Pretham 2 Review: an engaging comedy that’s worth a watch

The idea of mentalism got introduced in Malayalam through the film Pretham were Jayasurya played the role of a mentalist. It was a horror movie aided by smart enough humor to give us a pleasing theater experience. When it comes to Pretham 2, the mold is very much the same. But the humor quotient was enough to make the movie an engaging comedy that’s worth a watch.

John Don Bosco is right now at a place named Mangalassery Mana for a treatment purpose. This is a place that is famous for being the location of many famous Malayalam movies and it was also a haunted house. And a gang of friends who know each other only through fake social media profiles decides to come to this place for the shooting of a short film. How that plan goes in the spooky environment is what Pretham 2 depicting.

The mold of Pretham 2 is very much similar to the first one. Arrogant youngsters are mocking mentalism, John Don Bosco manages to impress them and when they are attacked by the ghost, John becomes the only saving factor. And even a climax bit is there where cross-examination of a group of people happens to find the guilty. Ranjith Sankar has smartly changed the backdrop of each character to explore new kind of humor. The representation of the youth in the movie is a questionable one. The social issue Ranjith Sankar wants to address this time is online fraud. The humor in the counter dialogues is the one thing that makes Pretham 2 an engaging enough experience. But the predictability is there as a demerit as we know the formula from the first part.

Jayasurya as the calm and composed John Don Bosco is convincing. His body language and voice has that maturity and grace to pull off the character. Amith Chakkalakkal as Tapas was more on the real side. Siddhartha Siva was initially annoying and slowly grabbed the rhythm of the comedy. Dain Davis repeats his mini screen image. Durga Krishna was nice and Saniya Iyyappan was surprisingly good. Jayaraj Warrier as a caricaturish Warrier was okay. Manikandan Pattambi, Sreejith Ravi, Muthumani, Raghavan etc. are there in small roles.

Pretham 2 might well be a light-hearted horror comedy. But when you look at it as a Ranjith Sankar movie, it’s a disappointing turn of events. A director who came into the scene with a movie like Passenger getting reduced into a Pretham 2 isn’t a really happy scene for a cine lover. This movie and Punyalan 2 are mainly an attempt to capitalize on the success of its predecessors. The script of Pretham 2 has multiple elements, but none of it had depth. And like I said, the template factor has eliminated the surprise from the script. The cinematography and sound design were good. But the background score was excessive.

Pretham 2 is fun for sure. It is very much similar to its first part. And that similarity makes it passable for the humor factor and underwhelming for the lack of surprise in the content. Those who weren’t fans of the first movie shouldn’t try their luck with this one.