'Kalpana 2': Upendra, Avanthika praised in reviews; but film's second half panned

The sequel of 2012 Kannada hit film Kalpana has released today (15 July) and Kalpana 2 is creating as many waves as its predecessor. A horror comedy film, it is the remake of the 2011 Tamil film Kanchana 2. [caption id=“attachment_2894838” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  ‘Kalpana 2’ cut out. Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] The film, directed by R Anantha Raju, stars Upendra, Priyamani and Avanthika Shetty in the lead roles. Upendra plays the role of a cameraman, working for a TV channel. His one fear, is ghosts. When the TV channel’s TRPs falls, they decide to produce shows with supernatural themes and Upendra’s character has to go to shoot them. At one of these shoots, all hell breaks loose. Arjun Janya has worked on the film’s musical score and among the songs are a patriotic number sung by Puneeth Rajkumar. A review on Tollycolours.in says, “Never before have we seen Upendra play a role like this. This (should count among) the successes of Upendra’s career.” PressKS.com in its review has said, “The movie’s assets are a superb performance by the actress and a hilarious first half. But a below average second half and a loud climax spoil the fun.” The editing of the film also comes in for some criticism, with the final rating for Kalpana 2 coming in at 3/5. Galaxyreporter.com has said, “On the whole, Kalpana 2 has some interesting moments. Despite a below average second half and a loud climax, this film will see huge openings because of the hype surrounding it.”