Thaindian News

By V.S. Rajapur
Film: “Deadly - 2″; Cast: Audithya, Meghana, Suhasini Manirathnam, Devaraj, Ravi Kale, Sai and others; Director: Ravi Srivatsa; Producer: Jack Manju; Music Director: Sadhu Kokila; Camera: Mathew Rajan; Rating: *** and 1/2

Kannada director Ravi Srivatsa specialises in realistic gangster movies like “Deadly Soma” and “Maadesha”, which were well appreciated.

Though Ravi has often been accused of glorifying the gangsters and focusing on blood bath in his movies, at the same time he has been appreciated for presenting his films with style and technical finesse.

Ravi, who was a successful script and dialogue-writer before venturing into direction, has always focused on penning stories based on real life incidents that brings in credibility to his projects.

His latest offering “Deadly -2″ carries all the positive and negative factors that were seen in Ravi’s earlier movies. But one major factor that goes in favour of the film is that it has a better screenplay than his previous films.

Though initially it is little confusing, the movie moves at a faster pace and picks up in the second half. Ravi has also been able to extract superb performances from many of his artists, which makes a good impact.

However on the flip side, “Deadly 2″ presents the gory sequences with a higher degree of brutality and rawness which may be irksome to family audience despite the presence of a strong sentimental factor.

Ravi once again glorifies gangsters and shooutout specialist policeman in equal footing, though many of the shootouts depicted in the film present the police in poor light. The proceedings of the first half has too many real life incidents - though they are well presented, they have no connection to the main story and increases the length of the film.

Ravi has also ensured that the realistic and hard-hitting dialogues, which have always been a crucial element in his films, to be more pronounced in “Deadly - 2″.

Though the dialogues go well with the characters, it is some times irritating and may look hugely embarrassing for the family audience. And it is really surprising that Ravi has decided to be as raw as possible with the dialogues.

“Deadly 2″ script is Ravi’s best work so far. In the beginning, the script looks confusing, but as the film moves forward and events unfold, curiosity builds up to dizzying heights. Film is replete with flashback, still it makes the film interesting.

The film has no connection to “Deadly Soma”. The only connection to the earlier film is that since Soma commits his first crime on the day of the release of a film in “Deadly Soma”, the police shootout specialists name this new Soma as Deadly Soma.

The film revolves around Soma, an aspiring cricketer. When he wants to join the cricket team, one of the selectors demand Rs.1 million for taking him. Soma fulfils his demand but the selector ditches him.

When Soma asks him to return the money, the selector turns a deaf ear to his request. Since the money was taken by a loan shark by one of Soma’s friends, the lender tries to recover his money.

When the selector threatens him, an enraged Soma kills the selector and surrenders to police. Thus starts his journey into the world of crime and he becomes the don who settles disputes.

Finally, three police shootout specialists - Ashok, Ugrappa and Mani - corner him and kill all his associates. Later, they attack Soma and kill him in front of his widowed mother.

The angry mother shoots Mani and surrenders. In the court, she pleads that shooutours are nothing but cold blooded murders and advises youngsters not to take to crime.

Audithya has proved his mettle as an actor. He is brilliant in his role. His action sequences are superbly choreographed. Though there are many larger than life build ups for him, it is to be noted that his emotional performance in the film stands out.

The film’s heroine Meghana does a good job as a physically challenged girl. But it is veteran artists Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Devaraj and Ravi Kale who have lived their roles.

Mathew Rajan’s camera angles suits the film’s tempo. The background music makes a strong impact. All the other technical work of the film are above the mark.

Watch “Deadly - 2″ for its style and substance.