Saamy 2 Review: Vikram shines in dual roles

When director Hari decided to make a sequel to the 2003 film Saamy, it looks like he had only two things in mind. One is that Saamy can’t be immune to death but we can create him in another form, even if we try to bring his skills through eerie graphics. Two, the film should look nothing like it’s predecessor, because, heck, with logic; this should establish Saamy as the invincible force. Saamy 2(Saamy Square) comes across as a super-fast express train that derails quite often only to make us realize that it wasn’t meant to take itself seriously in the first place. Saamy 2 feels like a popcorn entertainer, that earns whistles.

Saamy 2 stars off with glimpses from Saamy which shows Aarusaamy‘s journey to defeat Perumal Pichai. Saamy 2 takes off from there, we see Trisha replaced by Aishwarya Rajesh in Bhuvana’s role, Vikram’s youthfulness replaced by an older yet fitter version in Aarusamy and Ram Saamy’s roles and the smart screenplay of the first part replaced by a semi sci-fi, hero-is-everything kind of a film.

The problem with making a sequel where the hero is hailed so much is how the story is never taken into consideration, however, with Saamy 2 director Hari follows a trademark pattern that travels on a plot. In the first half, he presents a story of Ram Saamy’s individual identity, his aspirations, and goals. There is also a love track between Keerthy Suresh and him, that makes the otherwise dynamic Keerthy, take up a role which is like a stalker of sorts. The story takes a nice twist when incidents in Ram Saamy’s life connects him to the villain, Ravanan Pichai (Bobby Simha). What follows next is a revenge story in which Ram Saamy and Ravanan Pichai lock horns. While the first part explored Aarusamy’s effective and engaging methods of taking down Perumal Pichai and reviving Tirunelveli, Ram Saamy’s method’s aren’t as awe-worthy as his father’s ways, nonetheless, his successful attempts to take down Ravanan Pichai’s family is innovative, which makes these scenes interesting.

But you know what really kills an engaging story – dialogues which were intended to make it big applause-worthy, but receive a meme-worthy reception. For instance, take the dialogue where Ram Saamy questions an inspector about why a lorry is overtaking another vehicle, to which the inspector responds – ”That’s Ravanan Picha’s method of killing, sir”. If Ram Saamy is smart enough to qualify as an IAS, IFS and IPS officer, didn’t he know this single detail of his opponent’s move? There are other gems such as ‘Naan Saamy ille…Bootham’ which seem relevant in the story and quite fun to watch. The film also qualifies as a slap-fest, where everyone is slapping everyone. Vikram slaps Keerthy Suresh, She slaps Soori, Soori slaps by-standers the list goes on. Also, Aarusaamy’s motto is life was to respect women, while his son Ram Saamy too follows it, his motto is ‘if a woman invades your space, never hesitate to slap’. It’s confusing if he is pro-feminist or against it? But hey, Saamy 2 isn’t about this. Saamy 2 is about Ram Saamy’s quest to regain the respect the people of Tirunelveli had for his father by seeking revenge for those who killed his family. Not because he is a police officer, but he is a somebody who cheated death right from the time he was born. This is said by Ram Saamy himself.

Vikram’s daredevilry and commanding screen presence is fantastic. Especially since he reprises his role after 15 long years. Bobby Simha looks menacing as the merciless villain, but towards the latter half of the film his character is quite gullible to be a strong opponent. V. T. Vijayan’s editing deserves appreciation, so does music director Devi Sri Prasad whose BGM worked well for the film.

What stops it from becoming a film of the 80s, is the screenplay which moves as quick as Bobby Simha’s accents in the film. If you are looking for the charm, crispness and engaging factor of Saamy then Saamy 2 would not help. However, if you are looking to watch a commercial entertainer where Vikram is the driving force, then you can watch this. Otherwise, wait for Saamy 3 because – ‘Saamiyin vettai thodarum’.