29 Jan 2016 ● Tamil ● 2 hrs 16 mins
Cast: Hansika Motwani, Siddharth Narayan, Trisha Krishnan
Crew: Sundar C (Director), UK Senthil Kumar (Director of Photography), Hiphop Tamizha Adhi (Music Director)
Rating: U (India)
Release Dates: 29 Jan 2016 (India), 29 Jan 2016 (Malaysia)
Tamil Name: அரண்மனை 2
mokka movie.. edukku avlathan solla mudium.. first part patha maduriea errundhadu... enda maduri padam euthu makkal manathai pun padutha venam....
In the lines of Muni which has become a franchise with it’s 4th film on its way, Aranmanai, after becoming a hit among family audience has gotten itself a sequel. With an ending that hinted a second film and thanks to the response of the first part, Aranmanai 2 is here to thrill us a second time. Most of the cast from the first part are back and so are the technicians. Sundar C wields the megaphone once again and this time the film is produced by Kushboo. Sri Thenandal Films who’re having an awesome time with back to back hits in form of thriller and horror flicks has distributed this film. Sundar C is known to have interminable number of cast members and this film is no different. Apart from Sundar C himself the cast retained includes Hansika, Kovai Sarala and Manobala apart from other extras who are a regular in his films. The new ones to join are Siddharth, Tisha, Poonam Bajwa, Vaibhav, Soori and Radharavi.
Aranmanai 2 is the story of how a lady is killed by those whom she trusts and to avenge her death, she gets into the body of another person and starts hunting down people. If you’ve watched 100 Tamil flicks out of which 10 are horror films, 9 of them will have something to do with the above mentioned one liner. Story wise, it’s the same old ‘ghost comes back to take revenge’. There are so many films from which we can say this one is ‘inspired’ from but the closest must be Chandramukhi. A huge palace style house, a large family with so many characters to keep track of, ghost gets into the main female lead’s body, another person is accused of being the ghost intentionally so the actual one can roam freely, ghost trying to kill the supposedly main character and the hero tries to save the main character without killing the heroine in due process, not to mention the priest who gets to the house to exorcise the ghost and at the end hero saves everyone and bids farewell to the spirit.
As a matter of fact there isn’t much difference between this film and its predecessor itself. There are only changes to characters for which actors have been changed. Siddharth replaces Vinay, Trisha in the place of Andrea, Soori instead of Santhanam and the couples Manobala and Kovai Sarala from first part are sibling here. Seeing Radharavi and Poonam Bajwa was the only fresh part as far as the casting is concerned. The story doesn’t give much scope to actors to show their talents and Trisha and Poonam are shown more in a glamorous light. Trisha looks beautiful and so does Hansika, who’s role was very small though important. Siddharth has done his role to his best without breaking a sweat. Slapstick humour with Soori, Kovai Sarala and Manobala is decent but apart from a couple of laughs, not many with a double digit age enjoyed it. If humour was so, the horror quotient was even worse. There wasn’t a single moment that gave audiences a jump scare nor a scene which made people close their eyes in fear. As far as music is concerned, this can easily be the weakest album of Hiphop Tamizha. On the positive side, the sets are humongous and it’s obvious on how painstakingly laborious it would’ve been. Camera work is really good too. A cameo from Kushboo at the climax for a dance for a spiritual number was quite energizing and ended the film on a high note.
Overall, Aranmanai 2 has proved that the franchise can be a safe bet for producers and gives confidence that without little to no use of creativity, films can be taken. From it’s collection over the weekend, one can very well expect a successor to Aranmanai 2 as the ending did give way for it.
Aranmanai 2 – An imperfect family entertainer
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