Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2 Review: The Film Is Crushed Under The Weight Of Its Own Vaulting Ambition
Rashmika Mandanna and Allu Arjun in a still from the movie
Ankush Pandey
Given that Pushpa: The Rise was a huge commercial success, it is easy to see why writer-director B. Sukumar is unwilling to change the formula. In the follow-up, he seizes every chance to play the cards that brought him and star Allu Arjun enormous rewards.
Pushpa 2: The Rule—Part 2 frequently runs the risk of becoming a turgid mess as it tries so hard to find more of the same. Even though it avoids that possibility, it does occasionally veer into unethically fabricated, stretched, and inflated scenes that are done merely to support the protagonist's sense of invincibility—gravity and reason be damned.
Nothing is regarded as implausible in this maximalist universe. Despite Pushpa Part 2's intense focus on leather, the film's lofty ambitions crush a lot of its content.
Sukumar's script, AA's gregarious demeanor, and Fahadh Faasil's prolonged appearance (the highly regarded Malayalam actor exudes both humor and blustery bravado) were all openly intended to intensify the impact that the predecessor had on viewers nationwide.
Mixed results come from the effort. A few of the film's set pieces—the main ones are lengthy and shrill affairs—perform admirably. The others don't.
Cinematographer Miroslaw Kuba Brozek, whose extraordinary abilities were evident in the first film and greatly enhanced its striking visual sweep, applies the same degree of artistry to the sequel. The plot of Pushpa Part 2 is disappointingly erratic, but the lack of technical issues is to be expected.
The 200-minute film jumps around from flashpoint to flashpoint for the first couple of hours. Each highlights the significance and breadth of Pushpa's rhetoric of jhukega nahi. His conflict with IPS officer Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Faasil, who, in contrast to Pushpa: The Rise, appears right at the beginning of this film) veers towards what seems to be a conclusion until the film surprises viewers in its final moments.
Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna) is now married to Pushpa (Allu Arjun), but he is far from domesticated. He now has a larger criminal empire than before. Beyond India's borders, he strikes a huge red sander deal with Hamid, a buyer from Dubai (with a cameo from Saurabh Sachdeva).
Pushpa is well-served by a battalion of smugglers who never consider betrayal, and he manages his gang with the assistance of his friend and trusted lieutenant Keshav (Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari). However, Pushpa always battles the villains alone, as one might anticipate from films like this one.
He is a criminal with an axe whose authority in the forest he rules is uncontested. His opponent is a corrupt, satirized police officer. Pushpa never runs because he is so comfortable in his saddle. However, the policeman tasked with shutting down his illicit red sander company is always looking for answers.
There is no denying Pushpa's hold on the smuggling syndicate. Shekhawat, the district's SP, is left feeling angry and disoriented after he summarily addresses the threats the police pose to his gang. The desperate actions of the irate police officer only make the situation between him and Pushpa worse.
Daksha (Anasuya Bharadwaj) and her smuggler husband Mangalam Shrinu (Sunil) are two more tenacious enemies that Pushpa must deal with. The woman takes advantage of being close to SP Shekhawat in order to fish in shaky waters.
Pushpa is made to apologize to the man in uniform at a boisterous party hosted by a politician in an attempt to mediate a truce for the humiliation he had previously inflicted on Shekhawat. Pushpa settles scores before the party is over, though, because he isn't the kind to take a blow to his ego lying down. Once again, the two men are at each other's throats.
Pushpa gets really upset about a missed photo opportunity earlier in the movie. Because of the insult, he decides to hold the state's chief minister accountable. He strongly supports Sidappa, the MLA (Rao Ramesh). While the consequences of that political act take time to materialize, Pushpa's life is not without activity in the interim, as the police officer keeps running around in the hopes of apprehending the smugglers.
The plot shifts from the main Pushpa-Shekhawat confrontation track in the last third of the movie, allowing it to literally burn to the ground. Instead, it focuses on a personal angle that was mentioned multiple times in the first movie: Pushpa's tense relationship with his half-brother Molleti Mohan Raj (Ajay), who takes great pleasure in making fun of the hero for being an illegitimate son.
Kaveri (Pavani Karanam), Mohan's daughter, is used as pawn by an enemy who appears late in the movie and starts a lengthy action scene where Pushpa, with his hands and legs bound, demonstrates why he is no longer just any strange fire but a true wildfire.
Part 2 of Pushpa: The Rule begins with a nightmare and concludes with the title character, who has been shot in the shoulder, falling into the sea. He lets out a stifled shriek as he wakes up. Even though his wife is well aware that nothing in the world can stop Pushpa, she is still alarmed.
Moments of awkward intimacy between AA and Rashmika follow the scene; there are several more throughout the movie. These are obviously intended to address criticism that Pushpa's exploits glorify violence and offensive masculinity (more on this aspect of the film later).
The actors and characters in their respective roles are fine throughout the remainder of Pushpa Part 2. Allu Arjun consistently delivers. Even though Pushpa's distinctive beard strokes are still a big part of the package, his slanted shoulder does an unexplainable disappearance act after a while and never comes back. But when the 200-minute film searches in vain for real inspiration, it becomes somewhat of a taxing ordeal.
Pushpa's wife and mother, Parvathi (Kalpalatha), are the only women in his life who have the power to weaken him. Srivalli accomplishes this following a confrontation that enables the movie to insert a lengthy scene demonstrating Pushpa's non-sexist attitude towards marriage and other relationships.
In fact, during a song and dance sequence, Pushpa performs a frantic incantation to invoke the blessings of Goddess Kali, and the adventurous man goes androgynous with a vengeance. He is dressed in a sari, and the kohl that has been liberally applied over his cheeks highlights his terrifyingly piercing eyes.
A group of ruffians, who have glowing red, devilish horns on their heads, enter the religious ceremony and demand trouble, feeling the full force of the fiery female divine's wrath. Pushpa hands it to them while his Goddess of Destruction avatar goes on the rampage.
In the climax, the same outburst is repeated. Pushpa assumes the persona of Kali once more. Pushpa Part 2 alludes to Part 3 once the hurly-burly has subsided and a wedding has begun to signify the end of hostilities. Pushpa: The Rampage will be the title of the trilogy's last chapter. As though it wasn't enough already.
