Ajay Gnanamuthu’s debut film Demonte Colony had a charm of its own largely because of how the movie tried to tackle its limitations in terms of budget by being innovative in presenting the story. A larger chunk of that film, which had a runtime below two hours, was in a very confined place, and in the entire second half, the plot gets developed at a swift speed. When it comes to the second part, it has the support of a bigger budget, and unlike the first part, it is the first half of the movie that feels a lot more compelling rather than the hefty second half that feels slightly tiresome after a point.
SPOILERS AHEAD! So what we saw in the first movie was something that happened in 2015, and in the sequel, the opening scene is from 2009, where something supernatural happens, resulting in the death of multiple people. Debbie, a woman who lost her husband in the 2009 incident, gets to know about the 2015 incident, and she and her father-in-law save Srini (ya, he ain’t dead, he is in a coma) and they understand about a 6-year pattern in the occurrence of these events. What we see in the movie Demonte Colony 2is how Debbie prepares for the next event that happens in 2021.
If you look at the first film, there are these unnecessary songs and the Jillu jokes in the first half of the movie that sort of makes the film a compromised yet impressive attempt. In the second half of that movie, things unfold captivatingly, and the content becomes exciting. In the sequel, Ajay Gnanamuthu has made sure that there wouldn’t be any sequences that are added just for the sake of comedy. And if you look at it, this sequel gives us a better idea about the larger picture, and I liked how he used the first half very extensively to build the world.
In the second half, the movie enters the familiar ingredients, where we see our characters seeing themselves on the screen, and the Demonte Colony algorithm starts to play. While the scaled-up set pieces with a bigger set and a better budget are making things visually grand, it is sort of becoming exhaustive after a point. The logic of certain loopholes in the ghost’s power and how the escape scenes are staged diminish the charm the sequel could have had, considering how elaborate the first half was. One thing I generally hate in mainstream Tamil cinema, especially when it has supernatural or sci-fi elements, is the elaborate exposition through dialogues. There is an upgrade to the visual language and production quality compared to the first film.
Arulnithi is playing a different character altogether in this film, and since the character is a spoilt brat, the performance is on the louder side, and we get to see less of his character’s dilemmas in this movie. The sequel’s focus is primarily on Debbie, played by Priya Bhavani Shankar. What Srini went through in the first film is happening with Debbie, and the emotional baggage is also heavier on Debbie, and Priya was convincing in playing that part. Arun Pandian, as Dr. Richard, delivered a slightly shaky performance. Muthukumar, Meenakshi Govindarajan, and Sarjano Khalid are the other names in the cast.
Demonte Colony 2 is basically repeating the core idea of the 2015 movie in a bigger setup with an elaborate view of the whole concept. With the movie ending with the announcement of a third installment, the franchise is in a nicely poised situation where you would be interested in seeing the third part, even if this sequel hasn’t given you a wow factor.
Demonte Colony 2 is basically repeating the core idea of the 2015 movie in a bigger setup with an elaborate view of the whole concept.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
