Kaalidas 2 Movie Review:
Investigative thrillers are like roller coaster tracks. The more bends and turns they have, the more thrilling it gets. Kaalidas 2 understands this principle and tries to follow it religiously. It doesn’t matter that we see the twists coming; the film keeps us engaged by the sheer number of twists it pulls off. There is the aspect of a murder mystery, with the shadow of doubt cast on a number of distinct characters; the story also unfolds like a police procedural, highlighting the drama, friction, and internal politics of the police force; there is also a revenge story with subtle hints of vigilantism. There are several layers built on top of each other like a complex network of plot threads. While it does feel bloated and needlessly convoluted, nothing feels out of place. The several characters, each with their unique design, work like clockwork gears, feeding into each other. Clockwork is the perfect metaphor for Kaalidas 2’s writing because even though it all fits together, the story still feels mechanical. What does all the nifty clockwork amount to? It does look pretty seeing all the gears turn and grind with mechanical precision, but it is not a clock; the arms aren’t pointing to anything. With more focus on an overarching theme or on the pursuit of one, Kaalidas 2 could have become a story with heart and soul, rather than just an engaging assembly of scenes.
Director: Sri Senthil
Cast: Bharath, Ajay Karthi, Sangeetha, Abarnathi, Bhavani Sre
Kaalidas 2 begins as a missing child case. Inspector Kaalidas (Bharath), along with a fresh-off-the-academy IPS officer played by Bhavani Sre, investigates the residents of an apartment complex. Steve (Ajay Karthi) is the prime suspect, but the story then slowly spirals into a complex web of plot threads, incorporating several other elements. Director Sri Senthil understands that, for the twists to work, the red herrings need to be convincing. This is ultimately both the strength and weakness of the film. In an effort to make us suspicious of a character, the film goes above and beyond, using suggestive music and other filmmaking techniques. So, when the truth is ultimately revealed, instead of feeling surprised, we just feel like we were lied to. Bhavani Sre’s character shows immense potential, but instead of playing her as a maverick officer fed up with the system, what we get is a perpetually annoyed try-hard who is difficult to work with. Ajay Karthi plays Steve as a one-note character; the film could have benefited tremendously if we could have empathised with Steve. Bharath, despite his efforts, is treated with indifference by the writing. Even though he has the most screen time, Kaalidas struggles to anchor the story as an effective protagonist; he has no interesting dialogue or likeable personality traits and is merely a passive observer swept up in the events of the story. Refreshingly, the dialogue writing does something most recent Tamil films fail to do. Kaalidas 2 makes sure characters talk like real people: without artificial pauses, unusual intonations, or spewing blatant exposition. The film’s extreme preoccupation with twists reaches a breaking point. Packing a twist a minute in the last hour, everything feels rushed, and without the required focus, it feels like cartoon burglars tripping over each other.
Even with an acute focus on making it structurally sound, Kaalidas 2 fails to leave an impression for the simple fact that there is no heart at the centre of the puzzle. Sure, there are emotionally heavy moments, rising stakes, thrilling turns, and ample amounts of fleshed-out characters. However, Kaalidas 2 somehow ends up being truer to its genre than to its foundational identity of being a story.