Tillu Square Movie Review: Effectively leverages the strength of the original film

Two years after the release of the original film DJ Tillu, the sequel Tillu Square hits the screens. The fact that the makers immediately set the wheels rolling on the sequel is no surprise. Despite the lack of superheroes, spies or any such assortments commonly found in franchising films, Tillu Square has a cartoonishly exaggerated protagonist (played by the aptly moniker-ed ‘starboy’ Siddhu Jonnalagadda), who also doubles down on his relatability with a never-ending stream of observational witticisms. The character is so colourful that even the people around him are instantly memorable by their interactions with Tillu. It almost feels like the characters jumped from one world to another. Or did they? 

Director - Mallik Ram

Cast - Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Anupama Parameswaran, Muralidhar Goud, Praneeth Reddy Kallem, Prince Cecil, Murali Sharma

The film opens with a set of events transpiring exactly a year after DJ Tillu, almost like a second season. From all the money our titular protagonist amassed from conning the people who conned him in the first film, Tillu and Co seem to have upgraded their lives. While the first film saw him describe his deejaying career as scratch untadhi, he is seen running an event management company in part two, while moonlighting as an in-house DJ. If that wasn’t convenient, we also see a bride claim to be his die-hard fan. In another part of the film, he is offered more than two million rupees to play at a party. But this isn’t a film where you question his popularity or skillset as a DJ. For starters, the film is not about that. But you also cannot go all out and completely accuse the film of being illogical. Every plot detail of the film throws a reference to the previous one. Of course, Tillu is still a DJ, even though he gets wealthy overnight. He might have moved to a new house bigger than his previous one, but he is still hounded by neighbourhood aunties. If he was asked to get a job in the previous film, he is egged on to get a wife in this one. But the emotional scars left by Radhika (Neha Sshetty), immortalised by the retellings of his own misery, remain. 

Even as he is seen flirting with different women (Priyanka Jawalkar makes a blink-and-miss cameo), he remains cynical. Enter Lilly (Anupama Parameswaran) aka Radhika 2.0. Acting against his own better judgement, Tillu falls in love with her. And soon enough, trouble befalls him one more time. In a way, Tillu (DJ, Square) is every male writer’s comprehensive character sketch of a young man. Yes, they fall in love, make terrible self-destructive mistakes, and get their hearts broken. And yet, they will go out of their way to help the very women who have stubbed their hearts like cigarettes on an ashtray. But, the male writers of this film were smart enough to spare us a mawkishly sanctimonious treatment of their observations of men. Thankfully, sentimentality is doing the backseat driving in this comedy ride. Even when Siddhu’s previous films as an actor-screenwriter (Krishna and his Leela, Maa Vintha Gaadha Vinuma) seem worlds apart from the Tillu franchise, the quest to continually understand women remains the same. Replacing the class and first-world trappings of his previous films with uproarious lines like “aa notlo pedatharu pedda mudda”, Siddhu Jonnalagadda has earned his stardom by transporting his beloved themes to crowd-pleasing backdrops.

While it is common for direct sequels to transport their characters to a different setting, Tillu Square traces back its way through the beats of its predecessor, quite literally. The writers went from satirizing the habits of the rich (keto diet, activated charcoal mask etc etc) to spoofing Tollywood’s latest obsession with the spy genre. Murali Sharma, the franchise’s latest entrant, is barely convincing as the dreaded gangster Sheikh Mehboob, but maybe that’s the point. While Neha Sshetty’s Radhika was constantly referred to as femme fatale, Anupama’s Lilly, in true sequel fashion, one-ups Radhika so much, that you wonder why Radhika was even called femme fatale in the first place. Working its way through huge expectations laid by its predecessor, Tillu Square’s comedy is competent without being complacent, and largely works, thanks to Siddhu’s performance. Long story short, the package deserves as much credit as its delivery man. From patriotism to piles, it is open season for Tillu’s zingers.

Prior to the film’s release, Siddhu Jonnalagadda has been quoted calling Tillu Square a work that would fare better as a film than a sequel. I would disagree. The film works as a sequel better than a standalone film. So much so that, at times when it could prioritise its pacing, it pauses for a moment or two to match the movements of DJ Tillu, if not mimic them. While the older actors from the first film, especially Muralidhar Goud, as Tillu’s father, emerge in steady form without missing a single beat, the same can’t be said of Anupama Parameswaran. An otherwise decent actor, she remains aloof, without fully matching up to Lilly’s ambiguity. All things said and considered, what lies ahead for Tillu now? Tillu Cube? A joke involving Rubik’s cubes or QUBE copies may not be too far if Siddhu sets his sights on a franchise expansion.