Vijay Kumar's Uriyadi 2 begins as a rural drama that deals with the life of three boys. The establishment of the romance between the leads might look a little slow paced... until one of the boys die. Then on, it becomes a film about how selfish decision making by politicians affect the common man. There begins Lenin Vijay's (played by Vijay Kumar) fight against a corporate company on a microscopic level, and the political system at a macroscopic level.
Lenin Vijay's house has photos of Che Guevara and Russian leaders like Stalin and Lenin. His first name is also Lenin, and he is a rational, rebellious person. The dialogues uttered by him are sharp and to the point. He doesn't believe in god, and says "I hope god exists, because a lot of people believe in him." Now this line seemed to be out of place, considering the proceedings on screen, but later, when a tragedy strikes, the people of a village run towards a hospital, while a woman and her child are seen crying in front of a locked temple.
When the film shifts its genre to an intense political thriller, the performances also become more intense. Sudhakar, who has played a lot of comical roles till date, pulls off a serious role quite convincingly. Even the female lead, Vismaya's character gains significance as the film progresses. In fact, these genre shifts are more effective because of Govind Vasantha's electrifying background score, literally in some portions.
The romantic portions between Vijay and Vismaya are heavily dependent on the violin, which shifts to a percussion heavy score as the genre changes to a political thriller. In the third act, the usage of heavy electric guitar makes the film more rousing than what it should have been... in a positive way. If his background score in 96 and Seethakathi were underplayed, Uriyadi 2 is where Govind Vasantha unleashes himself.
This film is considered as the spiritual sequel to Uriyadi, sans the grit of the fight sequences. Instead Vijay presents us a layered, deeply emotional film. For instance, after the tragedy strikes the village, we are shown people vomiting, blood oozing out of eyes of the children, a lot of deaths. After a point of time, this film is not about one man named Lenin Vijay, but about the people of the village he is fighting for.
Even the close-up shots puts the villagers to the foreground. The interval block creates a high point, from where, it goes from strength to strength, to set up a brilliant climax. However, the way the climax is written, is slightly less convincing, because of the manner in which the previous sequences unfold. With the elections around the corner, such an intense film can definitely have a positive impact on the audience.