Karthikeya 2 - it's not mythology, it's history

Karthikeya 2

Telugu, 2022

Director - Chanddo Mondetti

Cast - Nikhil Siddhartha, Anupama Parameswaran, Anupam Kher, Srinivasa Reddy, Tulasi

Mohan's Measure ⭐ ⭐

There is something wonderfully nostalgic about popcorn films. These are the swashbuckling adventures of Indiana Jones fame that you would enjoy on a hot summer afternoon, your hands soaked with popcorn oil and water droplets from ice cold soda. Ahhh...nothing like it.

Karthikeya 2 borrows directly from the Indiana Jones genre and throws in some National Treasure for good measure. Mr. Nikhil returns as the skeptical medical doctor who somehow manages to wind up getting involved in the most supernatural of situations. He is accompanied this time by Mugdha, played by a slightly out of style Ms. Anu, who serves as damsel in distress and eye candy, although she is the one with the pertinent degree.

The movie is nonstop action and some humor, with animation being used to convey ancient incidents. To top it off, we have villains galore, ancient mazes, truck chases, poisonous snakes, even an eccentric old professor, played by Mr. Kher, to provide profound insights.  All this belongs to the genre.

But what throws everything off is the subject of this film. For while Karthikeya 1 could easily adapt fiction around the often elusive "tamizh kaDavul," how could the same be done to Krishna?! Almost everything about the Cowherd Prince has and continues to be known from every end of the Earth, from Vijayawada to Wichita, Madurai to Midland, and everywhere in between. It is hard to believe the Boy Tamil society associates with Unconditional Love would make it so difficult to find the hidden object containing the cure for the pandemic, all the more hard to believe He would have a bunch of aghori-like assassin zombies on killing sprees.

They are called abhira, and you will probably need a "beera"  or two after seeing this movie.