Film: Pulan Visaranai-2
Director: R K Selvamani
Cast: Prashanth, Karthika, R K, Anandraj, Pyramid Natarajan
When a film hits theaters after years of lying in the cans, one would expect a product that is outdated and stale — both in its theme and sensibility. But Pulan Visaranai-2, which has released after about seven years of completion, surprises you with it’s contemporary take and feel. It’s the return of the producer-director team that had made the Vijaykanth -starrer Pulan Visaranai, decades ago. Though carrying the part two tag, the film is not a sequel to the earlier one.
The plot is set in Delhi against the backdrop of the spiraling rise in fuel prices. It depicts the government- corporate nexus, and a lone cop’s attempt to expose the wrong doers. Prashanth as the honest cop investigating into the murder of a girl, a junior engineer in an oil Corporation, looks dapper, performing with panache. Whether it’s in the moments of emotion where his loved ones are targeted or the fight and chase scenes, the actor performs it all with conviction. The investigation begins when a bus carrying some oil company employees and their families falls in a gorge in Manali, killing all passengers. And when a lone survivor a girl too is found dead in Delhi, the cops get into action. With all their efforts thwarted due to money power, it’s about how the hero lays a trap to expose the mastermind behind the murders.
The plot has some colourful characters — like Agarwal the chairman of the Oil Corporation (Natarajan neatly fits the bill), a hit man (Anandraj), Mamaji the pimp who lays honey traps and supplies girls where money doesn’t work and is an indispensable link in the chain and Rakesh ,the ‘richest business tycoon of India’, a megalomaniac (like one of those James Bond villains) who buys his way through every deal. RK plays Rakesh with a lot of attitude and style; his scenes are laced with glamour and songs with a bevy of beauties. The director rarely lets down his momentum, his narration focused and the dialogues hitting the right chord (liyaqat Alikhan). The sites of the oil-drilling area in the waters and the shots related to them, give an authentic feel. The fight-chase scenes are well choreographed. The women in such a scenario have lesser to do. The film may not have the best of scripts going. But what it does is provide enough of thrills to keep one engaged for the most part.