Vishwaroopam 2 movie review: Kamal Haasan's inimitable style saves this mixed bag of a sequel

Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam 2 is a mixed bag, when you compare it with the first part. The sequel is a continuation of the plot, with a long-drawn-out explanation trying to link the two films. The narrative ends up going back and forth and doesn’t feel coherent. If you haven’t watched the first film, it is difficult to fathom what’s going on and understand the motives of the characters. However it’s the entertainment factor of the film that ultimately triumphs, and you’re able to move past the issues in Vishwaroopam 2 due to Kamal Haasan’s inimitable style and panache. Kamal Haasan, in many recent interviews, had made it clear that Vishwaroopam 2 is both a sequel and a prequel, and it is packaged as a Hollywood-style spy thriller. So don’t look for a story here, just sit back and watch the film — one that is dialogue-driven with enough hints thrown about his political ideology. The political message scene — between the hero, a patriotic Muslim, and the traitor, a Hindu Brahmin — is sure to get applause en masse. [caption id=“attachment_4507007” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Kamal Haasan in a still from Vishwaroop 2. YouTube[/caption] The adventures of the Indian RAW agent Wisam (Kamal Hassan) continues in Vishwaroopam 2. He has unfinished business: to hunt down the Al Qaeda terrorist Omar (Rahul Bose), who escaped in the first part. Omar and his friends, including a traitor in the Indian embassy Iyer (Ananth Mahadevan), are planning to bomb London and Delhi. And so Wisam —aided by his boss (Shekhar Kapoor), his assistant Ashmita Subramaniam (Andrea) and his wife Nirupama (Pooja Kumar), who is a nuclear oncologist —decides to take on Omar and his gang. For a change, the female characters get almost equal footing as Kamal Haasan in the film. Andrea Jeremiah has the better role as Kamal’s right-hand woman, who gets nice lines and a well-choreographed action scene, but her character has an abrupt end. Pooja Kumar plays Haasan’s wife and gets a big scene when she dives into the sea along with the British Navy and helps locate 500 tonnes of live explosives that went down with a cargo ship; this would have been used by the terrorists to blow up London. Her romance with Kamal Haasan is done in a classy manner. Shekhar Kapoor has hardly much to do, while Waheeda Rehman, who plays Haasan’s mom suffering from Alzheimer, find herself in the middle of sentimental scenes that drag on. The USP of the film is Kamal Haasan, who doesn’t look his age (63) and does action, romance and dialogue-delivery with consummate ease and style. Some of the action scenes are well choreographed. Ghibran’s music is a major plus point. But the sequel is nowhere near the first part and looks stretched (2 hours 21 minutes). Though part two lacks the finesse of part one, Vishwaroopam 2 is still an entertainer.