24 frames per second

Now that both parts of Viduthalai have been released, it is possible to see the whole picture, and how this second part fits into it. Unlike earlier two-parters from recent memory, like Ponniyin Selvan or Bahubali, this film does not feel like a single story that needed two films to be told. It feels like a single story that could’ve been told in a longish (~3.5 hrs) movie but became a bit of a bloated two-parter instead.

While the first film revolved around the rookie cop Kumaresan, much of this part’s runtime is devoted to the story of Perumal Vaathiyaar. This turns out to be the film’s undoing. The framing device of Viduthalai 2 is a trek through the jungle – a bunch of cops are tasked with taking Perumal to a safe location, and he tells them his life story on the way. They’re all caught up by the time the film enters its third act – easily the most compelling section of the film.

Here’s the trouble with all this: We didn’t actually need this backstory. Much of what we needed to know and all of what would’ve made us emotionally invested in his fate could’ve been accomplished with a few well-written lines of dialogue. Vijay Sethupathi is a good enough actor to be able to convey an entire lifetime of experiences through his facial expressions. Given just that much fodder, our imagination would have done a better job in fleshing out the story in our head. Our version would’ve had a lot less speechifying, that’s for sure.

The other problem is that the emotional centre of the first film – Kumaresan – is reduced to a glorified cameo for much of the running time, so when the story eventually returns to him in the third act, something ineffable has been lost in the process.

The third problem is with Vetri Maaran’s direction. A plodding story can sometimes be elevated by extraordinary visuals. Vetri has proven himself capable of delivering those – vide the interval block or the scene where Rajan in killed in Vada Chennai, or the extended single-take opening sequence in the first part. What we get, instead, is competent filmmaking but nothing to write home about.

What all this adds up to is essentially this: a two-parter where the whole is noticeably less than the sum of its parts.