Kamal Haasan, Shankar’s Indian 2 reveals why Boomer uncles easily fall for internet scams

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While Aamir Khan is often called “Mr Perfectionist,” I think Kamal Haasan gets overlooked. He is also a perfectionist who has constantly prioritised the overall quality of his movies and the intensity of his portrayals, without being weighed down by market mandates.

The ‘perfect worst movie’

However, I would argue that he is an even bigger perfectionist than Aamir Khan. He is so obsessed with “perfection” that he even made the “perfect worst movie” of all time: Indian 2. I sincerely don’t think our film industry has ever produced a cinematic catastrophe of this magnitude on such a large scale.

Yes, train wrecks like Adipurush (2023), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024), and Kanguva (2024) do exist. But Indian 2 is on another level, as it’s a sequel to a movie, Indian (1996), which won three National Awards, including Best Actor for Kamal Haasan. In the latest instalment, however, one can’t find a single thing, aspect, or moment that’s serviceable, let alone praiseworthy.

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Yet the makers recently announced that its planned sequel, Indian 3, is on the way. If it’s on par with Indian 2, it’s likely to become a massive hit because not just trolls and memers, but even common viewers are going to flock to theatres for a laugh riot.

Indian 2 successfully turns many things into a joke: vigilantism, Varma Kalai, elderly people, social media, AI, actor Siddharth, director Shankar, and above all, Kamal Haasan.

For the cinematic masterclasses that Kamal Haasan gives in his interviews and speeches, one wouldn’t expect him to do something like Indian 2. Thug Life (2025), I understand — a reunion with Mani Ratnam, where they couldn’t achieve their vision. But that’s where I would draw the line; Indian 2 is far beyond that.

The phenomenon that’s Indian Thatha

Then to claim, “The only reason I accepted to do Indian 2 is because of Indian 3,” is a bit too much. If so, then why even do Indian 2 to begin with? Or why create Indian 2 at all, especially since it offers little, and a sensible trim might have brought its runtime down from about three hours to 60 minutes or less?

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The basic plot of Indian 2 essentially rehashes most of Shankar’s social dramas. He reveals the basic plot at the start itself: “Corruption causes cancer to the nation; corruption kills!” From Gentleman (1993), Indian, and Mudhalvan (1999)/Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) to Anniyan (2005) and Sivaji: The Boss (2007), they all revolve around the same topic, with their backdrops, geographical locations, and character sketches differing from time to time. The heroes in such movies are always crusaders against corruption, with outright vigilantism being the main element that distinguishes Indian Thatha from others.

Indian 2 begins by showing that everything is going wrong in Tamil Nadu and that corruption and official apathy have reached an all-time high. Chithra Aravindan (Siddharth) and his friends run an online satirical portal that exposes these issues. I don’t know how all their videos go viral, but they somehow do. These youngsters are vexed by the injustices people face because of corruption and run a campaign calling back Indian Thatha to clean up society.

Kamal Haasan reprises his role as Senapathy in Indian 2. (Credit: Facebook/@LycaProductions; image reimagined using AI)

Firstly, in the age of social media and as a user, didn’t Indian Thatha know about Tamil Nadu’s situation before Chithra and his gang informed him? If he did, then why wait until these people personally sent an invitation to him before taking care of things? Sure, he can say that he was waiting for people to want him to return so that his methods wouldn’t be questioned. But as a vigilante who killed his own son for his actions, isn’t that too much justification?

Honestly, Indian 2 reveals why many Boomer uncles fall for online fraud so easily, despite having many degrees and high-paying jobs. Why would you, a wanted vigilante, trust a few hashtags on social media and immediately come back to a place that would jail you upon arrival? Also, who would instantly believe a random comment from an unknown social media account named “Sen Indian” saying “coming soon” without running a proper background check?

Yes, Chithra Aravindan thinks he is social media, but he should understand that social media isn’t he.

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From painfully soulless dialogues and never-ending, boring scenes to poor performances, unimpressive music and ridiculous makeup, Indian 2 is a festival of shoddy artistic and creative choices, for which tens of crores were spent. If you think Indian 2 was a one-off mistake from Shankar, you should definitely try watching Game Changer (2025).

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How Shankar turned a bad movie into a train wreck

Indian 2 is basically what you get when the director thinks he is better than everyone else and that his visions and artistic decisions can never go wrong. Take a look at what he said about splitting Indian 2 into two parts, thus necessitating Indian 3: “After we started filming and when I sat in the editing room, all the scenes — from my point of view — came out very well. If I compress the whole thing (to make one film), the soul of each and every scene, the feel of every scene, would have been lost.”

“All the scenes were looking good, and it was not boring. That’s when I realised that I was able to see that there are two parts in that story. And each part has its own strength and whole form and engaging scenes and a start, a body and a climax. So it evolved automatically in two parts,” he added.

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Now just think about the sheer number of uninspired, shoddily written and conceived scenes in Indian 2. Had Vishal Scorsese directed Indian 2, we would have at least gotten “phenomenal” BTS videos. Please consider doing that next time, Shankar.

Anyway, how about we discuss Malayalam cinema’s “answer” to Saving Private Ryan (1998) next week? It’s the industry’s Avengers, I would say. See you then.

Memories of Blunder is a column in which we dissect some of the worst South Indian movies and performances of all time. No offence to anyone whose name surfaces here. They may all have potential, but they blew it that one time. However, don’t play the song if you can’t face the music, right?