Star Allu Arjun and writer-director Bandreddi Sukumar return for the follow-up to their 2021 Telugu-language hit, about a lowly laborer who rises the ranks of a powerful smuggling operation.

In the pantheon of contemporary Indian film protagonists, Pushpa stands tall.

However, power and money don’t fuel Pushpa. More than anything, he wants respect and legitimacy, which have been denied to him since childhood because his father never legally married his mother. Pushpa might seem as invincible as a Marvel superhero. But like Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar, who has “mera baap chor hai” (“my father is a thief”) tattooed on his arm, Pushpa is also permanently scarred. It’s a potent combination.  

The sequel is designed to be India’s biggest event film, and Sukumar and Arjun do not take the lazy route (though there is one absolutely forgettable dance number). This film has sweat, ambition, audacity. And yet, we have to ask: How much Pushpa is too much Pushpa? Because three hours and 20 minutes is definitely an overdose.

Like his hero, Sukumar is unafraid. In 2021’s Pushpa: The Rise, he introduced a new character, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Fahadh Faasil), in the last 25 minutes of the film. Here, he creates one dazzling highlight sequence after another.

The plot, at least for the first half, is largely occupied with Pushpa and Shekhawat trying to outsmart each other. Pushpa is now an international player who can manipulate elections and chief ministerial positions. But he must also smuggle thousands of tons of sandalwood out of India. And he needs to keep his wife, Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna), happy. The fearsome Pushpa sits in the kitchen by her side and at one point, kisses her foot. In the second half, the attention shifts to Pushpa’s extended family as a new enemy comes to the fore. (This story, of course, will continue in Pushpa 3: The Rampage.)

Sukumar allows other characters to flourish, too. Shekhawat is essentially Shammi from Kumbalangi Nights, also played by Faasil, on steroids and in uniform. He’s deliciously unhinged. Mandanna has to do a lot of vigorous acrobatic dancing, but she does get one scene to shine. She gives Srivalli spine, standing her own against Arjun.

But Pushpa 2: The Rule falters because from the first frame to the last, it stays in maximum mode. There is no place here for stillness or pause. It’s a turbo-charged narrative that stretches so long that the grip inevitably slackens. I wonder if Sukumar just became too enamored with his own creation. 

Scene after scene establishes Pushpa’s cunning and courage. For the first half hour, the film celebrates its hero so much that it feels like we are seeing different slow motion introductions again and again. The cat and mouse game between Pushpa and Shekhawat also becomes repetitive.