Pulan Visaranai 2 «Official - 2024»

Chennai: In the pantheon of Tamil cinema, few films captured the raw, unvarnished underbelly of the city like R. K. Selvamani’s 1990 classic Pulan Visaranai . Starring Vijayakanth in a career-defining role, it was a gritty police procedural that traded melodrama for realism. So when Selvamani announced Pulan Visaranai 2 in 2015—25 years later—expectations were cautiously high. The result is a film caught between two eras: desperately trying to honor the original while getting lost in the commercial demands of modern masala cinema. The Plot: Familiar Turf, Modern Weapons The sequel picks up the thread of departmental legacy. Prathap (R. K. Selvamani’s son, Vetri) is an upright cop carrying the torch of the original film’s hero, DCP Rudhran. The city is under siege by a new breed of crime: international drug cartels, cyber-financed terrorism, and political corruption that reaches the highest echelons.

R. K. Selvamani proves he still has the eye for gritty action but has lost the ear for modern storytelling. Watch the original Pulan Visaranai again. That film still bleeds. This one just goes through the motions.

Vetri, in his debut, is earnest. He has the physique and the scowl for a cop role, and his stunt work (choreographed by the late ‘Stunt’ Silva) is physically committed. There is a particularly well-executed fight inside a moving container truck that showcases the film’s rare moments of technical flair. The film’s biggest enemy is its screenplay. Written by Selvamani and S. Ramakrishnan, the dialogue is stuck in a time warp. Characters deliver long, preachy monologues about “systemic rot” that feel lifted from a 1990s TV serial. The runtime of nearly 150 minutes is unforgivable for a thriller that has only three major action set-pieces.

The climax, a predictable explosion-laden raid on Shankar’s hideout, lacks the emotional gut-punch of the original’s finale. Where the 1990 film ended with a moral compromise, this one ends with a flag-waving speech. Pulan Visaranai 2 is not an unwatchable film, but it is an unnecessary one. It fails to justify its own existence beyond nostalgia. For every moment of gritty ambition (a torture scene that pushes the U/A cert), there are three scenes of stale comedy or a jarring item number that halts the narrative.

The antagonist is Shankar (Ashish Vidyarthi, in a role that feels phoned in), a suave don with a fortress-like lair and a small army of henchmen. The narrative is straightforward—Prathap must dismantle the empire while battling a broken system. It’s a serviceable premise, but one that never surprises. To its credit, Pulan Visaranai 2 does not shy away from violence. The opening sequence—a drug bust gone wrong—is suitably tense, shot with a handheld rawness that recalls 1990s thrillers. Selvamani still understands how to frame a chase sequence through Chennai’s crowded streets, and composer Ilaiyaraaja’s background score (though a pale echo of his original) adds moments of genuine dread.