Pushpa 2: The Rule is a Telugu film dubbed in Tamil. Sukumar and Srikanth Vissa wrote the screenplay and Sukumar directed the movie. It is a follow up to the 2021 film Pushpa: The Rise. Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil and Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari are the main actors. It was produced under the banners Mythri Movie Makers and Sukumar Writings by Naveen Yerneni and Yalamanchili Ravi Shankar and distributed by the AA Films, E4 Entertainment, N Cinemas, and AGS Entertainment.
It was shot by Miroslaw Kuba Brozek, edited by Naveen Nooli and composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The take time of the film is officially 3 hours and 20 minutes, which is somewhat extensive as compared with other releases. The estimated budget is reported to be Rs. 400 and 500 crore rupees. In the ninth day of its opening, the movie was estimated to collect around 1,150 crore rupees in the box-office.
The movie builds on the storyline of the events as portrayed in Pushpa 2, as Pushpa Raj goes ahead with increasing the smuggling of Lal Chandan. The movie has been dubbed in five other languages, namely: Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali. It had been planned to be released on 15 August 2024, on the Independence Day, but was delayed because of unfinished shooting and post-production. The movie finally entered cinemas on 6 December 2024.
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Review
After watching Pushpa 2: The Rule, it is clear that director Sukumar provides the audience with a dazzling spectacle that amazes them at the same time as they ponder over the content of the film. Based on the historic epic mythology of Pushparaj (Allu arjun), the new movie is a continuation of the storyline of Pushpa: The Rise, but sometimes does not meet the demands of its high budgeted grandeur.
Allu Arjun is the central point of Pushpa 2. He provides a classic of the mass-level performance in his Pushparaj, which is full of breadth, gall and sometimes heartbreakingly tender. It would be easy to say that Arjun strives to establish his dominance with authoritarian sternness or to trash his character to a position of vulnerability in front of his reckoning, but doing so would be splitting his character. The fact that he transforms into a Kali avatar on such crucial points is literally shocking and offers some of the most thrilling scenes that were ever featured on the Indian screens in the year.
However, it does not mean that Pushpa 2 lacks salient deficiencies. There is a tendency of the story to focus on theatrics rather than coherence. Part 1, although punctuated by impressive scenes, strikes repetitively to remind the viewer of the dominance of Pushpa, without any development of the storyline. Efforts in the second half to maintain high emotion causes a wailing storyline, shabbily developed anti-heroes, and lengthy battles, thus taking the sting out of what might have been a cutting-edge political-crime thriller.
Fahadh Faasil plays the role of Bhanwar Singh that is not fully utilized, even though Faasil can impress with his screen presence; his eccentric characters by themselves are on the edge of clichés. On the contrary, Rashmika Mandanna is a very pleasant surprise and her acting as Srivalli is more nuanced and her emotional moments of scenes bring substance to the story saturated with male dominance.
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Pushpa 2 is technically a visual spectacle. The cinematography of Mironslaw Kuba Brozek hides his forest shots, the action scenes are raised to the grandeur of the up-market movie. Brisk rhythmic score contains the mass-spectacular moment exaggerated to the feverish pitch by Devi Sri Prasad. Nevertheless, with the exception of several fees, the songs do not have the epic sound that the first movie has.
One can see that Pushpa 2 has taken mass entertainers to the next level but on the other hand, it can be understood that it is already a warning sign of what a massive scale can do to a storyline when it overshadows it. Allu Arjun fans will surely savor the showcase but more critical moviegoers will miss more focused script and emotionally rewarding pay-offs.
On the whole, the movie can be viewed as a narcissistic, sometimes wearying sight that cannot be missed anyway. It is a ritual of brazen praises of stardom that will make the Pushparaj legend live on, shining even bigger and bolder.
Cast
The focus of the movie Pushpa 2 is the electrifying performance of Allu Arjun as Pushpa Raj. Following the lines of the previous film, Pushpa: The Rise, Arjun transforms Pushpa into a character that is on the edge of a myth, though still with some aspect of a broad commercial appeal and is emotionally vulnerable. His acting especially in the scene of the Kali vashikaran and when he breaks down emotionally before the climax, explains why he is considered as high-energy stars and one of the most successful pan-indo actors in the country.
Rashmika, who plays the role of the wife of Pushpa (Srivalli), exudes happiness. Quite the opposite of being a cliché, Srivalli becomes a good character in the sequel. The dynamic performance variety of Mandanna that is outlined in the monologue in Jathara and in her confrontation scenes, demonstrate how she is also an evolving performer.
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Fahadh Faasil stars SP, Bhanwar, Singh, in a black, threatening, and black comic role. His character is sometimes reduced to cartoon in the writing, denying him all possibilities of being a really threatening opponent to Pushpa.
Among the secondary performers, Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari upholds the consistent and friendly presence of Pushpa by bringing the power of emotion to the narrative. Jagapathi Babu puts a political spin in his characterization of Minister Pratap Reddy and this is with a very sinister restraint in his depiction of the war.
Sunil and Anasuya repeat their roles of Mangalam Srinu and Daksha. Anasuya dons a predatory avatar that brings in more dangers into Pushpa empire. Miraboi, in its turn, is extremely crucial when it comes to dismantling family tension, which adds to established emotional lines of the movie. The performances in the film feel both technically achieved and emotionally adaptive, and even a previously paced-out script is balancing out with the creation of memorable characters that expand the world created by Pushpa Raj into an even stronger epic.
Critical Reviews
With a rating of two point five out of five stars was carried out by Janani of India Today where it was noted that Pushpa 2 was a fair sequel, but it could have been more effective had it been shorter. Moreover, the lower level of self indulgence would have resulted in a more imperfect, and mortal character instead of a superhero with the ability to defy gravity. The movie ends on a clue, as Resul Pookutty indicated, that prefigures Pushpa 3: The Rampage.
The Week critic Sawmik Gaikavandi gave the movie two stars out of five with the initial two hours getting glorifications of better storytelling and commendable acting by Allu Arjun and Fahadh Faasil. However, he faulted the final hour due to its dependence on old cliches, poor writing, and poor characterisation, which caused exasperation and frustration.
Indeed, Saibal of NDTV gave the film 2.5 out of 5, observing that the movie is too ambitious and too long of length and that the portrayal of a detailed story becomes disproportionately farfetched. Although Allu Arjun plays a good role and the scenery is of high quality, the movie does not focus on developing a new story but on depicting the highest power of Pushpa. It ends with a trailer to a third part, Pushpa: The Rampage.
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Simran from DNA gave the movie 4.5 stars out of 5, saying that Pushpa2 is a fun fantasy big-budgeted blockbuster, with Allu Arjun making a muster and punches. Rashmika Mandanna aptly fits within a role of Srivalli whereas Fahadh is Faisal who harbors his potential danger behind. Despite the weakness of musical score, and a slowdowning of pacing at some stages, the reverberation of the film, the tautness of the script, and the drama of events is destined to assure box-office success and raise the expectations of Pushpa 3.
Nishad of News18 has given the movie 5 stars out of 5, and it is a film full of action and a blockbuster that fits the mass-superstar image of Allu Arjun. The direction by Sukumar features the high-voltage action and the ferocious competition between Allu arjun and Fahadh faasil with the inclusion of strong scenes of Rashmika mandanna. The plot, short dialogues, and outstanding features within the recount, e.g. saree dance by Allu Arjun are also additional uplifts in the movie.
Audience Reviews
It was also well received by audiences with over 56,000 ratings giving the movie a 6.1 out of 10 rating on IMDb which is a moderately positive review. Going by the reviews of the users, Pushpa 2: Rule seems to get a chequered response with more disappointment coming across with occasional bursts of brilliance. Allu Arjun was also highly praised by most of the reviewers as he gave a masterclass performance.
Allu Arjun has been praised by critics who remarked that he was committed to the role of Pushpa Raj with much of the emotional moments including the Jathara episode. Rashmika Mandanna too was praised to take the story closer to the second half. Although the acting of Fahadh Faasil was quite accepted, in Part 1 where he was portrayed and his acts of causing fear, many viewers felt that he became a caricature.
Technically, the movie is well produced, beautifully shot, and well-executed action shots, and it does receive credible exposure. One of the areas became the Jathara sequence and it demonstrated remarkably synchronized work in different departments.
Nonetheless, many viewers were not satisfied with the film because of its poor plot, being devoid of a clear screenplay and unrealistic action scenes that had never happened before. There were a few who found the story too fragmented and the scenes like the dream sequences in Japan were arbitrary and added no value to the story. The background and table dances were also considered a significant step backwards to the earlier versions making them quite memorable.
Critics also pointed out that the movie only provided the masses with paisa vasool entertainment, and that it was a blow out hype campaign whose core objective was to glorify the stardom of Allu Arjun. According to one of the commentators, it had lost him time and money, in the belief that a disaster had taken place, and another had described it as a collection of mass scenes sewed together.
To conclude, Pushpa 2 has Allu Arjun performing at a mass-level, and is technically grand, but it lacks in the story plotting department, as people inside the cinema are divided between the presence of the star and the plot development.
Songs
In its Tamil version, there are a total of five songs in Pushpa 2, which only heighten the feelings and cinema pace of the film. The music was not well received by the spectators relative to the first film, with few of its numbers going on to make the songs most preferred by viewers.
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The album was decently made, however it got mixed reception compared to its predecessor because very few tracks would be memorable to the film viewers. The first song, which is opening and titled as Pushpa Pushpa, is sung by Nakash Aziz and Deepak Blue with a 4 minutes 16 seconds duration on music by Raqueeb Alam. On 1 May 2024 T-series released it, and it has since garnered more than 95 million views on YouTube, as the blockbuster of the album.
Aught the second track, Soodaana, by Viveka contains at the melodic interlude, vocals of Shreya Ghoshal. It lasts 4 minutes 20 seconds and was released on 29 May 2024 and it has been watched more than 8.6 million times.
The third song that Chandrabose wrote and later on was sung by Sublahshini is called Kissik and it is a rousing item number. It was posted on 24 November 2024 and has already passed over 72 million views.
The fourth song, Peelings, is a song in Chandra, which was translated by Senthil, Ganesh, and Rajalakshmi. It takes four minutes and seven seconds and has been viewed nearly 10 million times.
And the last, a 3 minutes 28 seconds spiritual song of V. M. Mahalingam with lyrics by Viveka, was released as a song titled Ganga Gangamma Taaye and has been viewed more than 130,000 times as of its 7 December 2024 release.
How to Watch The Pushpa 2: The Rule Movie
Pushpa 2 can now be streamed on Netflix. The movie has been published in theaters, though it is not screened in theaters anymore. In case the viewers have missed it in the theatre, they can now view the Pushpa 2 on home devices.
Netflix purchased the online OTT rights of Pushpa 2 at an estimated cost of 275 Crores and satellite rights were sold to Star Maa. In order to legally view the movie, a person has to be a Netflix subscriber. After subscribing, the film is availed to stream or be viewed anytime. There are also other numerous titles that one can watch instantly at Netflix, which comes with the premium membership.