We don’t feel like speaking much after a screening of Yamaleela 2. It’s not about the dash of hopes for an uncomplaining viewer, buying a ticket trusting the reinvention of a two-decade old product in 2014. This unfortunately is the indifference with which a storyteller, even forgetting the fact it is the Rajendrudu Gajendrudu maker S.V Krishna Reddy’s pale shadow here that puts us off.
A proper dissection of its ‘logic-free’ space may even warrant more words than a research thesis. But, that’s not the real issue. The medium is just stripped even of its little value existent today. The resources show, the ‘inspirations’ show and we only ‘look’ blank in front of such a product.
KV Sathish, the debutant here performs earth-defying stunts in the last sequence. An upward punch and a group of goons’ fly higher only to hit a flight, right up in the sky, that is in tatters after the supposed ‘collision’. Another group flies with a series of cylinders along to turn a building to ashes. Any guesses next? It’s the sea-shore. If that isn’t enough, our ‘hero’ does a wannabe Rajinikanth-joke of sorts, reversing the direction of a bunch of bullets towards the goons. We wouldn’t have minded or even questioned all these, if we were promised of anything remotely like Hrudaya Kaleyam, which was indeed received with cheer.
Yamaleela came at a time, when NTR’s Yamagola, probably the earliest of enjoyable socio-fantasies was the only reference point and the director gave his own witty spin to it with an actor like Ali, who many wouldn’t have vouched for, to pull off a film on his shoulders. This gave it an underdog charm and the emotion worked. Where’s that here? The child sings a self-sympathetic ‘Paduta Teeyaga’ in her death-bed. There’s a joint-family, whose thread is actually disjointed. There are Punjabi ‘Balle Balle’ mockeries, Tamil ‘Sir Vaadu’ indulgences and even a Jagadekaveerudu Atiloka Sundari ‘ayurvedic’ lift putting Jandhyala to shame.
Except for a rare Munnabhai, taking this to the context of Indian cinema, we can never really boast of a sequel that is even half-winning as its original. Why, we may ask? Yamaleela 2 is an easier answer. The films in such cases are no more the ‘whole’. It’s about retaining the perceived successful ‘elements’ now. It’s manufactured to cater to audience-groups under obvious commercial pressures. Yama, we know, deserves better than this to show his ‘Leela’!
One star
