Lyca Productions and Subaskaran’s Chandramukhi 2 (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is a horror-comedy. It is a sequel to Chandramukhi.
Murugesan (Vadivelu) currently owns the Vettaiyan Palace. He rents it out to a rich family which visits the village to perform a ritual in the ancestral temple. Chandramukhi’s (Kangana Ranaut) spirit resurfaces and all hell breaks loose. Madhan (Raghava Lawrence) is related to the family which comes to stay in the palace.
P. Vasu has penned a sub-standard story which relies too heavily on the success of the first part (Chandramukhi) to do the trick. Although it is a horror-comedy, the horror scenes fail to send shivers down the viewer’s spine while the comedy more often than not falls flat on its face. Even the romantic track is weak. The first half looks quite random and disjointed. The post-interval portion is more defined but that doesn’t solve the problem because it is not engaging enough. P. Vasu’s screenplay, therefore, is found lacking in a lot of aspects. Dialogues are alright.
Kangana Ranaut comes on the scene too late but once she does, she performs so well that the viewers love her Chandramukhi character. She looks terrific. Raghava Lawrence is good as Vettaiyan Raja but he does go overboard sometimes. Vadivelu is okay as Murugesan. Raadhika Sarathkumar makes her presence felt as the head of the rich family which moves into the palace. Lakshmi Menon (as Divya) is alright. Mahima Nambiar (as Pooja) makes a fair mark. Srushti Dange has her moments as Priya. Rao Ramesh lends average support. Mithun Shyam (as Gunasekaran), Vignesh, Ravi Mariya, Suresh Menon, T.M. Karthik, Subiksha Krishnan, R.S. Shivaji, Y.G. Mahendran, Manobala, Cool Suresh and Manasvi Kottachi are okay.
P. Vasu’s direction is found lacking. M.M. Keeravani’s music is quite nice but none of the songs are popular in Hindi. Kala-Dinesh and Baba Bhaskar’s choreography is eye-filling. Background music is effective. R.D. Rajasekar’s camerawork is appealing. Stunt and action scenes (Kanal Kannan, Stun Siva, Ravi Varma and Om Prakash) don’t afford much thrill. Thota Tharani’s art direction is good. Anthony’s editing ought to have been sharper. Dubbing is nice.
On the whole, Chandramukhi 2 is too ordinary to make an impact at the Hindi box-office.
Released on 28-9-’23 at Gossip (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Goldmines Telefilms Pvt. Ltd. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over.