First things first, let me address the elephant in the room – Viduthalai Part 2 is a lesser product as compared to Viduthalai 1, simply because the former discards the nuanced form of storytelling, only to go on an outright political rampage about ideologies by wishing to dump voices and opinions of the characters on the viewers. This isn’t always effective because the narrative style doesn’t resort to imageries to convey a point – it is mostly restricted to voiceovers that often switch POVs throughout the film. For instance in Part 1, the only voiceover was of Kumaresan while penning letters to his mother. Here though, the POV switches between him and Perumal (Vijay Sethupathi), even as an extended flashback gives the viewers an idea about the events leading him into this political landscape. But while exploring his backstory, there is a strange connection that you feel between Kumaresan and Perumal!

While viewing the drama objectively, you do realise that Perumal and Kumaresan are basically the same person at different levels of the political landscape. The comparison can easily be drawn with respect to their starts – Kumaresan is subjected to inequality within his own department while being newly recruited as a cop. And you notice the inequalities subjected to Perumal who is working as a local teacher, the difference being that the inequality is with respect to the economic strata of the society. The drama follows the character arc of Perumal from his first brush with inequality to his acquaintance with the ‘leftist’ ideology, to further establishing his position within a leftist union party only for realisation to set-in, while emerging as a leader for the newer generation. Within these episodic flashbacks, I was expecting a little nuance into the politics of the land backed later by the ideology of Perumal. But instead, this entire phase seemed rushed almost resembling a youtube video being played on 2X. The idea of allowing the viewers to absorb and comprehend the drama was a tad missing while the writers chose to continue to dump information onto its viewers. In a way, the writing resembled the group of characters in the current timeline who repeatedly got lost in the densely forested terrain. But, it still wasn’t a losing battle.

The proceedings weirdly manage to hold your attention from an ideological standpoint. This is majorly true with respect to the characters of drama who could essentially be viewed as an ideologies themselves. To further accentuate this point, one could shift focus to Part 1 wherein there are multiple names thrown in while referring to Perumal (like Robert, Ghost…amidst the others). This, even as you see a group of Zamindars holding a round table conference in the past to counter the union, only for them to be replaced by bureaucrats of the police department to track and hunt Perumal. If you look closely, the situation remains the same irrespective of the existence of these individual characters who can and will be replaced in future, while the ideologies would live on. This is true even for the change in the mindset of Kumaresan following a startling revelation by one of his own men, that forces him to regig his thoughts based on what information was fed to him versus what the actual truth of the matter is. This dichotomy exists for the viewers through the character of Kumaresan – wherein you were still questioning the two sides in Part 1, only to be provided with a different perspective, even as the drama skims through some important events of Part 1 while linking them with a perspective here.

The extended climax here has got to be one of the highlights of the film because unlike the portions of the flashback, one thing that gets skewed is the character dynamics with respect to the ideologies in store. Yet, you cannot quite call it binary in nature given that a much needed middle ground is missing. This part can easily be linked backed to the setting of the drama, you notice an ambuish between the two sides – the right placed at the bottom of the terrain, and the left placed at the top of the terrain with the fog acting as a smokescreen for the actual truth. It is reflective of the result that transpires when you don’t have a middle ground, ironically the fate being the same for both the stakeholders. At this point you do question, just like Kumaresan on what the fight is for, an important question that often gets skewed in the midst of the politics and power of the land. You are witness to the exercize of power and greed while strangulating the voice of free-speech, and fabricating the truth by the authorities, only for truth to be buried in that terrain. In this regard, the ending is extremely powerful with respect to a character walking away in oblivion, almost attaining the mantle of a ‘Ghost’, a metaphor in keeping the ideology alive and passing it to the next generation. The screenplay might seem cluttered but it also makes for a pretty solid and compelling watch.