Chandramukhi 2 Review - Even Kangana's Pleasant Extended Cameo Couldn't Save This Extraordinary Trash

Chandramukhi 2 Review: P. Vasu decides to bring a sequel to his super hit Chandramukhi (2005) after 18 years, only to destroy its popularity. Malayalam director Fazil made a pathbreaking masterpiece, "Manichitrathazhu" (1993), so that others can copy paste and make money. But you don't ever surpass the original masterpiece. It's like, you can copy and paste "The Shawshank Redemption" or any other masterpiece of your choice and make a good film, but you can never match it. Manichitrathazhu is one such Indian film that's not too popular in other markets because it comes from a small industry. There have been 4-5 remakes of Manichitrathazhu, and I don't need to tell you how all of them fail to match the legacy of the original masterwork. Now just tell me, if everyone couldn't match the original even after copy-pasting, then how would they even think of creating a new story as a sequel? How illogical and silly it is! Chandramukhi 2 is like, "I want to sell a new product under the brand Chandramukhi (which isn't original) by telling the same story again as in the next chapter". When you watch Chandramukhi 2, and I hope you survive it (like I did), then you'll realise that you didn't actually watch Chandramukhi 2; it was the recipe of Chandramukhi again served in a different hotel. Manichitrathazhu was made in the 90s, and Chandramukhi 2 was made after 3 decades, but the storytelling is 3 decades behind Manichitrathazhu. It's an extremely pernicious and injurious watch. Believe me, you won't just scratch your head; you will slap yourself for watching it.

Chandramukhi 2 is about a rich family struggling with problems in their lives, which is led by Ranganayagi (Raadhika Sarathkumar). They travel out of town and visit their deity's temple to seek blessings and arrange a special pooja that will solve their problems. Pandiyan (Raghava Lawrence) joins them with his niece and nephew, whom the family abandoned years ago. A priest tells them they can't attend Pooja at Devi's temple because Chandramukhi (Kangana Ranaut) has cursed the place, and whoever goes there gets killed instantly. Pandiyan still manages to light a lamp in the temple, making Chandramukhi more furious, but he isn't a normal person like others. It is then revealed that Pandiyan was Sengottaiyan, the man who caused Chandaramukhi's death. Seeking revenge as Durgashtami is near, Chandramukhi possesses one of the ladies in the house before coming to her real avatar. Will Pandiyan be able to save the family from Chandramukhi's curse?

P. Vasu has written an utterly disastrous script with literally no original moments of its own. It's the same idea again, and the tricks are the same. Can't imagine someone trying to use the 90s pathbreaking trick of completing revenge in 2023, and that too with a terribly outdated presentation. Manichitrathazhu/Chandramukhi was a psychological horror-thriller, as the film never presented Chandramukhi as a real ghost. Here, Mr. Vasu murdered that sentiment too by showing Chandramukhi as an evil ghost in real life. Even a medical term for personality disorder is killed here. How can you make a sequel by changing the identity of your main character? If it was so easy, then why didn't Chandramukhi come to reality in the 90s? And gosh, what a horrible screenplay it has. The same flying people, mindless action, B-grade expression, C-grade comedy, D-grade dubbing, and exhaustingly trashy content. Chandramukhi's backdrop with Vettaiyya and Sengottaiyan was nothing short of a Bhojpuri action flick. How can someone present ancient characters in such a manner? A vijaynagar's king and his warrior would start fighting for a girl without even asking who she is or what she wants. Kingdoms are switched as it's a TV channel that you can change with one click in one second. C2 is anything but logical writing. It's atrociously bad.

How bad is Raghava Lawrence's performance? Don't ask. I may need to form new adjectives to describe him. That Laka Laka Laka gave me a headache, and his expressions made me tear my ticket down. Not just him, but the director also wasted a talent like Raadhika Sarathkumar. How can you waste Raadhika ma'am? Vadivelu got on my nerves with his cheap dialogues, while Lakshmi Menon had one or two good scenes. Srushti Dange, Mithun Shyam, Subiksha Krishnan, Mahima Nambiar, Vignesh, and others join this circus to act like it was never a serious show. Kangana Ranaut appears in her full-fledged role when the film is nearing 2 hours of runtime and yet manages to give the best performance in the film. It's nowhere close to what Shobna did, Jyotika did, or Vidya Balan did, but much better than anyone else in Chandramukhi. She was a pleasant surprise and the only pleasant thing in the whole movie. However, I firmly believe that she desperately needs to improve her script choices now.

Speaking of technical aspects, Chandramukhi 2 is far too low to be compared to its predecessor, which was made two decades ago. The action scenes are annoying, the production design is low-grade in the entire first half, the editing lacks grip, the cinematography has no creativity, and the background score isn't even enough to scare a cat. P. Vasu is the main culprit for writing such a bad story and then making it worse with his direction. He has given us many good films in the 80s and 90s, so this was an unexpected debacle. Chandramukhi 2 is his honest attempt to destroy the standard of his own work, Chandaramukhi, and he did it successfully. The fad for late sequels is killing the content and memories of the first film these days. Gadar 2 did it for Bollywood, and Chandramukhi did it for Tamil cinema. This time, it was extraordinarily grotty. If you are thinking about watching Chandramukhi, change your mind now.