Director: Vijay Kumar
Cast: Vijay Kumar, Vismaya
Uriyadi, Vijay Kumar’s first, created waves on it’s release in 2016 for it’s refreshing screenplay, thrilling narrative and energetic performances from an amateur cast. Three years on, the Director is back with a sequel.
‘Uriyadi 2’ follows the next chapter in the lives of Lenin Vijay (Vijay Kumar) and his friends, who are now fresh chemical engineering graduates, in search of a job. They land one at the shady chemical manufacturing company Paksino. Run by a highly corrupt promoter and pillared by equally unscrupulous politicians, Paksino manufactures highly toxic chemicals under its roof, which also seems to be the only part of the factory building still standing strong! Thanks to years of poor maintenance, the crumbling infrastructure means that an accident is waiting to happen and we get a sample of this when one of Vijay’s friends loses his life in an untoward incident. A more sinister danger lurks though, as a gas leak in the dead of the night spills into the neighboring town, taking many lives and permanently disfiguring some. Lenin and his friends see no option but to dive into politics themselves, in an attempt to bring change and justice to their town.
The film seems to be heavily inspired by real life events in Tuticorin and Bhopal where similar tragedies have shaken the country in the past. However, where it falls flat is in its storytelling. The plot woven around these incidents is just not strong or compelling enough. The initial sequences that try to set up a romantic track don’t really work and the film itself is not helped throughout by Govind Vasantha’s rather loud and jarring score. A lot of the film, especially the second half, has footage that shows the suffering of people affected by the tragedy. Though these scenes are highly authentic, brilliantly shot and touching, you keep waiting for the next plot point to take the story forward. To draw a parallel, consider a film like Mani Ratnam’s Bombay, which was also heavily influenced by real life incidents (the riots in Mumbai). There however, apart from the hard hitting riot sequences, there was also a consistent and focused story thread, anchored by solid characters. This brings us to the next problem in Uriyadi. The characters have been defined reasonably well but not written, cast or enacted well enough. For instance, none of the corrupt politicians really seem to have any great screen presence and this really dilutes the sleazy impact their roles should have actually had. There is almost too much effort to try and cram in various real life episodes. Did the script really need to have the promoter of Paksino absconding to a foreign country to avoid facing justice in India?
To it’s credit, Uriyadi 2 does touch upon a subject that has not been examined in Tamil cinema recently, albeit with poor execution. The events in Bhopal and Tuticorin and similar events in various places around the world were extremely tragic and you wish there is no recurrence ever again. Just like you wish there wasn’t a sequel to Uriyadi too.
Overall rating: 2/5
