Sathyasiva directed Kazhugu 2 mirrors the basic premise of its 2012 prequel, where unsuspecting petty thieves are lured into shady deals of a powerful man. The film begins on a brisk note, where a group is attacked by foxes in a forest, and the people walking in that terrain must be armed. Whether the intrigue is sustained throughout the film remains doubtful.
The story revolves around two petty thieves Johnny (Kreshna) and his accomplice Kaali (played by Kali Venkat), as they are mistaken for huntsmen who can protect the labourers who are working in a deadly forest that is habituated by wolves. The crooks use this opportunity as a hideout and what happens next forms the rest of the film. The film has a lot of subplots that make up for a decent crime drama. We get to see shady deals, criminals on the run and much more. But the writing fails to capitalize on these juicy elements.
The film is more content in aiming at the low hanging fruit, where we are made to sit through a first-half that is dedicated to the romance between Johnny and Merly (played by Bindu Madhavi). The love story's progression feels less gradual and organic. We don't see romance blossoming between them, instead, the whole sequence feels forced into the narrative.
The film abandons its initial conceit and throws a new plotline in the second half which involves an artifact discovered by the area's MLA (played by Hareesh Peradi). After that point, we become mildly invested in the story as the narrative stops meandering between moments and becomes much more focused, where the characters display their shades of grey and we realize that something is at stake. The story sheds its flab at the last minute, which salvages the film to a lesser extent.
Kreshna puts up an earnest act and shines during his scenes with Kaali Venkat, while Bindhu Madhavi's performance is good at parts. Technically, Kazhugu 2 is well shot, with evocative imagery of the hilly, mist-clad mountains and vast forests. Yuvan Shankar Raja's tunes have a lasting impact. But the film could have used its vast amount of plot points had it not dwelled much on the love story of the film. The prequel worked effectively, because of its painstaking detail and well-written roles unlike the one-note characterization of this film. Overall, Kazhugu 2 showed promise in the story but failed to capitalize on it.