Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/vip-2-movie-review
Whether we’re talking Bond movies or the Dhoom franchise or the Singam series, the mantra of the next instalment is this: feed them more of the same hit formula, yet make it taste different. So one doesn’t walk into Velai Illa Pattadhari 2 (Unemployed Graduate), directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth, expecting Raghuvaran (Dhanush) in a bungalow, a Merc parked in the garage. He’s still in the same middle-class house. He still drives his dinky old bike, which seems to weigh even less than he does. But he’s no longer unemployed. He works in a construction firm. It’s the same, yet a bit different. Part 1 had him graduate from a nobody to a somebody. Here, the arc is somebody to nobody to somebody.
It’s a year since the events of the first film. Raghuvaran and Shalini (Amala Paul) are married, but she’s transformed from the sweet, supportive girlfriend of earlier to a nagging shrew. Should we burden women directors with the expectation that their female characters be more sensitively crafted? (Soundarya Rajinikanth also gets screenplay credit. Story/dialogues are credited to Dhanush.) I remember wringing my hands over a similar issue in Vai Raja Vai, directed by Soundarya’s sister, Aishwarya. That film had a scene where parents agree to marry their daughter off to a groom who demands ten lakhs as dowry. A bigger issue is that Shalini has given up her dental clinic practice and become a housewife. Couldn’t they have sneaked in a scene around this decision?
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Anuja Chandramouli
August 18, 2017
‘VIP 2 is by no means a great film, but given the constraints of a “mass” movie, especially a sequel, it left me pleasantly surprised’
Seems like you were determined to like the film no matter what…
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Amit Joki
August 18, 2017
Man I wish you wrote this as soon as it released. I felt that the first half had an artificial air about it. I missed the genuine romance here as you mentioned it. Second half was more engaging.
Sean Roldan was a disappointment. I wonder how well it would have come out if Aniruth was retained.
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Meghnath
August 18, 2017
BR: Did you not think that the climax was contrived and because they couldn’t come up with any other satisfactory ending they chose this ? The possibility of Kajol thirundhifying over night just didn’t seem right at all.
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pato
August 18, 2017
This star rating system is so tough to digest. Both Vikram Vedha and Vip2 are rated 3 stars. Personaly I felt nothingness in VIP was enjoyable while in vip2 i was getting tired of this husband-wife-fight thread in first half.
I generally struggle to pinpoint performances as bad, but kajols lip-sync and her “angry faced” emotion in every scene was horrible. Climax was complete bore.
The film even though just 130 minutes long, felt like a big movie and it felt like watching compilation of filler material from VIP franchise.
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brangan
August 18, 2017
Meghnath: This climax was over the top? Compared to the hero ripping his shirt off, revealing a six pack, and beating up 75 people? 😀 I felt this was very much in tune with the climax of part 1, where after Amul Baby realises he’s been beaten fair and square, he folds his hands and gets behind the hero’s bike. It’s the same funda, only without an action sequence.
As for the change of heart, it did not bother me that much. Once she knows he tried to do the right thing with her by warning her about the plot (plus that micro conversation she has with her dad), she’s okay. See, this is not the most logical thing, but within the confines of a masala movie, it was enough for me. It worked. I frankly prefer Raghuvaran the negotiator to Raghuvaran the superhero 😀
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Kay
August 18, 2017
Va Amit! Romba naal aalaye kaanum but Thalaivar Padam release aana udane Indha pakkam vandhute? 😝
I’m glad, for once, I watched it before the review came up. I went in with very low expectations since I was told by many that it sucked. But was surprised to see that it was not as bad as they said it was. Kajol was fantastic in the movie. Loved her costumes, her lip sync (really amazing) and her bearing. And loved that her character is unrepentant till the end for the way she is. She just softens towards Raghuvaran because of the camaraderie that developed over a bottle of wine and shared stories.
But, that is not to say that I didn’t find anything wrong with the movie. I was so annoyed that Shalini is shown as a shrew and that she quit her dental practice to become a housewife.
And I just wanted to knock some sense into the guy who says “oru dum and oru tea irundha podhum, 50k velai vendam”. Who is in their right mind would quit a 50k job for a tea and dum?
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Mohan Sagar (@Mohan0128)
August 19, 2017
Not impressed with this one. It had too many sexist remarks, and was more or a less a repeat of the last one.
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praneshp
August 19, 2017
And Sean roldan falls to the law of averages. What a terrible score, and terrible bgm. The only decent parts were the bits from the original.
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Amit Joki
August 19, 2017
Kay: Was busy writing a love story/coming-of-age feature script, which I have tentatively titled, “Thullum Manadhil” (hoping BR would help me in finding producers for it once I complete it 🙂 )
Also, I have submitted a pilot script for a comedy series in the veins of “Friends” to the Amazon Studios and it is still in the evaluation process. It is a 25-page script. If it doesn’t take off at the Amazon Studios, does anyone have any idea where could I pitch it next? The language will be in English. (BR, can you help me?)
BR: I have sent a mail to you already on another matter. Please read it.
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Raju
August 19, 2017
BR,Meghnath: In my opinion, both the climaxes suck! The only difference is(for me), in VIP, almost everything, except the superheroism of dhanush which goes to a peak in the climax, was entertaining and seemed plausible. In VIP2, almost everything, including the climax, sucks big time! I felt Vasundhara’s change of mind required an even more compelling sequence than what was shown in the movie. I didn’t feel Vasundhara’s change of mind in my heart! I felt it only in my head(logically) for the reasons that BR has pointed out, which does not seem right for it. Even without comparing with VIP, VIP2 was a big disappointment for me.
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Aadhy
August 19, 2017
I absolutely loathed this movie. It just felt like a lazy spin-off on Rajni’s Maapillai, Mannan and Padayappa, only without taming the shrew part, which he had do away with because hey, Dhanush is apparently a closet feminist, which he discloses at the end through his lectures on men-women equality (the last person I’d hear lectures on women empowerment from). If not for what I think is Soundarya’s intervention, he’d have gone the whole way in putting the arrogant woman in her place. Speaking of arrogance, which CEO (even if arrogant) with the least amount of business acumen would talk to a prospective employee like that? If she’d been this way all the time, how did she get her workforce and all the projects that made her reach this position? Her character is nothing more than an eternally frowning, annoying caricature masquerading as a strong woman. 1000 more points for reducing a self-made, independent, sane dentist to a shrieking housewife. She’d probably be earning thrice what Raghuvaran is making right now, and Raghuvaran taking care of household duties would be the most logical decision for the family, if better economic sense had prevailed. But no, then we wouldn’t have the slomos, ‘showing his gethu in front of the the amul baby’ scene, ‘puffing out smoke while crowdsurfing’ scene, ‘the bagging of a big deal by using Tamizh’ scene. Again, Vasundara is the numero uno in her field and couldn’t even ask which language her client would be the most comfortable with, especially in a profession that requires marketing skills as much as technical expertise. And the ‘single tea and dum’ scene is the biggest disservice someone has ever done to Engineering graduates through Tamil cinema, showing them as a bunch of easily manipulated emotional fools. I had a lot of problems with the second half of VIP-1, but atleast the first half was fun, and it had some insanely catchy music by Anirudh. This movie was full of pretence. A bad score pretending to be mature and a regressive, outdated story pretending to be an evolved piece of writing.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
August 19, 2017
BR, I see the point you’re making but don’t you think the “she’s transformed from the sweet, supportive girlfriend of earlier to a nagging shrew” is largely an idea of Dhanush rather than Soundarya?
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sravishanker1401gmailcom
August 19, 2017
@AmitJoki : Vow ! Great going on scripts under review !
Best Wishes and hopes for the break !
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sanjay2706
August 21, 2017
When workers all over the world are fighting for higher minimum wages, these film makers and storytellers have come up with a brilliant idea. “Tea and Dhum” as wages would be an interesting policy decision. Hope policy think-tanks do some studies on this because as one Revolutionary said “Proletariat will rise up, as long as there is tea and dhum”
And the next time you apply for Tesla motors, make sure you are prepared for it as Elon Musk would be the one who interviews you. Is that what you call a flat hierarchy?
Clients keep switching their vendors/consultants based on one woman’s childish feud with an “Engineer”.
And why is the “Engineer of the year” the last award? Shouldn’t it be reserved for the “company of the year” or something?
Formal attire and English speaking people are on the evil side of the moral spectrum!
The dialogue on “Men and Women are equal” is the Indian equivalent of “All lives matter” response to the BLM movement. Of course Men and Women are equal, but our economic and social system is built in such a way that women are systematically left out from climbing the corporate ladder. By saying that “men and women are equal”,we are doing a disservice by not acknowledging the fact that there is a disparity.
Of course,you can’t expect too much nuance in this aspect from a “silverspoon” director.
Make no mistake, VIP was a movie with interesting characters and a lot of potential. But this was a shameless profit making vehicle riding on the wave of “chennai floods” and on the “jallikattu bulls”
There is going to be a VIP-3! I will let that sink in!
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Rahini David
August 21, 2017
Sanjay: I felt the same about VIP (part 1). Why would Dhanush be preferred over Vivek? No fresher can handle such a big project. It was silly wish-fulfillment that did not ring true for a moment.
Tea and Dhum, eh?
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Aadhy
August 21, 2017
Lol, nice one, Sanjay2706. I went through the same thought process while watching those ridiculously cringy Raghuvaran vs Vasundhara face-offs. We are a few months away from 2018 and we still have villains (or villis) saying “En status enanu teryuma? “ kinda stuff.
“The dialogue on “Men and Women are equal” is the Indian equivalent of “All lives matter” response to BLM movement.”
Exactly. What he says in that scene is nothing different than ‘Don’t play the victim card’ , while Vasundara is actually trying to explain what it took her to be successful in a field dominated by males, where she is naturally at a place of lesser privilege because of her gender. I would have brushed it away under the assumption that this is just Raghuvaran’s voice and not the movie’s, had I not watched Dhanush’s interview, the same one where he talks about VIP-3. He says he tried to convey valuable messages through this movie, one of them being ‘Men and Women are equal’, referring to the climax.
This kind of virtue signaling or ‘made with good intentions’ posturing is equally bad (if not worse) as his previous misogynistic outings. It’s even more appalling that Soundarya let all this pass right in front of her eyes.
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Iswarya
August 21, 2017
Aadhy/Sanjay2706: This blog needs more men like you! Kudos, dear allies. Also, I want to shed for a moment the image of very guarded commenter and make a statement that can sound judgemental – Don’t expect anything better from either of the sisters! I find both pretty disappointing and at least one of them terribly hypocritical and vapid.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
August 21, 2017
sanjay2706: Are you by any chance on Quora? The point about “Men and Women are equal” gives me an impression that you’re someone who’s fed up with those nonsensical questions there.
Seems Taramani has saved VIP 2 in many ways.
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Dhanda Soru
August 21, 2017
The whole nepotism debate in Bollywood got me wondering about nepotism in our industries. But I have to ask: Are we more forgiving of nepotism than our northern counterparts? Or are we afraid of ruffling the feathers of the rabid sheeple masquerading as fans of these stars?
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Kay
August 22, 2017
Sanjay2706
“Of course Men and Women are equal, but our economic and social system is built in such a way that women are systematically left out from climbing the corporate ladder. By saying that “men and women are equal”,we are doing a disservice by not acknowledging the fact that there is a disparity.”
Absolutely true. In most of the corporates, Up to a junior management level men and women are given equal opportunities, but beyond that it’s always a struggle trying to juggle family and long working hours.
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Aram Pesu
August 22, 2017
//The dialogue on “Men and Women are equal” is the Indian equivalent of “All lives matter” //
Of course both are correct versions.
One doesnt go about correcting historical mistakes by trying to artificially narrow a gap by punishing a different generation.
Justice is good enough. “Social” Justice is a useless prefix.
All lives matter. All are equal. Way one achieves that is simply practicing that.
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Anu Warrier
August 23, 2017
One doesnt go about correcting historical mistakes by trying to artificially narrow a gap by punishing a different generation.
Justice is good enough. “Social” Justice is a useless prefix.
All lives matter. All are equal. Way one achieves that is simply practicing that.
In an ideal world, that would be true. Unfortunately, all are NOT equal. If you argue that today, a Dalit is equivalent to a higher caste Hindu, or (in the US) a black person is equal to a white person, you are mistaken. White privilege is a thing – they are already ahead by being born white. I’m already privileged for being an upper caste Hindu woman (though less privileged than an upper caste Hindu man). The opportunities I get because of the caste/creed/economic background I come from is far removed from what a Dalit woman my age can expect.
The reason we have to ‘artificially narrow’ the gap is because we need to level the playing field. We are far far away from having an equal society. Yes, all lives matter, but when you can be shot at a traffic stop just for being black, I can understand the need to emphasise that black lives matter as much as white lives.
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Jyoti S Kumar
September 1, 2017
This is how a film would look if it is written by two people who have never worked a single day in an office.
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