Yes yes! I watched Jailer 2 last week and have my (spoiler free) review for you! Let me know what you thought of the movie in case you watched it.

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Welcome to the one hundred and ninety-first edition of ‘3-to-1 by Story Rules‘.

A newsletter recommending good examples of storytelling across:

• 3 tweets, and
• 1 long-form content piece

Let’s dive in.

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𝕏 3 Tweets of the week

Fascinating. Is it because Free content trumps paid? Or Short form trumps long form?

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Haha, ouch!

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Wow, what a fascinating reversal of energy flows.

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📖 1 long-form read of the week

My Jailer 2 Experience!

I went in to Jailer 2 with both high and low expectations. High because of how kickass Jailer 1 was. And low, because of the curse of the sequel. And the challenge of matching the craziness of the original.

But I needn’t have worried. Nelson Dilipkumar is a Beast (not just because he made that terrible movie). His hold on the storyline, that trademark dark humour, the whistle-worthy aura-farming moments, the killer music… all of it comes together spectacularly in Jailer 2.

Some quick story context for those who haven’t seen the first movie (why?): Jailer is the story of a retired, well, jailer (Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, played by Thalaiva Rajinikanth) who goes to great lengths to protect his family from bad guys who run an illegal idol-smuggling operation. In the first movie, Tiger kills the main antagonist, but is warned that there is a whole syndicate behind the operation (translation: more bad guys worth a sequel!) who will come after him.

Well, they do come after him all guns blazing, and he responds in his own inimitable style.

Now, Rajini taking on bad guys is nothing new. He’s been doing that for fifty years, and let’s face it, most of the movies in the last 20-odd years have been ordinary (barring Sivaji, which I loved). I thought Coolie was over the top, Kaala’s storyline was all over the place, and Vettaiyan was an absolute mess. (Clearly I am not a blind Rajini fanboy) It’s the same actor, but many other directors have messed up the potential with overwrought storylines and non-believable plot twists.

Nelson, on the other hand, treats his superstar hero in a radically different way. He makes Rajini act his age and YET, dreams up spectacular scenes where that seventy-five-year-old can conjure his unique, irrepressible aura. The movie has around five to seven such well-placed ‘aura-farming’ scenes, and it’s amazing how Nelson carefully builds up the story to explore with each of these scenes.

And here you have to acknowledge one phenomenon—sure, Nelson can write such scripts for any actor… but can any actor deliver the presence that this balding, slim, dark-skinned, 5-foot-9-inch septuagenarian actor offers? Can anyone match Rajini’s dialogue delivery (watch how he varies his pace when delivering crunch lines)? Can anyone match that walk, that look?

I know, I know. I am suddenly speaking like a nineteen-year-old fanboy from Chennai and not a forty-seven-year-old ex-CA from Pune. But hey, charisma is charisma… and it acts in mysterious ways! (and please note that I didn’t find it so captivating in all the other movies!)

(Bonus: Nelson is super generous and gives kickass entry scenes to each of the main antagonists and also to each of Rajini’s associates… including a not-anymore-surprise one from Bollywood)

The second unique thing about the movie is the dark humour. The first half is pure comedy gold. Nelson clearly has a signature comic style as a person, and he brings that quirky personality full-on into his scripts. Plus, he creates such memorable characters. We have the dependable Yogi Babu (Vimal), the slightly over-the-top, but still superb Namo Narayana (Moorthy), and the killer Bjorn Serrao (Kohli) delivering some hilarious bangers in his deadpan style. (I did miss ‘Blast Mohan’ though!). It’s almost like they took all the great dark-humour aspects about the first movie and then maxed it in the first half.

Finally, there’s that music. Look, I expected that Anirudh would basically reuse most tunes from the original and the music would not be so great. But pleasant surprise—while the core Hukum tune is (rightly) reused, there are a lot of superb fresh songs. My current two favourites are ‘Veramaari’ and ‘Putappu Gang’. Once you see the movie, go back and listen to them and, what’s more—read the English translation of the lyrics. Pure gold. (“Alpha Gita Bama…?” Genius!)

Does it have shortcomings? Of course.

There’s a section in the second half where it becomes overly melodramatic (almost sounding like a saas-bahu serial… sorry, make that sasur-bahu). Plus, did they really need two item songs (foot-tapping as they are?). And yes, the portions when Rajini’s character makes teasing remarks to Vidya Balan’s character… were a bit weird and avoidable.

But apart from these, Jailer 2 was worth the hype and the expectations in every way… and I would heartily recommend that you watch it in the theatres, preferably in Tamil. I cannot wait to watch it again soon!

Bonus: After you have seen the movie, watch these videos from the launch function (all have English subtitles)

– Rajini speaking about the movie: Such a brilliant storyteller and so generous with praise for others! He’s a real star. (Also what energy to stand and talk for 18 mins + 15 mins of Nelson interviewing him!). Which brings me to…

– Nelson interviewing Rajinikanth. Loved Rajini’s response to Nelson’s question on humility—about how Rajini still thinks of himself as that bus conductor from Bangalore…

– Nelson and Ani ribbing each other and praising the actors and the technicians. Highly watchable, with some smart questions from the anchor and funny responses from both Nelson and Ani.

Happy watching, and let me know how you felt after watching the movie!

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That’s all from this week’s edition.

Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash