Meesaya Murukku 2 review: Adhi's family saga goes down easy

Hiphop Tamizha Adhi plays a grandfather, a father and a son in Meesaya Murukku 2, then sensibly hands the older versions to other actors. Gaana Dass grows old into Karunas. Tiger Siva grows old into Baba Baskar, a bus driver whose son has no idea his dad once had a stage name. That reveal is the film’s best idea, and this family of stubborn dreamers proves better company than its underdog plot.

In 1979, Dass is shown the door at a recording studio that saves its microphones for Carnatic singers. In 2026, his grandson Jeeva (Adhi) is a DJ angling for a film break with his friend Harshath (Harshath Khan) and chasing Laila (Ketika Sharma), a dance teacher. This stretch is mostly riffing: Gen Z slang, YouTube faces dropping in for cheers. Harshath’s deadpan earns most of the laughs, and the romance runs on attraction the script never develops. It’s breezy, but the story treads water until the interval.

Once Jeeva learns what his father gave up, the film finds its pulse. A dream that sounds a little self-important in a DJ’s mouth means more once you see what it has already cost a family of gaana musicians. The flashback in which Siva falls for Vaani (Ramya Ranganathan), a girl from a Carnatic household, mixes romance, comedy and real sorrow, and Ramya gives Vaani a spine. Baba Baskar makes the older Siva funny without turning him into a fool, and Karunas gets a moment about unfinished dreams that says more in silence than any speech.

And there are speeches. The complaint that a Carnatic establishment keeps gaana out rang truer in 1979 than now, when gaana is on every playlist. Swipes at a well-connected young composer feel like score-settling, and a gay joke followed by a lecture against mocking gay people wants credit for both. The songs, usually a Hiphop Tamizha film’s calling card, keep the energy up and leave little behind, though Aura 10/10 has a hook step built for a crowd.

None of it is new, and the tears arrive on schedule. But the film keeps moving, and its bus driver is a useful counterweight to all the talk of passion: somebody still has to pay the rent once the motivational speech ends. A film out to crusade for an art form ends up, more persuasively, as the story of a son who finally listens to his father.