Allu Arjun and Sukumar’s Action Sequel

In the pantheon of contemporary Indian film protagonists, Pushpa stands tall.

He starts out as a man on the margins — a daily wage laborer with a feminine name that means “flower” and a mountain-sized chip on his tilted shoulder. But Pushpa is so smart and so fearless that he soon ascends the ranks of a sandalwood smuggling operation to become head of the syndicate and godfather of the city of Chittoor.

However, power and money don’t fuel Pushpa. More than anything, he wants respect and legitimacy, which have been denied to him since childhood because his father never legally married his mother. Pushpa might seem as invincible as a Marvel superhero. But like Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar, who has “mera baap chor hai” (“my father is a thief”) tattooed on his arm, Pushpa is also permanently scarred. It’s a potent combination.  

The flamboyant and fertile imagination of writer-director Sukumar Bandreddi has found fitting expression in the talent and commitment of Allu Arjun, who inhabits Pushpa as though he has never been anyone else. In Pushpa 2: The Rule, the actor romances, dances, weeps, swaggers, mutilates and murders. There are times when he pummels men to pulp while wearing makeup, a sari, earrings and bangles; honestly, I don’t know too many leading men who could pull this off. 

The sequel is designed to be India’s biggest event film, and Sukumar and Arjun do not take the lazy route (though there is one absolutely forgettable dance number). This film has sweat, ambition, audacity. And yet, we have to ask: How much Pushpa is too much Pushpa? Because three hours and 20 minutes is definitely an overdose.

Like his hero, Sukumar is unafraid. In 2021’s Pushpa: The Rise, he introduced a new character, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Fahadh Faasil), in the last 25 minutes of the film. Here, he creates one dazzling highlight sequence after another.

The plot, at least for the first half, is largely occupied with Pushpa and Shekhawat trying to outsmart each other. Pushpa is now an international player who can manipulate elections and chief ministerial positions. But he must also smuggle thousands of tons of sandalwood out of India. And he needs to keep his wife, Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna), happy. The fearsome Pushpa sits in the kitchen by her side and at one point, kisses her foot. In the second half, the attention shifts to Pushpa’s extended family as a new enemy comes to the fore. (This story, of course, will continue in Pushpa 3: The Rampage.)

Sukumar isn’t short on ideas. There are moments in the film which are inventive and surprising, and which will make you applaud. The pre-interval block is likely to make you laugh out loud. And despite the furious action — at one point, Pushpa cuts off limbs — there are emotional moments which will make you tear up. There are plenty of killer lines as well about Pushpa being his own brand. “If there is Pushpa, there is business,” he declares early in the film.

Sukumar allows other characters to flourish, too. Shekhawat is essentially Shammi from Kumbalangi Nights, also played by Faasil, on steroids and in uniform. He’s deliciously unhinged. Mandanna has to do a lot of vigorous acrobatic dancing, but she does get one scene to shine. She gives Srivalli spine, standing her own against Arjun.

But Pushpa 2: The Rule falters because from the first frame to the last, it stays in maximum mode. There is no place here for stillness or pause. It’s a turbo-charged narrative that stretches so long that the grip inevitably slackens. I wonder if Sukumar just became too enamored with his own creation. 

Scene after scene establishes Pushpa’s cunning and courage. For the first half hour, the film celebrates its hero so much that it feels like we are seeing different slow motion introductions again and again. The cat and mouse game between Pushpa and Shekhawat also becomes repetitive. 

The songs by Devi Sri Prasad only add to the length. The composer who gave us the memorable songs “Oo Antava” and “Srivalli” in the first film isn’t able to repeat the magic here. But the background score, also by DSP with additional score by Sam C.S., goes a long way in amplifying the action.

The weakest link in Pushpa 2: The Rule is a subplot involving an underwritten female character who has been added only to move the hero’s arc forward. Much like the teacher in Simmba or the teacher in Vettiyan, she’s basically fodder for sexual assault, the portrayal of which is unnecessarily crude here. 

Logic or laws of physics don’t apply in a film like Pushpa 2, but we eventually get a sequence in which Pushpa battles and defeats dozens of knife-wielding men with his hands and feet tied. He’s like a missile pushing himself in different directions, and even his teeth become lethal weapons. He seems a man possessed by a divine fury. It’s borderline ridiculous, and these many moving parts don’t always fit together coherently. But Arjun keeps at it, all guns blazing.

I exited the theater excited to see Pushpa 3: The Rampage, but also so exhausted that I’m grateful these films take a few years to create. We need the time to think about Pushpa — and also to recover from him.