Viduthalai Part 2 Review | An Excellent Second Half Dented by a Preachy and Hasty First Half

In my review of Viduthalai Part 1, I mentioned that the movie felt like an elaborate first half that sort of sets you up for a more enticing second half. Viduthalai Part 2 is narrated from the perspective of Kumaresan, but the focus this time is on how Perumal Vaathiyar became this iconic rebel leader. And we get to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Viduthalai was initially announced as a small film with Soori, which will have Vijay Sethupathi in a guest role. But during the process of shooting, it became this two-part movie. The major issue with Viduthalai Part 2 is that, while it has an excellent second half that holds your attention completely, the first half, which has the history of Vaathiyar, feels extremely dragged.

So Vaathiyar is now in the custody of the police, and since the police fear an attack of Makkal Padai, they are moving him to a different location. What we see in Viduthalai Part 2 is Vaathiyar’s own story from his own mouth about what circumstances made him the person he is right now. Through that backstory, we get to know how a teacher eventually became a rebel leader who was considered a terrorist by the system.

The events that happen right after what we have seen in Part 1 are genuinely gripping. Vaathiyar and his humane behavior, clarity, and empathy in those areas clearly bring an aura around that character, and Vijay Sethupathi adds that charm with extreme ease. The flaws are with the hasty setup of the past. Just like the bad wigs of both Sethupathi and Manju Warrier, Vetri Maaran’s writing of that part also has a very half-hearted nature. The movie is in such a hurry to talk about several events in the life of Perumal within a span of one hour and twenty minutes that even the edits are skimming through a lot of the events. It’s almost like seeing the trailer of a nine-episode series. You sort of understand what had made him this person, but the pace at which events are unfolding is not giving you enough time to absorb the pain he endured. Many dialogues and situations in the flashback portions were deliberately staged for unsubtle political statements.

Vetri Maaran is someone who is known for talking about politics in his films. I think the first draft of this film did not have the backstory of Vaathiyar, and hence, if you look at the writing that explores Vaathiyar after the entry of Kumaresan, the clarity and refinement in political statements are much better. Most of the statements Perumal says during the forest episode to the officers and his fellow rebels during the shoutout have the depth to influence the largely apolitical privileged lot who might see this film in the long run. The same appreciation cannot be given to some of the political statements we see in the flashback portions. They are very much in that on-your-face zone, and it just doesn’t have the kind of fire one would anticipate in a Vetri Maaran film. The drama that happens inside the police force due to the hierarchy and superiority complex clubbed with the greed for recognition, the movie does manage to make us think about the system’s manipulation from Kumaresan’s point of view.

Vijay Sethupathi, as Perumal Vaathiyar, gets a chance to display his versatility in this movie. In the current portions, he is this unflinching, confident leader who has the awareness to educate the apolitical. In the backstory, we see him as this naive school teacher, the learning, young leader, and in the romantic portions, we can see Perumal hesitating to express his love. I loved how he improvised a lot of dialogues, like how he talked about police training while helping a police officer. Soori, as the narrator, has relatively less screen time this time. But the performance was extremely convincing. Apart from the odd-looking wig, which obviously had a purpose, everything else about the performance and the character played by Manju Warrier was fine. Actor Kishore is there as Vaathiyar’s mentor. Chetan reprises his role from the first part, and this time the character is in a different light altogether, making it a really memorable performance. I really liked the soft-spoken, crooked chief secretary character played by Rajiv Menon.

If you can bear with the bumpy and excessively preachy first half of Viduthalai Part 2, the real Vetri Maaran stuff is there waiting for you in the final act of the film. It is definitely not the best work of Vetri Maaran, as the need to be political, is at times, putting the craft in the backseat. By the end of Viduthalai Part 2, I felt the franchise would have been more impactful if they had made it like two movies of roughly two hours.