Arjunin Jai Hind 2 was one of the films I anticipated this year. Being a fan of Arjun, it has been a long time since an Arjun movie released, and I was very excited to watch it, especially after the trailer evoked in me a sense of a good story.
I have always felt Arjun's films never got enough publicity like the ones of top heroes (when I say "top heroes" I base it on the budget involved), but there were good promotions for this film, including an exclusive interview with The Behindwoods team.
And the film released on one fine day, much to my relief that at least people, including some of my friends, knew an Arjun film is releasing.
The first review I read of the movie was by Bharadwaj Rangan who wrote in The Hindu. The review looked disappointing except the fact that the action sequences were on a different plane in terms of execution.
The Behindwoods rated the movie very poorly and my worries doubled. "Another movie in the long list of Arjun's bad movies?" I thought with frustration. I still wanted to watch the movie.
I chanced upon an official movie streaming website in the US, which has a pay-per-view option. The story opened with 5 different people 'collaged' on one screen. And one-by-one opened up, with their involvement to Arjun. The film proceeded at a decent pace and when you think you know what the story is going to be, Arjun the screenwriter has some surprises for you, just that they are on the worse side.
The film deviates from the crux of the movie "education system in India" to finding-the-villain-and-btho-them types. The second half is nowhere connected to the movie and not a hint of story. A few scenes near the climax reminds the audience of what movie they were watching and what the story is, though it is too late. These scenes are watchable as Arjun the actor at least takes centre-stage.
Arjun, as a computer techie who teaches karate has excelled in the character. The scene where he explains the life of a street-dog to his friend and his explanation for India's poor showing in the Olympics stands out. Other actors do not create any impact, and the Brahmanandam-Mayilsamy combo at comedy is a stark example of bad comedy. Please do not even think of the comedy tracks of a film that has the same title.
Arjun's forté, action, is the highlight of the movie. If the effort Arjun has taken in getting the action scenes to perfection been reflected in other aspects of the film, it would have been a watchable movie. This exposes the reality of the need for good screenwriters. I was only reminded of another second effort, Nagaraja Chozhan M.A, M.L.A., which had the same team as the cult political satire, அமைதி படை.
Cinematography and background score are pretty good and noticeable, but the songs are unnecessary (I don't understand why very few dare to take films without songs when the same person is producing and directing a film).
