Back in 2015, director Balaji Mohan and Dhanush collaborated for the commercial gangster flick Maari. The character was well received by the audience and managed to garner a cult following for the look, dialogues, and behavior. The team is back with the sequel Maari 2 and let's find out how the film is.
Maari 2 has Sai Pallavi playing the female lead while Krishna and Varalaxmi play important roles. Tovino Thomas is the antagonist of this sequel that has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.
With Maari, director Balaji had established the kind of person Maari is, how he is treated by the people around him, how he values other relationships and so on. Therefore, in this film, we don't have a particular character arc for the lead. Instead, we're left to deal with a few new characters like Kalai (Krishna), Anandhi (Sai Pallavi), and Beeja: The God of Death (Tovino Thomas). The film is made on the typical commercial template with scenes shifting from action to comedy to romance to emotion, and repeat.
We get to sense that Balaji Mohan has tried hard to establish an almost-invincible villain to battle someone like Maari. But the problem arises when this is staged in a very artificial manner. Intimidating tattoos, making him read books of a certain kind and just making him repeat dialgoues in which he claims that he is the god of death makes it seem pretentious to an extent. Though it allows Maari to fall and rise and spices up the story, it is not thoroughly entertaining to watch. A more gripping revenge plot could have made this hero-villain drama a little more exciting.
Maari is best known for his comical comrades Sanikezhamai (Robo Shankar) and Adithaangi (Vinoth). They light up the screens as well as they did in the first part. The first half could seem largely engaging in the scenes that involve them, Maari and Anandhi. Robo Shankar deserves a special mention for his witty one-liners that work very well!
The screenplay could have been constructed better without the predictable elements. However, there are quite a few pleasant surprises in the second half that showcase a different dimension of Maari. These portions could work for the larger audience. There's a friendship angle that again could come off as formulaic. The emotional additions are fresh for the franchise, but they could bring about a lag in some parts of the second half.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's songs have already become chartbusters. Rowdy Baby, in particular, is a winner in its own right. The song's placement, however, could prove to be a drawback in the first half. But it might seem to please a section of the viewers for its cheerfulness and dance choreography by Prabhu Deva. One may feel that Yuvan has handled the background score in his own style but it could have been more remarkable.
