Connect with us

Movie Reviews

Mohanlal L2 Empuraan Movie Review, Prithviraj, L2E Ratings

Published

on

Mohanlal L2 Empuraan Movie Review, Prithviraj, L2E Ratings

Movie Name : L2: Empuraan
Release Date : March 27 2025
123telugu.com Rating : 2.75/5
Starring : Mohanlal, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Abhimanyu Singh, Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier
Director : Prithviraj Sukumaran
Producers : Antony Perumbavoor,Gokulam Gopalan,Subaskaran Allirajah
Music Director : Deepak Dev
Cinematographer : Sujith Vaassudev
Editors : Akhilesh Mohan

Related Links : Trailer

Mohanlal’s L2: Empuraan, the eagerly awaited sequel to Lucifer (2019), has finally graced the big screens. Directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran, this political action drama has arrived amid immense expectations. Check out the review to see how it turned out.

Story:

Advertisement

Kerala Chief Minister Jathin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas) boldly decides to break away from his party and form a new one, aligning himself with Baba Bajrangi (Abhimanyu Singh), also known as Balaraj. His sister, Priyadarshini Ramdas (Manju Warrier), strongly opposes this move. Meanwhile, Khureshi Ab’raam, also known as Stephen Nedumpally (Mohanlal), returns to set things right. However, his other issues are his involvement in global affairs and his conflict with the drug cartel Kabooga. How does Stephen’s return impact Kerala’s political landscape? What is his rivalry with Balaraj? How is Balaraj connected to Zayed Masood (Prithviraj Sukumaran)? The film unravels these questions.

Plus Points:

Prithviraj Sukumaran presents L2: Empuraan on an ambitious scale, exceeding expectations in terms of grandeur and execution. The film’s strongest aspects are its visual appeal, large-scale action sequences, and Mohanlal’s commanding screen presence.

Mohanlal once again delivers a powerful performance. His silent yet authoritative portrayal and small yet impactful dialogues will delight his fans. His character is nice, and the forest fight sequence in the second half is a definite highlight.

Manju Warrier impresses with her performance, standing out among the supporting cast. While Tovino Thomas plays his part adequately, his character lacks decisive moments. Prithviraj Sukumaran has limited screen time but is okay in his role.

Advertisement

The film is a spectacle visually. The church fight sequence, Mohanlal’s grand entry, and several other moments are executed with a Hollywood-style richness, making for a visually immersive experience.

Minus Points:

While Empuraan has moments of brilliance, the overall story lacks substance. The film focuses heavily on character elevations rather than a gripping narrative. Murali Gopy’s writing falls short, failing to provide the depth expected from a sequel of Lucifer’s scale.

The slow pacing and excessive runtime work against the film. Even well-crafted scenes lose their impact due to prolonged storytelling. While Mohanlal’s presence adds weight, the lack of a tightly woven plot makes the film feel stretched.

One of the major issues is the inclusion of too many characters, most of whom are underdeveloped. Tovino Thomas’s character does not fit seamlessly into the narrative, and his role is not fleshed out properly. Similarly, Indrajith Sukumaran and several others suffer from inadequate screen presence and development.

Advertisement

The multiple subplots contribute to confusion rather than intrigue. The film’s slow pace, coupled with these scattered storylines, makes it difficult for audiences to stay fully engaged. The transition from the pre-climax to the climax is predictable and lacks the necessary impact, making it enjoyable only to a niche audience.

Technical Aspects:

Prithviraj Sukumaran’s direction is decent, but his focus on elevating characters, especially Mohanlal, comes at the expense of a strong and engaging narrative. The screenplay needed more refinement to keep the audience invested.

Sujith Vaassudev’s cinematography is outstanding, capturing the film’s grand visuals with finesse. Deepak Dev’s background score is passable, adding energy to some scenes but failing to create an unforgettable impact.

Editing is a significant drawback—had the film been trimmed, the overall experience would have been much more substantial. The production values are excellent, reflecting the film’s high-budget execution. The Telugu dubbing is fine.

Advertisement

Verdict:

On the whole, L2: Empuraan has stunning visuals and a few elevations, but it lacks the depth and gripping storytelling that made the prequel Lucifer a success. Mohanlal’s presence is a highlight, but the slow pace, underdeveloped characters, and lengthy runtime weigh the film down. Unless you are a die-hard Mohanlal fan, the experience may not fully satisfy you. If you choose to watch it, keep your expectations in check.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.75/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team 

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Movie Reviews

‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit’ Review: Disqualified for the Oscars, Tajikistan Drama Is an Inviting, Meandering Meta-Narrative

Published

on

‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit’ Review: Disqualified for the Oscars, Tajikistan Drama Is an Inviting, Meandering Meta-Narrative

Selected by Tajikistan but ultimately not accepted by the Academy to compete in the Oscar international feature category, “Black Rabbit, White Rabbit” begins ambitiously, with a famous quote from playwright Anton Chekhov about setups and payoffs — about how if a gun is established in a story, it must go off. Moments later, an inviting long take involving a young man selling an antique rifle ends in farcical tragedy, signaling an equally farcical series of events that grow stranger and stranger. The film, by Iranian director Shahram Mokri, folds in on itself in intriguing (albeit protracted) ways, warping its meta-fictional boundaries until they supersede its characters, or any underlying meaning.

Still, it’s a not-altogether-uninteresting exercise in exploring the contours of storytelling, told through numerous thematically interconnected vignettes. The opening Chekhov quote, though it might draw one’s attention to minor details that end up insignificant, ensures a heightened awareness of the movie’s artifice, until the film eventually pulls back and becomes a tale of its own making. But en route to this semi-successful postmodern flourish, its character drama is enticing enough on its own, with hints of magical realism. It begins with the tale of a badly injured upper-class woman, Sara (Hasti Mohammai), discovering that her car accident has left her with the ability to communicate with household objects.

Sara’s bandages need changing, and the stench of her ointment becomes a quick window into her relationships. Her distant husband rejects her; her boisterous stepdaughter is more frank, but ultimately accepting; her gardener and handyman stays as diplomatic as he can. However, the film soon turns the gunfire payoff in its prologue into a broader setup of its own, as a delivery man shows up at Sara’s gate, insisting that she accept delivery for an object “the deceased man” has paid for.

Mokri eventually returns to this story (through a slightly tilt-shifted lens), but not before swerving headfirst into a seemingly unrelated saga of extras on a film set and a superstitious prop master, Babak (Babak Karimi), working on a shot-for-shot remake of an Iranian classic. A mix of rapid-fire Tajik, Persian and Russian dialogue creates dilemma upon dilemma when Babak’s ID goes missing, preventing him from being able to thoroughly check the prop ammunition for an assassination scene.

Danger begins to loom — a recent Alec Baldwin case even warrants a mention on-screen — as the notion of faulty firearms yanks Chekhov’s wisdom front and center once more, transforming it from a writing tip into a phantasmagorical inevitability. In keeping with the previous story, the props even communicate with each other (through subtitles) and begin gossiping about what might come to pass.

Advertisement

After establishing these narrative parameters through unbroken, fluid shots filmed at a sardonic distance, Mokri soon begins playing mischievous temporal games. He finds worthwhile excuses to revisit scenes from either different angles or with a slightly altered aesthetic approach — with more proximity and intimacy — in order to highlight new elements of his mise-en-scène. What’s “real” and “fictional,” even within the movie’s visual parlance, begins to blur in surreal ways, largely pivoting around Babak simply trying to do his job. However, the more this tale engorges through melodic, snaking takes, the more it circles around a central point, rather than approaching it.

The film’s own expanse becomes philosophically limiting, even though it remains an object of curiosity. When it’s all said and done, the playfulness on display in “Black Rabbit, White Rabbit” is quite remarkable, even if the story’s contorting framework seldom amounts to much, beyond drawing attention to itself. It’s cinema about cinema in a manner that, on one hand, lives on the surface, but on the other hand, invites you to explore its texture in ways few other movies do.

Continue Reading

Movie Reviews

‘Christmas Karma’ movie review: A Bollywood Carol with little cheer

Published

on

‘Christmas Karma’ movie review: A Bollywood Carol with little cheer

Kunal Nayyar in ‘Christmas Karma’
| Photo Credit: True Bit Entertainment/YouTube

Christmas jumpers are all I can remember of this film. As this reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol dragged on with sickly-sweet sentimentality and song, my eyes constantly tried to work out whether those snowflakes and reindeer were printed on the jerseys or, if knitted, how complicated the patterns would have been.

Christmas Karma (English)

Director: Gurinder Chadha

Starring: Kunal Nayyar, Leo Suter, Charithra Chandran, Pixie Lott, Danny Dyer, Boy George, Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, Eva Longoria, Mia Lomer

Storyline: A miserly businessman learns the true meaning of Christmas when visited by ghosts of Christmas past, present and future

Advertisement

Runtime: 114 minutes

Gurinder Chadha, who gave us the gorgeous Bend it Like Beckham (who wants to make aloo gobi when you can bend the ball like Beckham indeed) has served up an unappetising Bollywood song-and-dance version of Dickens’ famous Christmas story.

A still from the film

A still from the film
| Photo Credit:
True Bit Entertainment/YouTube

A curmudgeonly Indian businessman, Ishaan Sood (Kunal Nayyar), fires his entire staff on Christmas Eve—except his accountant, Bob (Leo Suter)—after catching them partying at the office. Sood’s nephew, Raj (Shubham Saraf) invites him for a Christmas party which he refuses to attend.

He returns home after yelling at some carol singers for making a noise, the shopkeeper (Nitin Ganatra) at the corner for his business decisions and a cabbie (Danny Dyer) for being too cheerful.

His cook-housekeeper, Mrs. Joshi (Shobu Kapoor) tells him to enjoy his dinner in the dark as he has not paid for heat or electricity. He is visited by the spirit of his dead business partner, Marley (Hugh Bonneville), who is in chains with the spirits of all the people he wronged. Marley’s spirit tells Sood that he will be visited by three spirits who will reveal important life lessons.

Advertisement
A still from the film

A still from the film
| Photo Credit:
True Bit Entertainment/YouTube

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Eva Longoria), with Day of the Dead makeup and three mariachis providing musical accompaniment, shows Sood his early, happy days in Uganda as a child and the trauma of being expelled from the country by Idi Amin.

Sood comes to Britain where his father dies of heartbreak and decides the only way out is to earn a lot of money. He meets and falls in love with Bea (Charithra Chandran) but loses her when he chooses paisa over pyaar even though he tries to tell her he is being ruthless only to earn enough to keep her in luxury.

The Ghost of Christmas Present (Billy Porter) shows Bob’s twee house full of Christmas cheer, despite the roast chicken past its sell-by date, and his young son, Tim, bravely smiling despite his illness.

The Ghost of Christmas Future (Boy George, Karma is sure a chameleon!) shows Sood dying alone except for Bob and Mrs. Joshi. He sees the error of his ways and throws much money around as he makes everything alright. He even ends up meeting up with his childhood friend in Uganda.

Apart from the mixed messages (money makes everything alright, let us pray for the NHS but go to Switzerland to get well) and schmaltzy songs, Christmas Karma suffers from weak writing and wooden acting.

Advertisement

Priyanka Chopra’s Hindi rendition of George Michael’s ‘Last Christmas’ runs over the end credits featuring Chadha and the crew, bringing back fond memories of Bina Mistry’s ‘Hot Hot Hot’ from Bend it Like Beckham. Even a sitar version by Anoushka Shankar is to no avail as watching this version of A Christmas Carol ensures bad karma in spades.

Christmas Karma is currently running in theatres

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Movie Reviews

Dust Bunny

Published

on

Dust Bunny

An orphaned girl hires her hitman next-door neighbor to kill the monster under her bed. This R-rated action/horror movie mashup has lots of violence but surprisingly little gore. However, there are still many gruesome moments, even if they’re just offscreen. And some language and a strange portrayal of Christian worship come up, too.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending