Goli Soda 2 movie review: Vijay Milton's formulaic sequel to 2014 sleeper has nothing fresh to offer

The fizz is missing in Goli Soda 2.  Vijay Milton, the cinematographer-turned-director’s Goli Soda was a fast moving story set in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai, of underdogs triumphing against the bad guys. It had freshness and had newcomers in the lead, and also worked big time at the box office. [caption id=“attachment_4510013” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A promotional still of Goli Soda 2. Twitter[/caption] Now, he has rehashed the same theme in a different milieu of North Madras, a favourite of Tamil cinema where rowdies and local politicians run wild. Add to that a bit of caste-run political parties and references to the downtrodden with BR Ambedkar pictures in the background. Milton has made Samuthirakani, with his now familiar braces around his neck, the hero of the film along with half a dozen newcomers. The story begins with Natesan (Samuthirakani) a do-gooder pharmacist, who is being interrogated by Raghavan (Gautham Menon), a top cop over some persons going missing. The narrative unfolds through Natesan about the three principal characters and their back story which forms the fulcrum around which the film revolves. The three characters – Oli (Essaki Bharath), Siva (Vinod) and Maaran (Bharath Seeni) – are neither related nor friends. They are Natesan’s casual acquaintances who, due to certain circumstances, team up post-interval to tackle their common enemies. Oli, an emerging basketball talent, is in love with a working girl Madhi (Krisha Kurup) but a caste leader is fiercely opposed to their love. Siva is an auto driver who is planning to buy a car and use it as a call taxi for which he has taken a loan from a politician (Sarvanan Subbiah) who cons him. Maaran, a henchman of a noted rowdy and upcoming politician Thuraimugham Thillai (Chemban Vinod), wants to break free from the criminals and start a new life with his girl Inba (Subhilaksha) but they will not let him free. All the three are mentored by Natesan, which in a way leads to the final conflict. The first half of the film is gripping and we get sucked into Milton’s storytelling but post-interval, it goes haywire. Though the film is just 130 minutes, at times, it feels stretched and preachy especially towards the long and drawn out bloody climax. The message that the film wants to convey is that our lives are controlled by the rich who are hand in glove with politicians. There are the usual references to Nirav Modi and others who brazenly walked away with thousands of crores while the system cracks down on the common man who has to pay a few thousands. And towards the end, it takes the vigilante route and becomes a revenge spree with too many villainous characters and exaggerated action scenes. Samuthirakani is the real hero of the film and does his job neatly including his ‘solo drinking’ scene. Gautham Menon is given the honour of an introduction scene and then disappears only to come in the last scene of the film. The newcomers, the boys and girls have hardly anything much to do. Among its plus is music composer Achu Rajamani’s tunes, especially the ‘Pondatee’  number, and the editing pattern or the split screen format followed by Deepak.