Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/goli-soda-2-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/
A sequel usually picks up where the earlier film left off, or catches up with the same set of characters a few years later. Vijay Milton’s Goli Soda 2 is different — similar enough to belong to the world of Goli Soda, but dissimilar enough to stand on its own. You don’t need to have seen Part 1 to follow the story. But then, you’d miss the parallels. If Part 1 was about four teenagers in Koyambedu, the sequel revolves around three North Madras twentysomethings: Maaran (Bharath Seeni), Oli (Esakki Barath) and Shiva (Vinoth). If Part 1 had a maternal figure in Aachi (Sujatha Sivakumar), Part 2 has a paternal figure in Nadesan (a dignified Samuthirakani), who wears a neck brace and manages a small pharmacy. (He knows each of the young men, but they don’t know one another.) Samuthirakani, incidentally, dubbed for the villain (Madhusudhan Rao) in Part 1, so he binds the two films tighter.
Part 2, meanwhile, gives us three villains, one each for Maaran, Oli and Shiva. The plot kicks off with Nadesan being questioned by the police. (Gautham Vasudev Menon cameos as a cop named — wait for it! — Raghavan, though there’s woefully no information on whether he possesses an instinct.) The charge? Three men are missing. And we cut to a flashback. Shiva drives an auto and dreams of driving a cab. Oli works in a mess (if you remember, the kids in Part 1 set up a small eatery) and plays basketball. Maaran, who is in love with Inba (Subiksha), wants to leave a criminal gang and begin life afresh. Their tracks race by like an express train. Like Goli Soda, the sequel is suffused with an energetic, documentary-like vibe (Vijay Milton’s hand-held shots are, at times, millimetres away from an actor’s face), and filled with natural light. Not a single image appears to have been retouched during post-production. It’s like CCTV footage, but framed with an artist’s eye.
Deepak, the editor, chips in with showy flair. I am not usually a fan of gimmicky transitions, but they serve this story well. As the three narrative tracks begin to converge, the pace picks up. The breathless cutting makes the dissolves look like the shot isn’t transitioning to the next one so much as being elbowed away by it, impatiently. Like the characters, the frames burst with youth. Part 2 carries over another stylistic signature from Part 1. The writing cuts away from events midway, and when we see the remainder of the event, it’s not what we thought happened. And remember the twist with the villain in the climax of Part 1? That’s reheated and served — with a twist.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Vidya Ramesh
June 14, 2018
I did not get the” mill la kathara” reference at all sir in your quick review, can someone explain? You don’t allude to that in your written review..so I’m still in the dark.
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brangan
June 14, 2018
Have you been to a maavu mill — the racket there is deafening!
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Vidya Ramesh
June 15, 2018
Ok 🙂 that’s all that was.” Palm to head” . I thought there was some major maavu mill mutiny that I didn’t know of !
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steadymeandering
June 15, 2018
Just came back from the theater. Was sorely disappointed by what followed that brilliant first half.
For some strange reason samuthirakani’s dialogue about second chances made me think that the characters would go back in time to alter the decisions they took or something like that 😂
That would have been more interesting than the cringe worthy second half.
It was like Vijay Milton was in Goli mode for first half and 10 endrathukulla mode for the second 😛
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praneshp
June 15, 2018
You insulted Hari. I’m leaving this blog.
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jaga_jaga
June 16, 2018
BR – You’re the first Indian author I’ve read, who has used the word “racket” to mean some sort of a loud noise! Just curious – can you kindly tell when was the first time you saw this word being used in this context??
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brangan
June 16, 2018
That’s fairly common usage, I thought!
“What a racket!” etc.
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jaga_jaga
June 16, 2018
BR – Is it? In Indian context, I’ve often heard “what a ruckus”, but “what a racket” takes my mind to “wow, what a scam”. Never “how noisy”!
So “racket” as in “scam” or the badminton “racket” etc are commonplace. Not the noise connotation, IMO.
Sorry to bother you, but can you kindly recollect any other Indian author (or blogster or whoever in reasonable public domain) use racket this way??
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Vikram S
June 16, 2018
BR, on q completely unrelated note, may I request you to review the anthology film released on Netflix- Lust Stories…it’s by the same set of directors who made Bombay Talkies… thanks in advance
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shaviswa
June 16, 2018
jaga_jaga
What a racket is commonly used to denote a commotion.
BTW it is Badminton Racquet, no?
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jaga_jaga
June 16, 2018
@Shaviswa –
Racquet is apparently a consequence of misspelling (assuming the link below is true)
link: http://grammarist.com/spelling/racket-racquet/
Also, can you kindly recollect any other Indian author (or blogster or whoever in reasonable public domain) use racket this way??
For some kind of a commotion, I’ve almost always heard “commotion”/”ruckus” only!
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Vidhya M
June 17, 2018
Jaga_jaga – our Anglo Indian teachers used the word racket all the time, while pulling us up for creating commotion in class. (1984-1996, Madras)
Perhaps this usage is old school?
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Kay
June 17, 2018
I herb gome across racket very often.
BR, I was hoping to see a Father’s Day article from you. 😀
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Anu Warrier
June 17, 2018
jaga-jaga – the Grammarist is predominantly American and assumes American spellings as the default. ‘Raquet’ for tennis and badminton is pretty much common in UK usage. Here’s a better explanation of the meanings of both spellings.
https://writingexplained.org/racket-or-racquet-difference
And ‘racket’ for noise/commotion is again pretty much common usage in India and elsewhere. ‘Stop making a racket’ is something most kids in Indian schools would have heard at least once in their academic lifetimes.
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Jaga_Jaga
June 18, 2018
@ Vidhya – Thanks! Makes sense. As someone who went to school in the same city, in a “reputed” CBSE school from 1991-2003, I never heard it. Though I never had any Anglo-Indian teacher!
@Kay, Anu – If I may ask, how old are you folks? Born in the 70s, 80s??
@ Anu – Can you kindly find some place where it has appeared on print? Just curious! “Racket” for me was always about “scams”. As a kid in primary school during the “Hawala Racket” times, “racket” has always been about scams.
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