Draupathi 2 movie review: Mohan G’s period drama is all about shoddy craft and crude portrayal

Draupathi 2 movie review: The film frames itself as a historical epic but slips into ideological setting, using flat characters, crude stereotypes and weak craft, with shoddy visuals and poor writing

Draupathi 2

Draupathi 2 movie plot:

In southern India, a few Hindus come to know that their ancestral land now comes under Waqt Board and they cannot have any claim on it. Meanwhile, two young women from abroad are sent by their father, to a village in hope to renovate a temple. As they are guided a young man (Richard Rishi), one of them get possessed by the spirits of the rulers who once ruled the land and begin to narrate the tale of Veera Simha Kadava Raya (Richard Rishi) who protected his land and people against the Sultanate rule.

Draupathi 2 movie review:

In Mohan G’s Draupathi 2, there is a scene in which a Hindu ruler expresses his affirmation on why a woman took her life. His way of acknowledging her death is looking at it as a sacrifice after being molested by Muslim rulers. Much before this scene, we see a queen delaying the birth of her child, to align with the prediction that says bringing fortune to the kingdom. Subsequently, she succeeds in delaying the birth of her baby boy but she is no more. Her husband, the king, calls this a sacrifice. Many more scenes later, Muslim ruler Dhamkani who reigns over Madurai says that women are not to rule but be ruled. There is no difference between how a Muslim and Hindu man look at women in Draupathi 2, and yet the film clearly wants to project one as hero and other a villain, in its typecast, single-dimensioned portrayal. Draupathi 2, which wants you to learn about the history, becomes a narrative that wants you to believe in its ideology. But with shoddy making and leisure writing, fails in becoming a successful vehicle that can sell its beliefs.

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Draupathi 2 sets out to be a historical period drama, that takes dates back to the 14th century, where Hoysala commander Veera Simha Kadava Raya is the protagonist who must step in to assist his king (Natty) against the forces of Islamic rulers. There is Sultanate in Delhi, and Dhamkani from Tuglaq dynasty who is ruling Madurai. Both of them don’t get along with each other, and the film doesn’t bother to explain why. Because all its concentration is to show us how these rulers were inhumane and barbaric. Draupathi 2 settles for easy approach; to show them as womanisers and cannibals, who wouldn’t leave a woman they lay their eyes on, and would even cook their enemies and feed their meat to the victim’s family. The film does not even attempt to build a story with deft that you don’t really understand why the two Muslim rulers do not get along well, despite them having the same notion to spread their religion and unleash a brutish rule.

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The film leaves most of its narratives in loose; one of them being the unresolved conflict shown at the beginning of the film, about the ancestral land. It feels that Draupathi 2, at every point, wants to feed in a narrative that it merely uses shallowly developed characters and blunt tools in form of scenes and dialogues, to establish it. On the making front, Draupathi 2 fumbles, given the shoddy approach in VFX, and the over reliance on AI to construct its visuals, only alienating the storytelling by miles.

Draupathi 2 movie verdict:

Positioned as a historical drama, Draupathi 2 slips relies on flat characters, crude stereotypes and weak craft, leaving its strong political stance unsupported by storytelling or technique. Neither its performances, ideology nor technical making, help make Draupathi 2 watchable.

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