Do filmmakers name their movies after they come up with storylines? Or, do they move their pawns in their stories according to the title they have zeroed in on? I don't know the category in which the latest Kannada film from the Sharan market (insane comedy, over the top action choreography, mother sentiment, adult jokes that are fit into a PG-rated wardrobe, and the like) falls into, but it offers something that you never asked for — bigoted scenes of three grown men (Sharan, Ravishankar, and Sadhu Kokila) in sarees.
Several men, over the years, have tried passing off as women in movies and they have had other men drool over their physical appearance. It's supposed to tickle our funny bones, somehow. While some scenes from those comedy dramas have worked like magic before, many of them are cringeworthy today. And when it comes to Viictory 2 (not Victory, mind you), the pendulum keeps shifting from, "Okay, I can laugh here," to "I should probably hide my face now; I don't want anybody to know that I'm watching this recycled garbage."
Titles like Inttelligent (a Telugu movie directed by VV Vinayak) and Viictory are neither intelligent, nor victorious, and they only speak of the makers' inability to rise above the ordinary. Adding a 't' to intelligent, or an 'i' to victory, to make it sound funky is ridiculous.
Yes, there's more than one Sharan in the movie. However, the recipe for comedy doesn't increase with additional characters.
I didn't catch the first part in the Viictory series — that was released in 2013 — but the beats for both the movies seem to be the same. A young couple (Sharan as Chandru and Asmita Sood as Priya) is struggling to consummate their marriage. The writer, Tharun Kishore Sudhir, has written just one line for Priya's character sketch — she plays a nagging wife. She twists every word that Chandru utters and makes it a point to scare him away. Then there's Chandru, the ever-sacrificing husband, who goes to the extent of asking the doctor to chop off his penis so that his wife doesn't doubt him. Ugh! Has he never heard of emotional infidelity?
The movie doesn't focus on this weird couple alone. There's another thread that runs parallel to this. It features Sharan (as Munna) and Ravishankar (as Maams). Yes, there's more than one Sharan in the movie. However, the recipe for comedy doesn't increase with additional characters. The rousing score from the Tamil film Kabali is played while Munna and Maams are released from the prison. At the end of the day, Sharan is known for starring in comedies. So, the Kabali score is cut midway to introduce their characters rightly. They are petty thieves who don't leave any opportunity to make a quick buck.
Viictory – 2 has been heavily inspired from numerous Tamil movies. The most obvious one is Singeetam Srinivasa Rao's Michael Madana Kama Rajan. Tharun hasn't borrowed just a leaf from Rao's film. He's taken the whole tree and repainted it to make it look like a different one. But, would a bunch of plot changes be enough to recreate the classic?
Also, Arjun Janya's songs are fun on their own, but, when they pop up out of nowhere in the movie, they give you a chance to look away from the screen
The almost three-decade-old Tamil movie had extraordinary word plays and visual humor. And the 2018 movie has an actor dropping his pants down to kill snakes. That's the level of visual gag you'll see in this movie. Though Ravishankar is in fine form here, it's difficult to see him dance to item songs in half-sarees. When Sadhu Kokila joins this crazy duo later as an Iyengar cook in a saree, it becomes even more difficult to not laugh at the crumbs of plastic entertainment that this B-grade script throws at us.
Also, Arjun Janya's songs are fun on their own, but, when they pop up out of nowhere in the movie, they give you a chance to look away from the screen. The acting efforts of the leading ladies (Asmita Sood and Apoorva) are sadly limited to the songs that will release on YouTube in a week or two. Director Hari Santhosh doesn't pick what's best for the film. He picks whatever he sees and that's why the bawdy jokes seldom work.
If I put Viictory 2 under the lens, I can say that it's a notch better than Sharan's previous theatrical release, Raambo 2. That doesn't mean it's great. It's still a stupid movie with stupid double entendres.