Chandramukhi 2 movie review: Kangana Ranaut, Raghava Lawrence’s mind-numbing sequel taints the legacy of the original

As far as the story goes, Murugesan (Vadivelu), who currently owns the Vettaiyan Palace, rents it out to a rich family, who visits the village to perform a ritual in their ancestral temple. The ghost of Chandramukhi resurfaces when a character unknowingly touches a jewel Ganga wore in the first part. From then on, we are caught in a bad version of Sundar C’s Aranmanai. We get the usual run-of-the-mill jump scares, failed attempts of ghosts, the generic flashback… you get the drift. At least with Aranmanai, we are prepared for the silly onslaught as it carries the tag ‘horror comedy’. With Chandramukhi 2, even that goes out of the window as it pretends to be a serious film. Vadivelu’s work doesn’t yield results either. He is more desperate than funny. There’s a stretch of Lawrence and Vadivelu trying to pull something that Rajini and the latter did in the original. While it worked in 2005, it looks pathetic now.

There are unnecessary add-ons to the film, which doesn’t matter to the central plotline. For example, Lawrence plays the role of guardian of two kids, who are children of the estranged daughter of the family. The family hates the kids because their father is a Muslim. It is as soap operaish as it sounds. Even the actresses in the film dress up like they are in one of those silly TV serials. One midnight, the whole family is awakened by the wails of Chandramukhi, and you see Ranga Nayaki (Radikaa Sarathkumar), the matriarch, showing up in a designer saree. Such silliness betrays a lack of thought and lazy filmmaking. Even the flashback segment, set two centuries ago, looks pretty contemporary. The actors are in costumes that make them look like extras in stage dramas.

Kangana Ranaut, the supposed trump card of the film, appears only in the second half. The delay is meant to create anticipation, but no such thing is achieved. She doesn’t make much of an impact either. Now, it has less to do with Kangana, as she does her job well. She is let down by incredibly flat writing that provides no scope for performance. The subpar dialogues make the performances look melodramatic–especially of Raghava Lawrence in the period portion. For no reason, Lawrence keeps sporting an evil smile, which is supposed to give an edge to his Sengottaiyan. We only end up laughing at him.

One cannot help but compare Chandramukhi 2 with the first part because the sequel only tries to emulate its success. There’s not a single original idea in here. Director P Vasu seems to have bet a lot on the nostalgia factor of the first part to help this film work. In doing that, he did not consider that the success of Chandramukhi was the product of its time. The same slapstick humour, songs in foreign locations, and family sentiments that worked eighteen years ago will naturally not work in the age of cringe-watching. Chandramukhi 2, like its director, is just stuck in the past. ‘Let the sleeping dog lie’ goes the popular adage. Perhaps, it applies to ghosts and the legacy of films.

Chandramukhi 2 movie cast: Kangana Ranaut, Raghava Lawrence, Lakshmi Menon

Chandramukhi 2 movie director: P Vasu

Chandramukhi 2 movie rating: 1 star