Did you know that Vemal has acted in 25 films? I didn’t. This achievement —so to speak — would have been vigorously promoted by social media influencers, with a hashtag along the lines of #BoxOfficeEmperorVemal25thMovie, had it been another actor or star. But Vemal is neither. He’s a ghost-actor, who boasts of a resume that is as colourless as the costume he wears in Kalavani 2 . Of the 25 films he’s acted in, two of the most memorable ones were directed by A Sarkunam. One was Kalavani and the other was Vagai Sooda Vaa , that fetched Sarkunam a National Award.
But nothing can possibly justify Sarkunam’s decision to write a sequel to a movie that never had an iota of scope or potential or story for a second part. To put it in Sarkunam’s language, it is like wanting to make Naiyaandi 2 , just because the ‘Teddy Bear’ song was reasonably popular. Now, I hope Naiyaandi 2 won’t happen.
In the first Kalavani movie , two villages were at loggerheads, thanks to conman Arkki (Vemal). He meets Maheswari (a gullible Oviya before Bigg Boss and her Oviya Army catapulted her into national stardom) and they fall in love. They even get married and have a kid.
But in Kalavani 2 , the film casts them afresh as two individuals who haven’t even met, in a new storyline. The film, in fact, begins with a disclaimer: that Kalavani 2 is a ‘sequel in spirit only’. Which translates to this: the spirit is desperate, but the flesh is weak.
Kalavani 2 is the eighth sequel to have released this year. Imagine watching all these films that defy the concept of a ‘sequel’ in the first place. It’s agony. For months, we have held silent protests through our reviews, calling out on this pretentious sequel culture, which is getting out of hand (as you read this, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu 2 is gearing up for a release next week). But filmmakers turn a blind eye to us.
In the end, I realise there’s no point in bringing this up and thought about the credits, in which the makers thanked the All India Vemal Fans’ Association. That, at least, is something to chew on.
