due to under-cooked characters.
Shankar, who’s known for his risk-taking endeavours chooses to stay in his comfort zone with this verbose script. His idea to evoke nostalgia is truly sweet but that’s not enough to turn water into wine. For those who want to relive the memories of the 1996 film, you can go watch the sequel. As for the rest, you can give it a miss unless you like moral sermons, flashiness, the beauty of hollowness, and things that are a little too extra and have a tolerance level of more than zero. And that reminds us, yet another thing you will also miss irrespective of whether you watch the film or not is the absence of AR Rahman’s melodies.
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