Sardar 2 review: Karthi makes the spy game worthwhile

Karthi makes experience look useful in Sardar 2. His veteran spy has a steadiness that the younger one hasn’t acquired, and the difference gives this busy sequel a welcome human scale. P.S. Mithran sends them after a threat big enough to imperil the country, but their smaller, personal burdens are what hold the attention.

Chandra Bose, alias Sardar, and his son Vijay Prakash (both Karthi) confront the consequences of an old operation involving a bioweapon. Yogi, or Black Dagger (SJ Suryah), wants access to it. The hunt takes the film back into Sardar’s past, where serving the country has come at a cost he still struggles to accept.

The 1980s mission is particularly rewarding. Karthi lets the younger Bose be trusting and hopeful, making his later regret matter. As Vijay, he is more restless and vulnerable; the distinction survives well beyond the make-up. Malavika Mohanan brings both physical confidence and feeling to her fellow agent, especially when duty and sympathy pull in different directions. These passages give the elaborate mission something worth protecting.

There is plenty of fun in the mechanics too. The aircraft action and the fight inside a pharmaceutical facility supply sizeable thrills, while the use of ordinary objects in spy work has an appealing resourcefulness. George C Williams gives the shifts between past and present a distinct visual character. Mithran clearly enjoys this world, and its hidden keys and covert manoeuvres make for an engaging adventure.

He is less economical with the explanations. The plot’s warning about antibiotic misuse keeps interrupting the chase to make sure everyone has understood. Suryah lends Black Dagger some theatrical menace, but the long speeches expose how little conviction the revenge story carries. The comedy around supposedly capable intelligence officers also makes their competence harder to buy. By the extended climax, another cut or two would have done more for excitement than another complication.

Still, there is enough invention and star presence here to make the indulgence tolerable. The most interesting thing about Sardar is that completing a mission can leave him with something harder to live with than defeat. Whenever Mithran returns to that man, this sequel finds its purpose.