VIP 2 Lalkar movie review: This Dhanush and Kajol starrer could have been the film,  however, Dhanush flubs it, essentially because of a hopelessly stilted plot and treatment that is all cliché. Given that there is a female director at the helm, it has surprisingly regressive lines, poking fun at wives and other women.

Vellaillai Pattadhari translates as ‘unemployed graduate’. In Hindi, abbreviation stands for ‘Vella Important Person’, which, for the principal antagonist who can’t stand the sight of her bete noire, becomes ‘Vella Idiotic Person’. As is pretty obvious, the wordplay is unapologetically rudimentary. VIP 2 isn’t set in Mumbai, yet references to Andheri and Vashi creep into exchanges between two of its characters, locational veracity be damned.

VIP 2 banks entirely on the star power of lead actor Dhanush and the novelty of a semi-retired Kajol assuming the persona of a formidable foe. The two actors plunge headlong into their roles and redefine ‘power-packed performance’. They deliver a surfeit of both power and performance but ignore the need to make sense.

Dhanush (also the story and dialogue writer) reprises the role of Raghuvaran. He now has a full-fledged job, a tough-nut wife (Amala Paul) and a reputation in the industry for unconventional, socially conscious ideas. He gets around town on a beat-up moped and takes life one day at a time.

VIP 2 bungs into its two hours and a bit standard messaging pertaining to unemployment, youth alienation, corporate greed, politician-builder skullduggery, environmental scams and ecological disasters waiting to happen. It stretches itself thin with flow-hindering songs, over-the-top action sequences and maudlin moments designed to remind the audience that despite his drinking binges and erratic behaviour, the hero is a quintessential boy next door with his heart in the right place.

As a posse of policemen escorts him away from a protest site, one of Raghuvaran’s associates claims that he is accustomed to trouble because his “wife is trouble and trouble is his wife”. The film is replete with sexist jibes such as these despite the fact that, by the end, the male protagonist emerges as a champion of gender equality.

In the last few minutes, the film changes tack, loosens up, allowing the two leads to break out. Suddenly, we find the two talking to each other, measuring each other up for size, showing us two actors at work.

source: ndtv.com