‘Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2’ movie review: Vikram’s explosive, heady and largely gripping gangster drama 

A meat dealer’s wife steals fried chicken for her hungry daughter from a family gathering of their business rival, a big-shot gangster, after which both the woman and her child disappear. When their disappearance snowballs into an issue involving the police, the gangster’s son is interrupted while digging in to a grand non-vegetarian thali, realising his end is near. After a few more developments, the don pleads for his son’s life to a police officer, who shows him his place all the while tapping the bone marrow out of a chicken leg and slurping it in for a quick match-cut — when they both meet again, the dynamics would have changed. In a later scene, a just-wed couple feast at their wedding when the police chime in with news that forever changes their lives. Chiyaan Vikram-starrer Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 is a dramatic dance-off between all these characters, tensed and annoyed (perhaps for being interrupted while dining! Maybe this is a warning from writer-director SU Arunkumar to whomsoever concerned).

Jokes aside, Madurai homeboy Arunkumar does bring the flavours of his hometown, advertised by popular cinema, in his first superstar film — the ‘keda virundhu’ non-veg meals and intricate gangster narratives with themes of family, friendship, loyalty, betrayal and revenge.

And, of course, a lot of action, so much so that this gangster drama justifies why fans love using firepower as a hyperbole. It wouldn’t be farfetched to assume how Arunkumar would have pictured the plotting of scenes in his screenplay — a series of ammunition across calibres, strung together to explode in chaotic tandem. Arunkumar’s film has frequent micro-bursts of ingenious ideas, scenes with ace performers reaching their dramatic zenith, rousing fan service, and background scores that heighten every tension. And as cherries on top, guns, landmines, country bombs and cars explode when needed.

The conflict at the core of this story is nothing new; it’s almost done-to-dust in Hollywood — a yesteryear brute, now retired into the quiet family life, is forced to take one last job when his ex-boss comes knocking on his doors, an endeavour that pulls him back to the world he so desperately wished to stay away from. Veera Dheera Sooran more or less falls under this broad storyline — Kaali (a scene-stealing Vikram, with those eyes that could melt steel) and his peaceful life as a grocery store owner is interrupted when Ravi a.k.a Periyavar (Prudhvi Raj, hardly smiles in this role) begs him to help finish off a ruthless Superintendent of Police, Arunagiri (SJ Suryah, exorcising yet another devilish cop), to save his and his son Kannan’s lives (Suraj Venjaramoodu plays Kannan, with his Malayalam accent slipping through the Madurai dialect).

A still from ‘Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2’
| Photo Credit:
HR Pictures

Where Veera Dheera Sooran stands out, for the most part, is how information is withheld and how scenes are conceived. Remember the bite-sized dynamites I mentioned? In the scene where Periyavar speaks to Kaali in private, Kalaivani (Dushara Vijayan; a character similar to her Durga in Raayan) signs her son to be her spy in a moment that leaves you in splits — it also reminds you of a scene from Arunkumar’s sophomore, Sethupathi. It’s a passing moment, but like in Sethupathi, here too, it tells how children of parents with a certain history are raised to be street-smart. Or, perhaps, take how Arunkumar, through a tattoo, a sticker on his moped, and a routine drive home, conveys effectively the endearing romance between Kaali and Kalaivani — an equation central to the conflict.

Be it how Kalaivani reacts when Periyavar comes home, or the detail that Kaali’s house is still under construction, or that a character suffers from a medical issue, many minor points too leave a big impact when they recur, and sometimes, get quite explosive. Some layers make you read the finer lines more intently, like how the mobile phone isn’t used merely for convenience. Phone calls, devices dying out of charge, and call tracking make big impacts. This is, after all, a thriller set in the present, and over one night, when cell phones can go out of power.

A still from ‘Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2’
| Photo Credit:
HR Pictures

Of course, while the entire film is set in that one bloody night, we do get a flashback that hints at why the film is called ‘Part 2’. It begins with a unique intermission point and ends with a thunderous scene at a police station, but then you wonder if it reveals too much about Kaali’s backstory. This was a world that didn’t bother explaining the different complicated equations, making you piece it all together like a stranger at a party or wait for Part 1 to tell it all. This expository sequence somehow even decelerates the momentum.

That is Arunkumar trading tautness for star elevation and the commercial cinema’s compulsion to spill all the beans. The filmmaker falters in cohesively fusing fan-service mass-masala ideas and his own sensibilities of this gritty, rooted world of crime. Vikram’s introduction card is designed after the title card of Sethu, getting quite a response from fans, but its placement hinders your immersion into this world. The plot armour for the star becomes quite evident in an awkwardly staged scene, but we are asked to forgive, for it leads to a great callback to a Vikram classic. The result of this is a surprisingly tapered third act that might not do the film any good.

Yet, even through all that, Vikram keeps us glued to the screens. It isn’t a role that lets him rest under the skin of a character — he hovers over the veneer, dipping into Kaali’s mental make-up when needed, putting on the superstar sleeve at any given opportunity — and he wishes you to see more of him as Kaali. Veera Dheera Sooran is what fans of Vikram have longed for, but it isn’t just for them. It’s a grand spicy meal at a muniyandi vilas in Madurai. All meat lovers are welcome here.

Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 is currently running in theatres