Daily Times

For the last few years, Kollywood has been bombarded by horror comedies, with some of them working big time like the ‘Kanchana’ franchise. ‘Devi 2’, directed by AL Vijay, with Prabhu Deva and Tamannaah Bhatia in the lead, is a sequel to the team’s earlier film, which was an average grosser.

There have been a large number of films in the genre which failed to work. However, a lot of directors funded by first time producers are able to sell the idea of horror comedies to actors desperately seeking hits.

Kovai Sarala, who was part of all the three ‘Kanchana’ films, displays the same body language and style of talking. In fact, she tells another character in the film, ‘Don’t ask logical questions, enjoy the magic!’

It is obvious from the lack of a story that ‘Devi 2′ must have been written on location in Mauritius, after the producer got their lead actors’ dates. The sequel starts where Devi ended – Krishna and Devi is a happily married couple living in Mumbai with their child. Krishna is still worried by the spirit of actress Ruby and fears whether she will get back into the body of his wife again. So he takes a voluntary transfer at work and goes to Mauritius, taking his wife along. But this time, it is Krishna who gets possessed by two spirits, Alex and Ranga Reddy, both ex-flames of Ruby. The rest of this yawn is about how Devi tackles the two spirits with the help of her lawyer friend Lalitha.

Kovai Sarala, who was part of all the three ‘Kanchana’ films, displays same body language and style of talking. In fact, she tells another character in the film – “Don’t ask logical questions, enjoy the magic.”

That’s exactly what director Vijay tries to do through this sequel. Devi 2 also makes references to other hit films and tries to ride on their popularity. There is a parallel track involving Nandita Swetha and Dimple Hayathi, which has no relevance with the main happenings. The two walk-in special appearances by top comedian RJ Balaji and Bollywood actor Sonu Sood hardly create an impact.

While Tamannaah Bhatia’s act is mostly over the top, Kovai Sarala is typecast as the lady who lives in an eternal fear of ghosts and talks gibberish. That said, Devi 1 was far better than the sequel, as with a run-time of 125 minutes, the film feels stretched. Vijay, at the end of the film, hints at a part 3. There you go again.

‘Devi 2’ is a 2019 Indian Tamil horror comedy film co-written and directed by Vijay. It’s a sequel to the 2016 film ‘Devi’.

The film features Prabhu Deva, Tamannaah, Nandita Swetha and Dimple Hayati, in the lead roles, while Kovai Sarala, RJ Balaji and Saptagiri plays supporting roles. The film was simultaneously shot in Telugu as ‘Abhinetri 2’. The film released on May 31, 2019 to positive reviews.