There is an unspoken rule for sequels that every filmmaker eventually learns: the audience forgives the first film for its rough edges because they did not know what to expect. The same mistakes don’t go unpunished the second time round. Sardar, in 2022, was uneven and had patchy CGI, but the film was fast, fun and surprising enough that none of it mattered. Now, Sardar 2 does not have the same luxury. The audience came in today expecting everything the first film promised and more. What we got instead is a 179-minute film that has twice the mistakes of the first film and none of its pleasant surprises. The CGI is still patchy, only now it is so in bigger, more elaborate scenes. The social message is still delivered like a lecture, only now it’s longer. Everything is bigger but nothing is better. That is the Sardar 2’s problem.

Sardar 2 picks up where the first film left off, with Karthi once again playing dual roles as Agent Sardar Chandra Bose, the veteran RAW operative, and his son Agent Vijay Prakash, an inspector who is now a RAW agent, still living under the shadow of his father’s disgrace. When Agent Sardar’s previous mission that failed miserably returns as a new global threat, it pulls Sardar back into what is billed as his most dangerous mission yet.

The film’s biggest, and perhaps only asset is Karthi. In both the roles, he commits fully and his grit shows on the screen. As Sardar, the elder spy, he brings a quiet authority and physical gravitas that anchors the more serious sequences, and as Vijay Prakash, he is looser, more emotional and vulnerable. The father-son dynamic between the two characters, which was the emotional core of the first film, remains the sequel’s strongest thread. When the film slows down to let these two characters interact, it works.

Story continues below.
Subscribe to see fewer ads.

S.J. Suryah enters as the primary antagonist, and for the first 30 minutes, his presence lifts the film. He brings the unhinged energy and theatrical menace that has become his signature in villain roles, from Mersal to Maanaadu to Mark Antony. But the character he has been given is ultimately too thinly written to sustain the performance across a 179-minute runtime. By the second half, even Suryah seems to be running out of things to do as the character’s motivations to wreak havoc remain surface-level.

Malavika Mohanan, in her first collaboration with Karthi, makes an impression in a role that does not give her nearly enough to do. She brings a strong screen presence and handles her action sequences with conviction, but the writing treats her more as a functional addition to the plot than as a character with her own arc.

Ashika Ranganath and Rajisha Vijayan, who reprises her role from the original, are similarly underserved. Rajisha, in particular, deserved more screen time given how well her character worked in the first film.

Story continues below this ad

Some of the action sequences, particularly a mid-film chase and a fight set inside a pharmaceutical facility, are well-choreographed and shot with clarity by cinematographer George C. Williams. The film looks expensive in individual frames. It is in the connecting tissue between those frames that the problems emerge.

The antibiotic resistance message, when it lands, is informative and relevant. There are moments where the film functions almost like a public service announcement wrapped in a spy thriller, and those moments, however clunky and fear mongering, are at least doing something most commercial films do not bother attempting.

Karthi as Vijay Prakash in Sardar (2022)

The main problem with this sequel is that the film proceeds in a manner that is frequently childish and unbelievable, asking the audience to accept leaps in logic that even a generous viewer will struggle with. Plot points are introduced and resolved with a convenience that drains the tension out of every set piece. For a spy thriller, the one thing you cannot afford to lose is the sense that the hero might actually fail. Sardar 2 never creates that sense. Karthi’s characters are always one step ahead, always right, always in control. There is no genuine danger,  and without danger, there is no thriller.

Sam C.S.’s music and background score are disappointing. The original Sardar elevated the action and spy sequences. Sam C.S.’s work here feels generic and, in several scenes, actively works against the tension the director is trying to build. For a film that needs its background score to do heavy lifting during long stretches without dialogue, the music is too flat, too safe and too forgettable.

Story continues below this ad

The runtime of 179 minutes is punishing. The film is at least 30 minutes too long, with several sequences in the second half that repeat information the audience already has. The pacing, which was one of the first film’s strengths, is sequel’s biggest weaknesses.

Sardar 2 is geniunely a hit and a miss. Karthi’s dual performance, Malavika Mohanan’s screen presence, and a handful of well-executed action sequences prevent it from collapsing entirely. But for a film that had four years to get its script right, and what arrives as the sequel to a Rs 100 crore hit, it is not good enough.

Karthi deserves a franchise because he has the range, the commitment and the audience goodwill to sustain one. Whether this franchise, in PS Mithran’s hands, can give him one that lasts beyond two films is now a genuine question.

Story continues below this ad

Sardar 2 movie cast: Karthi, SJ Suryah, Malavika Mohanan, Ashika Ranganath


Sardar 2 movie director: PS Mithran


Sardar 2 movie rating: 2.5 stars