Senator Geary: I do business with you, but I despise your masquerade and the dishonest way you pose yourself
Michael Corleone: Senator, we are both part of the same hypocrisy
- The Godfather II
Money is an aphrodisiac, they say, but Power.... Power is a hallucinogenic. The high from Money is temporary, wearing quickly off after the latest conquest, and after a while, the chase after it simply gets tiring, or worse, boring. But, Power is a different trip altogether. The true hit from Power opens up different realms that Money can never dare touch, and the high from it rarely wears off, in fact it craves for even more Power to supplement itself, to sustain itself, to constantly remain in that realm, reaping the two rich dividends of it - fear & respect, the two aspects that Money that can never buy. It is for that simple reason, people with money chase after power and people in power choose to stay put, regardless of returns in money. From a two bit street hoodlum to the most powerful politician in the country, from the narrow streets in crowded neighborhoods to the vast corridors in administrative buildings, the keepers of Power rule over their fiefdoms, as the mongers of it lay in wait, ready to pounce at the earliest opportunity. Need more evidence? Count the number of businessmen in present day politics directly and compare it to the yesteryears when businessmen used to front/fund the politicians to have their say in policy. To wit, Money is a hit, while Power is a trip.... And Pushpa 2 is about that power, with a capital P.
Pushpa 2 is a celluloid reimagination of the life of the mining mogul Gali Janardhana Reddy, whose exploits were in the Bellary area were legendary and whose character arc is the stuff movies are made of. That he made crores - tens, hundreds, thousands, lakhs of it - diving headlong and barrelling along without a care (or permit), mining beyond boundaries and exporting the ore, funnily enough, beyond the nation's boundaries, greasing the wheels and the modes of movement of his product - bureaucrats, police, politicians - sufficiently well, is not his true success story. That was only Pushpa 1. The real story is how he got the "kissik" of Late Sushma Swaraj, the most powerful lady in the ruling party, to actually lay her hands on his head blessing him, while he near prostrated at her feet. This, is not so many words, is the literal blessing from the ruling party at the center, a party that ran on the platform of zero tolerance against corruption of any kind. A few years later, his name resounded loudly in the halls of the Karnataka legislature, when MLA's were horse-traded in favor of the party in power at the center, to bring down the party in power at the state level, all with the money bags he made illegally mining and exporting the ore. Be it the Bellary iron mines or the Jharkhand collieries, be it the petro-chemical entrepreneurs of Gujarat or the sea port to airport magnates of the same, the barons want to become moguls, the moguls want to be Kings and the Kings all want to be that one Emperor, to lord over them all. Of the many Icaruses that fly close to True Power, burning their wax wings off and have a tragic fall, an infinitesimal few make that successful crossover. Gali couldn't, but try he did, with all his might, with all his fight, and sadly all the money that he made, spent and thrown around never could buy him the Power he truly craved. Whether the fate of Pushpa would follow that of Gali's wouldn't be revealed until the second sequel, but if real world is anything to go by, Allu Arjun should dig even deeper to portray the role of the betrayed, backstabbed and used up.
The true strength Pushpa 2, aside from the strong technical aspects and amazing performances, is its strong writing. The writing credits alone of the movie that ran literally over a 5-6 slides, during the initial title sequences, is great testament to Sukumar's magnanimity acknowledging the many creative inputs from his team - additional dialogue, additional script, story expansion, screenplay and many such - that movie immensely benefited from. It charts the trajectory of the money bags from stuffed bags to stuffed suitcases, from stuffed suitcases to stuffed sofas, with the audacity and scale that seem quite inventive on one hand, and yet appear ripped right out the headlines of daily newspapers (refer to the news reports from a couple of years ago, apartment rented by an Education minister in West Bengal, for the purpose of stuffing the money (not arranging, but stuffing) in the empty bedrooms by the bundles). In commercial space, where politics plays out in the most stereotypical way possible, the writing of Pushpa grounds the politics on realistic terra firma, without straying too far way from the boundaries of possibilities and plausibilities and without hiding behind the usual plausible deniabilities about real world politics. The politics and the politicians of Pushpa 2 are not painted in broadstrokes (with special mention to the poise of Jagapathi Babu's role; his deep baritonic monotone and his deadpan face is the representation of the Indian Politician at the highest level - unperturbed and yet unforgiving), and even the most malevolent sequences towards the latter half of the movie do not seem out of place, if one were to read about the acts of feudal leaders back in the days of blood soaked barren lands of faction ridden Rayalaseema. The most interesting aspect of the script of Pushpa 2 is how compact it is in terms of its plotting. It concentrates of just 2-3 important aspects in the life of Pushpa - his brush and disenchantment with the hypocrisy of politics, his plot to take over and his rivalry with his antagonist - and chisels at these to perfection (the soliloquy during the apology sequence is just solid writing), while still leaving room for his cute marital bliss.
Coming to the performances, Allu Arjun simply attacks every scene he is part of, grabs up all the attention and magnetically draws away the eyeballs towards his histrionics, while also sucking up all the oxygen of the scene leaving the rest gasping for air, attention and screentime. And boy, does he deliver! The gusto with which he embraces the character and the manic energy that he channels during the more explosive sequences is a sight to behold, making him a strong contender for the coveted prize twice in a row. Helming such a grand fare, from the minutiae to the overall, from the microscopic to the macro details, Sukumar's touch and omniscience are felt in every scene, as one wearing the hat (or holding the baton) of a conductor playing a philharmonic orchestra than one simply directing the action. Pushpa 2 joins the rarefied ranks of those rare sequels that surpass their masterful predecessors, by grasping for more, grabbing for more and grappling with more. More Power to thee!
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