Movie: Avunu 2
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Suresh Productions
Cast: Harshvardhan Rane, Poorna, Sanjana, Nikita and Others
Cinematography: N Sudhakar Reddy
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh
Music: Shekhar Chandra
Producers: Suresh Babu, Ravi Babu
Director: Ravi Babu
Release Date: April 3, 2015
Sequels are best if they take the story forward instead of being mere efforts to repeat the success of the first part. Avunu 2 is a tame remake of the first part and it surely does not match up to the level of Part 1. In fact, many sequels fail worldwide due to this reason.
Usually, the first part interests the audiences a lot and that also forms the basis of their success. But by the time it comes to the sequel, the audience are already used to the basic concept and it fails to thrill or chill.
Avunu ended with an open ending, but it was the best ending the story could have. Avunu 2 is simply trying to stretch the plot to cash in on the success of Part 1.
Harsha and Mohini (Harsha, Purna) move from their gated community to a multi-level apartment complex. Unknown to them, the ghost of Captain Raju also follows them there. Meanwhile, an aghora gives an idol to Mohini and tells her to wear it constantly for a year so that she can get rid of Captain Raju’s spirit. Mohini comes back and starts wearing the idol and the spirit stays off her. However, it tries its best to make Mohini remove the idol from her neck. Will the spirit succeed or will Mohini succumb to Captain Raju forms the crux of the story?
The film lacks the mystery element that the first part had. In fact, it lacks the struggle and the problem that were crucial to the first half. Since horror is not possible due to the repeated plot, the director tries to use the attack mode. For the same, Mohini locks the idol and much of the story is about waiting for Mohini to unlock the idol.
By this time, the plot becomes too boring and to add to the irritation of the audiences, the director introduces Ravi Varma’s character. Though the character tries to do a few experiments to see if ghosts really exist or not, the entire thread backfires.
Ravi Babu is a brilliant director, but he does try to make simple, low budget films which may or may not click with the audiences. At times, he makes half-baked and incomplete ideas that don’t click at the box office. Also, since Mohini gets to know about Raju in the first half, almost one and half hours of the movie does not have anything much to say. The audiences also get to know the ending and that makes it less interesting.
As for the cast, Purna puts in a believable performance. Harsha is okay, but Chakravarthi, Sanjana, Ravi Varma overact. Since the scenes are not very scary, the music director tries to scare the audience with background score and that fails miserably. Art direction and cinematography are good.
If you have already watched Avunu, then there is no need to watch Avunu 2. Whatever little goodwill that Avunu had might bring in people to the theaters. Though they planned a sequel for Avunu, they could not make a movie that the audiences would want a sequel for.
Bottomline: Yes, they failed this time around!
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
