S V Krishna Reddy’s Yamaleela 2 (2014) Movie Review

Movie Review: Yamaleela 2
Cast: K V Satish, Mohan Babu, Brahmanandam, Sada, Nisha Kothari, Diah Nicolas, Posani Krishna Murali, Thagubothu Ramesh.
Music – Director: S V Krishna Reddy
Censor Certificate: U/A
Runtime: 142 Minutes

I went to see this film with very mixed emotions mostly because the original 1994 film Yamaleela happens to be one of the entertaining films of Telugu cinema. Imagine my excitement when I heard that after many years of discussion and rumors of a sequel, S V Krishna Reddy finally green lit Yamaleela 2. So here we are just over twenty years later with a new version to mythological and comedy.

The film follows a similar structure to the original – a safe bet sequel, which to some extent always work. Krish (K V Satish) a happy go lucky guy falls in love with Anandi (Diah Nicolas). Due to certain circumstances both start working on the cure of Leukemia. In this process, Anandi gets to know the secret in Sanjeevani herbs in Kerala. After successful testing at Continental college labs, the herbs in Kerala get destroyed by a sudden fire in forest. To find the herbs, Krish leaves to Manasasarovaram. But things turn around when Chitragupta believes him and gives Bhavishyavani to a human being to rescue Yama from drowning (I know its funny). Krish finds the secret in the book and gets away from Manasasarovaram, starts working on the remedy. Brahma takes away the powers and Yama – Chitragupta starts searching for Krish. Will Krish find the cure? Why is he so curious to find the cure for Leukemia? Does Yama succeed in retrieving the book from a human? forms the rest of the storyline.

The two central performances are sincere enough, no doubt. Take away Mohan Babu and Brahmanandam would collapse like a pack of cards. Whatever works a bit in the film, thanks to them. Satish KV performance is pretty bad. The awkward histrionics, screen presence further worsens his debut performance. Satish KV need to start up everything from the scratch before he starts up his new film. Debutant actress Diah Nicolas has nothing much to do except to burst out emotionally and of course smile sweetly at the main lead. Sadha is gorgeous in the “Hai Haigaa” song and another actress Nisha Kothari is allright in another track. The other actors like Kota Srinivasa Rao, Rao Ramesh and Ashish Vidyarthi fulfill the expectations of their roles. Comedians Thagubothu Ramesh, Gabbar Singh gang and Posani Krishna Murali don’t have much to do in this part.

Yamaleela (1994) about a young man (Ali), who finds a book, belongs to lord Yama. Similarly sequel also follows the exact same path as the original, straight down to the comedic situations the trio finds themselves in (Mohan Babu – Satish – Brahmanandam), only with slight differences. Satish works at clinical observatory – He is not so innocent – Brahmanandam misses the Bhavishyavani as he tries to save Yama at Manasasarovaram and Mohan Babu leaves Satish as he cheats his death with commonsense. It even goes so far as to recite at least dozen jokes from the original film verbatim. If it’s possible for a franchise sequel to inadvertently remake the original, Yamaleela 2 has done it.

After an interesting enough beginning, the film fails to draw you in and you are rather detached and uninvolved with the events unfolding on screen. The film comes to life but periodically and the narrative is paced rather lethargically which is surprising as a film like this should have been one hell of a roller coaster adventure. As it is, it is nowhere near so.

While a combination of romance, fun and fantasy in an underdog tale, Masala is too hard to resist for a Tollywood director S V Krishna Reddy, his faulty execution of the already flawed script (even if we leave the logics aside)…  That’s make it such a disappointing experience.

The problem with Yamaleela 2 is its slow paced narration; several cringe worthy moments and too many songs. Do we still need 6 or more songs in each film? What a waste of time and money. Visually film is very appealing with vibrant colours, cinematography is good. CG effects in the film are fine and the Art work must be appreciated. The editing was just as unclear and perhaps you can’t spill the blame on the editor as Krishna Reddy presents us one sloppy show that’s such a letdown. Fights in the film are very middling. Production values of Krishvi Films are solid.

The burning question for most fans is; is this film any good? No. It’s rare to see such a large drop in content from film to film in a franchise. The acting is wooden, the story is weak, situation less songs and storyline is boring as all get out. There is no fun and there is no seen-it-coming-but-still-cool twist either. S V Krishna Reddy comes with a smug joke, one that is aiming to see just how much money it can steal from the moviegoers by showing them the same thing. All in all, for all the money, time and effort spent on it and all of it in plenty, Yamaleela 2 comes as a major disappointment. The film is tedious, fails to twinkle and ends up as a long and slow paced plot that fails to entertain.

Survi Review: 1/5

Theatrical Trailer: