Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 Movie Review

Language: Tamil

Director: JPR

Cast: R Sarathkumar, Napoleon, Suhasini Maniratnam

Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 (A Day in Chennai – Part 2), directed by JPR, is an oddly named sequel. The events of Part 1 took place in Chennai. This film unfolds in Coimbatore. But that's the least of its problems. The story gets going when posters spring up around the city, hinting at murder. Sundarapandiyan (R Sarathkumar) is called in to investigate. And to keep reminding us of the time ticking away, a giant clock-graphic keeps appearing at the centre of the screen. Alongside, we also get the time as text. I guess the repetition is for those who can't tell time from the hands of a clock. It's understandable. Everything else is spoon-fed to the audience. Why not this?

By spoon-fed, I mean that the villain launches into a long monologue about the why, how, what, when, where. You'd think a thriller would allow the hero to make these deductions gradually, but hey, why bother? Earlier this year, Kuttram 23 made a stylish stab at a pulp novel by Rajesh Kumar (it's his story, here as well). Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 doesn't even try. Or maybe it does, and you don't remember because the results are so laughable. (Just wait till you see the scenes in an asylum, shot like a horror movie.) Sarathkumar sleepwalks through his role, and you can't really blame him. You'd be embarrassed, too, if you were caught in a film whose idea of cleverness is to truncate the interval card from "Intermission" to "Mission."

Watch the teaser of Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 here: