Indian 2

Indian 2 (also marketed as Indian 2: Zero Tolerance) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film directed by S. Shankar, who co-wrote the script with B. Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Lakshmi Saravana Kumar. The film is jointly produced by Lyca Productions and Red Giant Movies. It is the second instalment in the Indian trilogy and sequel to Indian (1996). Kamal Haasan reprises his role as Senapathy, an aging freedom fighter turned vigilante who fights against corruption, with an ensemble cast including Siddharth, Rakul Preet Singh, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Vivek, S. J. Suryah, Samuthirakani, Bobby Simha, Nedumudi Venu, Delhi Ganesh, Manobala, Jagan, Kalidas Jayaram (in a cameo) and Gulshan Grover. In the film, set years after the events in Indian, Senapathy returns from abroad to aid Chitra Aravindhan and his team, to deal with corruption in the country.
The project was announced in September 2017. Sri Venkateswara Creations was initially on board, but opted out a month later. Lyca entered the production thereafter. Principal photography commenced in January 2019, and occurred sporadically over five years, before wrapping by March 2024. In 2020, an accident that killed some crew members, and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed filming for two years until Red Giant Movies entered as co-producers. The technical crew includes musician Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographers Ravi Varman and R. Rathnavelu, editor A. Sreekar Prasad, production designer T. Muthuraj and visual effects supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan.
Indian 2 was released worldwide on 12 July 2024 in standard and IMAX formats. The film was compared unfavorably to the original, with critics highlighting the runtime, characterization, and the lack of emotional depth in the screenplay, while Kamal Haasan's performance received praise. The film grossed a total worldwide collection of ₹151 crores and became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of 2024 by the end of its theatrical run. Due to its length of over six hours, the film was split into two parts, with the latter part titled Indian 3: War Mode being aimed for release in 2025.
Chitra Aravindhan is an online media reporter who runs a YouTube channel called "Barking Dogs" along with his three friends Aarthi, Thambesh, and Harish, in Chennai. He lives happily with his mother Chitra and father Varadharajan, who works at the Anti-Corruption and Vigilance Commission (ACVC). They focus on creating parodies and political satires, which garner them lakhs of views. However, when a young lady named Sunitha commits suicide by jumping, the team discovers that corrupt officials caused her death. In response, they protest, demanding justice. The police arrest them, but they eventually get bailed out by Chitra's girlfriend, Disha. She lectures them that they cannot single-handedly change the country. Soon, they launch a campaign titled "Come Back Indian," believing that only Senapathy alias Indian, can put an end to the corruption once and for all.
Nilesh, one of Chitra's friends, spots Senapathy in Taipei and discovers that he is running a martial arts school there, teaching Varma Kalai. Nilesh persuades him to return to Chennai, which he eventually does, by using his senior mentor's passport. CBI officers Pramod and Elango attempt to capture Senapathy upon his arrival in India but fail. Senapathy urges his followers and the public in a Facebook live to expose corrupt individuals in their respective states through peaceful means, inspired by Gandhi's principles, while he will uphold the ideals of Subhas Chandra Bose. He emphasises that people should prioritise addressing corruption at home before tackling external issues. Senapathy also emotionally reveals that he tearfully and mournfully killed his son, Chandrabose alias Chandru, as he too was a part of the corruption in the country and accepted bribes. Senapathy feels very guilty in killing his own son. This results in everyone getting motivated; Chitra and his friends then start monitoring their parents' activities to uncover any wrongdoing. Harish visits his uncle's motel and discovers they serve stale food to customers. Thambesh finds out that his brother-in-law, Nanjunda Moorthy, accepts bribes from customers, as does Aarthi's mother, Kanagalatha. who works as a sub-registrar. They report their findings to the ACVC, leading to their parents' arrest.
Meanwhile, Senapathy targets corrupt officials in Gujarat and Punjab who have embezzled lakhs of rupees from the government. Pramod investigates it and plans to arrest Senapathy. Chitra follows Varadharajan, but finds no evidence of wrongdoing. However, Aarthi's father, Thangavel, reveals to Chitra that Sunitha was actually a victim of his own father's corruption, not the officer's. Initially skeptical, Chitra investigates and discovers the truth: Varadharajan had accepted bribes from the officer. Chitra reports this to the ACVC, leading to Varadharajan's arrest. Learning that Chitra is responsible for Varadharajan's arrest, Chitra's mother sends him out of the house. That day, Senapathy tells Chitra and his friends that they achieved a victory and he is going to meet them in person, where they get excited. The next day, when Chitra and his friends go to meet Senapathy, they learn that Chitra's mother committed suicide by hanging due to being overwhelmed by the public shame and ridicule as the wife of a corrupt officer. Chitra gets blamed for this and he is unable to see his mother, even to do the last rites for her and Varadharajan disowns him. Devastated by the incident, Chitra leaves with his friends and suddenly they meets Senapathy near the graveyard. Senapathy apologies for what all has happened to him but Chitra blames Senapathy for his mother's death and for killing Chandru. He starts a campaign titled "Go Back Indian", which too becomes viral worldwide, leading Senapathy to earn the wrath of the local people and Senapathy becoming heartbroken.
Pramod and Elango tries to arrest him but Senapathy escapes in a unicycle. During the chase, Senapathy gets attacked by a group of rowdies but he fights them back with his Varma Kalai. However, after the fight, a mob (consisting of Thangavel, police, criminals, corrupt servants, people who believe he caused the death of Chitra's mother and those who support #GoBackIndian) attacks Senapathy without listening to his pleas. Pramod and Elango eventually arrives, saves Senapathy and arrests him, but he uses Varma Kalai on Pramod to escape his capture, leaving Pramod paralysed. Upon admitting him to a hospital, the chief doctor informs Pramod's father, Krishnaswamy, a retired CBI officer, with who tried to capture Senapathy 28 years ago, that only Senapathy can save Pramod, as he can reverse the tissue and nerve damage that Varma Kalai inflicts on the victim, otherwise, he would die within three hours. Krishnaswamy then takes the paralysed Pramod to the court where Senapathy is being convicted. Senapathy offers to rescue Pramod in exchange for his release, to which the judge reluctantly agrees. Senapathy then takes Pramod with him and leaves the court in an ambulance, promising that he will come back again.
In the post credits scene, Senapathy introduces his parents, Veerasekaran Balram and Dhakshayini, to his followers, who, like him, were also freedom fighters during the British Raj in the 1890s and he is planning to bring new changes in India along with Chitra's and his friend's help. Their back stories will take place in Indian 3.
Indian 2, a sequel to the 1996 film Indian, was announced on 30 September 2017 by Kamal Haasan, the lead actor of the original. He would be reprising his role and S. Shankar would return to direct, with Sri Venkateswara Creations producing; however the studio backed out the following month, reportedly due to increased production costs. Shortly thereafter, Allirajah Subaskaran, header of Lyca Productions, took over as the film's producer. The technical crew includes music composer Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographer Ravi Varman, editor A. Sreekar Prasad and production designer T. Muthuraj. Shankar collaborated with Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Lakshmi Saravanakumar to co-write the film's script and dialogues. Principal photography began on 18 January 2019, and was completed by 25 March 2024.
The soundtrack album and background score are composed by Anirudh Ravichander, who is working with Shankar for the first time. He replaces Shankar's frequent collaborator A. R. Rahman, who scored the 1996 film. This will mark the second collaboration of Anirudh with Haasan, after Vikram. After the offer came his way in November 2017, Anirudh started composing for the songs during December 2017, and it took a year to complete the album. He remarked that the delay in the release of 2.0 gave him more time to work on the film's songs.
In November 2023, it was announced that the audio rights for the film were acquired by Sony Music India. The album was officially released on 1 June 2024, which coincided with a promotional event held at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, with the presence of the film's cast and crew and all the other celebrities.
The film's final trailer was released on 25 June 2024. It received unfavourable response from viewers, with particular criticism towards Haasan's makeup, Shankar's direction and the writing; some noted the absence of deceased writer Sujatha, whose contributions to the 1996 were instrumental in its success. Viewers also questioned the title character's seemingly flawless agility and reflexes, despite him evidently being over 100 years old. To this, Shankar cited the existence of Lu Zijian, a Chinese martial artist who was able to do the same at the age of 120 years.
Indian 2 was released worldwide on 12 July 2024 in standard and IMAX formats. In April 2023, Udhayanidhi Stalin stated that they were currently planning on releasing the film in theatres during summer (April–June 2024), as it featured extensive visual effects and needed to be completed within the end of 2023. Following a year, on 6 April 2024, the production houses officially announced that the film would theatrically release worldwide that June. However, after a month, the film was revealed to have been postponed to 12 July, due to a few unfinished post-production works and the makers not wanting to compromise on the quality. Indian 2 was the first Indian film to be released in the 4DX format in Saudi Arabia.
Asian Suresh Entertainment LLP and Sri Lakshmi Films acquired the distribution rights of the film in Telangana for ₹24 crore (US$2.8 million). Sree Gokulam Movies bought the distribution rights for Kerala, and Romeo Pictures did so for Karnataka. Pen Marudhar acquired the North India distribution rights. Lyca Productions, in association with Film Distribution Network, acquired the overseas distribution rights and will release the film throughout the countries themselves; except for Malaysia, whose distribution rights were acquired by 3 Dot Movies.
In July 2023, it was announced that the film's digital streaming rights were purchased by Netflix for a price of ₹200 crore (US$23 million). The satellite rights were acquired by Kalaignar TV.
Indian 2 received mixed reviews and was compared unfavourably to the original, with critics highlighting the direction, runtime, and the lack of emotional depth compared to its predecessor, while Kamal Haasan's performance received praise. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 15% of 13 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4/10.
Goutam S of Pinkvilla gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Kamal Haasan starrer Indian 2 is still an entertaining film that suffers from quite some pros and cons. The film trying to appeal to a younger audience seems to do random things for the sake of being meta. However, the true essence of the movie still has the potential to be uncovered, especially with the next installment." Sakshi Verma of India TV gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "The movie struggles to be real and dramatic, even while it tries to deliver sincere sentiments. But not the actors or technicians, it's the director that fails us. Shankar uses outdated writing structures, the movie feels uninspired and stale. M. Suganth of The Times of India gave 2/5 stars and wrote "The problem with Indian 2 is that it is filled with writing that lacks nuance and characters who are caricatures. Even in terms of scenes, all the visual excesses that Shankar throws at them – grand sets, visual effects, and frames filled with people – hardly touch us as there's no emotional connect."
B. V. S. Prakash of Deccan Chronicle gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Director Shankar used Senapathy to trigger the consciousness of youngsters and motivate them to fight corruption but falters in execution since four people is a bit too much since it sidelines Senapathy feats." Anusha Sundar of OTTPlay gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Indian 2 is a film that has Shankar’s stamp visually all over. Kamal Haasan may not have gotten a glorious comeback as he did in Vikram (2022), but the actor tries to save the film as much as possible. But alas, there is only so much an actor can do." Janani K of India Today gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Indian 2 is weak in every aspect. Underneath the mess, there lies ONE interesting idea. But, by then, the film comes to an end – much to the relief of everyone. Performance-wise, Kamal Haasan speaks Hindi, according to the demography, but has been dubbed in Tamil, which is off-putting."
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 1/5 stars and wrote "Indian 2 is nothing but a three hour time suck, where I was bored out of my wits. The end credits tell us that there’s going to be a third part. Help." Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times wrote "Indian 2 desperately tries to combine the old and the new, to present to us a story that’ll be appealing to the younger audience. Kamal Haasan says he’s fighting for India’s second Independence in the film. But the audience is left fighting to figure out what’s good in this misfire of a film." Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "More than #ComeBackIndian, we hope Indian 3 will be a comeback for the veteran filmmaker [Shankar] and the legendary actor [Kamal Haasan]."
Reviewing the dubbed Hindi version, Devash Sharma of Filmfare gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "It's Kamal’s film all the way and his screen presence and acting chops make you forget the haphazard screenplay. Siddharth too is in fine form as a young man with a conscience who wants to do the right thing but is unsure of his actions afterwards. Rakul Preet Singh plays the supportive girlfriend to a T and perhaps would have a better arc in the sequel." Titas Chowdhury of News18 gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Hindustani 2 is a great attempt but it loses itself in its own ambitions. Known for taking risks, S Shankar chooses to stay in his comfort zone with this film." Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote "The aim is to be “pan-Indian”. The result is a bloated, brutish film that rejects non-violent solutions to corruption (“elections do not represent change but an exchange). Senapathy’s tactics didn’t failed the first time round. The success rate is even lower in the sequel."
Reviewing the dubbed Telugu version, Banda Kalyan of Samayam gave 2.5/5 and wrote "Technically Indian 2 is good. Shankar used the technical team well. The visuals, however, feel grander. Shankar's mark appears on the songs. But those songs do not seem to work to listen and watch again. are not visible AR Rahman's music for Bharateeyudu will remain forever."
In response to the negative reviews, particularly criticism towards the three hours lengthy runtime, 20 minutes of the runtime was removed on the second day of the film's release and began screening in theatres on the third day, leaving the final runtime as 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Indian 2 grossed ₹50 crore (US$5.8 million) on its opening day, which was the highest first day gross for a Tamil film in 2024, with over ₹25 crore (US$2.9 million) from India. The film became the second highest opening day gross for both Haasan and Shankar, behind Vikram (2022) and 2.0 (2018). The film faced a 29 percent drop on its second day with its two-day domestic gross at ₹42 crore (US$4.9 million).
On 9 July 2024, a case was reportedly filed against the makers seeking a ban on the film. Aasan Rajendran, the head teacher of 'Varma kalai', had claimed that he trained Haasan for the first film, and mentioned in his complaint that his techniques was used in the sequel as well. He also mentioned that he had not given permission.
Although being a single film during production, in June 2023 Udhayanidhi stated that they had discussed plans for a sequel. The following month, it was reported that the film would be split into two-parts, as the final footage for the film was over six hours long; the latter titled Indian 3, was being shot simultaneously. In October 2023, Ananda Vikatan said around 80% of the footage had been shot for Indian 3, and only 25 days were needed to complete it. On 24 March 2024, Haasan confirmed the third installment in the franchise; he stated that Indian 3 was shot alongside Indian 2. In May, Haasan said they were aiming to release Indian 3 in January 2025, six months after the release of the predecessor. At the launch of the trailer of Indian 2, Shankar stated that the split was done because he was impressed with all that was shot and cutting the film to a shorter length would affect its quality. A glimpse of Indian 3 was shown by the makers as a mid-credit scene in Indian 2.