‘Chandramukhi’ released in 2005 starring Rajini and Jyothika. It is a film that has got all the features like horror, comedy, songs, mass, action together and satisfied the audience from all walks of life. Here is the review of ‘Chandramukhi 2’, its second installment after 18 years…
The family of Ranganayake (Rathika), a cotton mill owner, continues to experience various mishaps. A fire breaks out in their cotton mill. Ranganayake’s youngest daughter (Lakshmi Menon) becomes unable to walk in an accident. His eldest daughter is ostracized from the family as she marries a man of a different religion. They listen to the family preacher (Rao Ramesh) and go to the village where Chandramukhi’s bungalow is located, saying that such incidents are happening because Ranganayake’s family has forgotten their family deity.
The children and their guardian Pandiyan (Raghava Lawrence) come to the town as the preacher says that the children born to his daughter married to a non-religious man should be taken there. The original Chandramukhi (Kangana) prevents the current owner of Chandramukhi Bungalow, Murugesan (Vadivelu), who rents the house from him, to prevent them from performing pooja at their ancestral temple. Others are whether Ranganayake’s family stopped Chandramukhi and performed pooja at the ancestral temple.
Radhika’s family scenes are over at the beginning of the film followed by Lawrence’s introduction. When someone threatens to abduct the two children in his care, Lawrence flies off on a bike and smashes into the back of the bus, and the next moment, smashes the front of the bus with Alec holding the two children in his arms. Knowing where the film is going to go next, we steel ourselves and prepare for the next scenes.
The film moves along without any distraction due to the screenplay without any distractions. Hero Lawrence corrects Radhika’s family, which hates and shuns the two children in the beginning, just by speaking a dialogue in one scene. The film is full of only such ‘outdated’ pathetic scenes. At least the character designs are a bit manic, if not that. As soon as Lakshmi Menon sits in the wheel chair, one knows what is going to happen to the character. The screen is littered with characters, but none of them are clearly written.
All these years Lawrence stood as Rajini. Lawrence walked like Rajini. Lawrence thought of himself as Rajini. In this film, Lawrence has become Rajini himself. From the introduction scene to the end of the film, he has copied Rajini’s every move. Speaking in an interview recently, P. Vasu said that it was difficult to get Rajini out of Lawrence and he was careful not to let Rajini’s image appear in every scene. If this is the case even after being so careful, if you don’t notice it, it makes my heart cringe to think about it.
Next, shape it. Murugesan is in the same role as in the previous part. But what Vadivelu and Lawrence do in the name of comedy only brings irritation instead of laughter. Especially in the previous episode “Is there a ghost or not?” A different take on the classic comedy ‘Does Ghost Get Old? Is it?’ They have a long view. A grave silence prevails throughout the arena. The whole film is a bit stilted and doesn’t speak English.
Radhika, Ravi Maria, Vignesh, YG Mahendran, Srushti Tange are many actors but none of them have work. Late actors Mano Bala and RS Shivaji have also been wasted. Nayanthara needed to distract the audience from knowing who the real Chandramukhi was in the first part. But, heroine Mahima Nambiar doesn’t have that job either. Lakshmi Menon has done her part well.
In the second half, Kangana, who comes as the original Chandramukhi, impresses with her dancing and acting. But he tries to copy Jyothika’s performance in the pre-climax song and fails. The pitiful creature in the film is the snake. If in the first part the snake was left as an arrow, in this film too it is not given any work. The thought that the snake is going to be used in memes as an example of being ‘idle’ is heartbreaking.
Want a song like ‘Devuda Devuda’ from the first part of ‘Chandramukhi’? There it is. Want something like ‘Anthindom’ song? And that’s there. Do you want the song ‘A little time’? And that’s there. Do you want ‘Rara’ song? It is also a little different. But everything is very modest. Oscar-winner MM Keeravani tries to stop the film with difficulty in many places with the background music. He doesn’t know what to do with the huge hit song ‘Rara’. He has changed the tune and put a bunch of parrots.
RD Rajasekhar’s cinematography is colorful. Actors’ clothes, make-up, background are all ‘shiny’ reminiscent of Hindi mega-serials. Even while sleeping, the female characters in the film sparkle in make-up.
Even in the first part which came 18 years ago, they would have lashed out at the medical reasons like ‘Split Personality Disorder’ which are not familiar to the Tamil fans. But even the medicine in this film has no such thing as innovation. They have tinkered with almost the first part and made something like ‘Hunter’ and ‘Sengottaiyan’.
Don’t use the name of a work that has been well received in all its forms like ‘Manichitrathal’, ‘Aapthamitra’, ‘Chandramukhi’ and make a film that has not even a single memorable feature after all these years.
At the end when Rao Ramesh utters a verse saying ‘no one can beat destiny’ the director’s name is not a clue. If we have to say about the film as a whole, we can say the same verse that Prabhu says in ‘Chandramukhi’. ‘What the hell is this Vasu sir..?’
