Singham (Yamudu II) Telugu Movie Review

The film tires you in the name of entertainment. The angry cop has grown full size and is now on the shelf in a XXL size. Resultantly he is also a menace. Arguably, it started with a lanky angry young man fighting the comparatively harmless Loin in his den ‘chained’ by the law. Today our cinema does not respect the Rule of Law. It celebrates violence. It salutes the flexed muscle – that remains flexed and agitated. It is often stated that art and social values reflect each other, mirror one and another entice and encourage symbiotically. So it is a sad commentary that our cinema (implying our life styles) is getting louder and more violent.
Singham II is a recognition of a collective that advocates the belief that ends justify means. In the melodramatic precincts of Cinema South everything is a hyperbole and so is the repeat of the success formula. The old fashioned parallel lanes of good and evil meeting in the climax is steadily replaced with scripts that start with evil and violence and based on where you come from it is justified and/or unjustified. So is it here.
The film (all of two hours and 46 minutes) is completely dedicated to violence. Now stylised, now brutal. Here glass shattering, there screeching. Some times smart, often loud. It is red, different hues of red: Bloody red.
Our protagonist the Angry DSP Narasimham (Surya) takes off from where he left. In fact, lest you have forgotten he carries some left overs for connectivity. As a sequel to the box office magic prequel Singham, here too most of the characters return in full swing and thematically are the ones who are punch hungry – give or take!!
Narasimham has to fight illegal transport of arms from the shores of Kakinada the instance of the Home Minister (Vijay Kumar) and incognito. He thus becomes a NCC Instructor in a local school where he meets up with Divya (Hansika Motwani). In disguise he is stalking the law breakers in the midst of item songs and runs into an full fledged narcotic under world with players who include Divya’s uncle (Rahman) local don (Mukesh Rishi) and international don (Danny Sapani).
The script leads to he making a dramatic declaration that he is the DSP and hell breaks loose. Violence of the scale of a small civil war erupts and the script travels from one long spell of thrills stunts and fights to another of fights stunts and trills. Miniscule moments of romance (Anushka is still there waiting for her love to return and it does in flash songs and dances!!) and a comparatively longer dose of the comedy track (Vivek and Santanam) fight hard for a foot hold in a script dedicatd to violence and drenched in blood. In fact the script has more use of bullets that punctuation marks. Like the promos (trailers: when Prakash Mehra made Zanjeer four decades ago!) the film is full throated screaming over the top and thumping to shatter is the structural engineering of the story, screenplay and direction.
Narasimham now moves on to Operation D to get Danny the villain into the police net and catch him red handed (literaly). In the process you are served with huge dosages of meaningless violence. Protagonist DSP and antagonist D work out the mechanisms of Operation D and the film’s D is of the belief that that succeeds excess.
While the audience chuckles, shudders, shivers at the violence the film maker and the star are so involved in fleshing the Frankenstein that you are looking for the escape route.
Santanam as the comedian stands out in a cast that is efficient and delivers just what is asked. He is the redeeming feature. Surya is a combo of Rajni, Ravi Teja and Sunny (Deol!). Larger than life over dramatic this actor is surely a victim of his own image. Some day he will return to playing a role that is more human and bid adieu to roles that compare with wild animals of the jungle!! L. Ravichander