‘Karthikeya 2’ movie review: A partly engaging thriller that gets too preachy

Think about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code in an Indian context, with a narrative constructed round Hindu symbolism and semiotics. Author-director Chandoo Mondeti’s Karthikeya 2 is in such a zone, with the protagonists (Nikhil Siddhartha and Anupama Parameswaran) discovering clues and making an attempt to unearth hidden truths as members of a secret society are at their heels. The premise can be harking back to Ashwin Sanghi’s e book The Krishna Key. This isn’t to say that the tales are the identical, however there are the broad similarities — secret societies, codes and symbols, anthropologists and archeologists and the ever-present hazard from those that have ulterior motives.

Chandoo Mondeti’s 2014 Telugu movie Karthikeya was a smaller and extra intimate movie through which Dr Karthik (Nikhil), an atheist, relied on science and logic to unravel secrets and techniques within the Subrahmanya swami temple in Subrahmanyapuram. Pushed by curiosity, he refuses to imagine in superstitions and will get to the underside of mysterious killings.

Karthikeya 2 is a distinct chapter in Dr Karthik’s life. He’s nonetheless pushed by curiosity however this time, the flip of occasions warrants him to not have a look at the whole lot by means of the lens of science and logic. The movie opens with a word stating that it’s a fiction based mostly on historical past. Later within the movie, a personality says Gods are our ancestors and what we time period as mythology is historical past. An anklet of lord Krishna, which is safely hidden in a nook of the earth and which has the solutions to the world’s issues, is the bone of rivalry on this story.

Prof. Rao, an archaeologist, learns about a couple of historic truths from a library in Pantainos, Greece, and that units the ball rolling for this story. Dr Karthik, who has no connection in any way with the professor, finds himself in a difficult scenario when he visits Dwaraka accompanied by his mom (Tulasi). In a scenario much like The Da Vinci Code, Karthik is helped by the professor’s granddaughter Mugdha (Anupama), who studied Hindu semiotics on the Banaras Hindu College.

The protagonists, together with Karthik’s uncle Sadananda (Srinivasa Reddy), a staunch Krishna devotee, set off on an adventurous journey throughout Dwaraka, Beyt Dwaraka, Mathura, Radha Kund, Bundelkhand and Himachal Pradesh. Manufacturing designer Sahi Suresh and cinematographer-editor Karthik Ghattamaneni do a wonderful job because the story unravels throughout these places, and they’re suitably helped by Kaala Bhairava’s background rating.

The narrative, nevertheless, doesn’t capitalise on the potential for a nail-biting thriller. In lots of scenes the dialogues over-explain the protagonists’ actions. The characters are made to speak greater than obligatory with out swiftly addressing the problem at hand. 

The mix of faith and the thriller parts additionally don’t occur seamlessly. The story retains pausing to sermonise and extol ideologies, which take the chunk off the thriller. 

An historic telescope, a peacock-shaped construction and an anklet are a few of the objects that transfer the story ahead. The seek for the anklet in a religious-cultural backdrop may have additionally made for a fantasy story just like the Kodi Ramakrishna motion pictures of yore. The thriller mode units in solely within the ultimate act, setting the stage for Karthikeya 3.

The performances — Nikhil’s restrained act and Anupama’s efficient act — are in sync with what’s required for the story; Harsha Chemudu performs an amiable Muslim driver who helps the protagonists of their search. Praveen and Satya seem in short elements.

Karthikeya 2 is co-produced by the makers of The Kashmir Information and is aware of easy methods to capitalise on the dominant socio-political temper in the intervening time. Had the narrative been shorn of its preachy tone, Karthikeya 2 would have been a riveting thriller.