Meesaya Murukku 2 review: Hiphop Adhi's gaana anthem falls flat despite intent

Meesaya Murukku 2 movie review: Directed by Hiphop Tamizha Adhi and starring himself, Karunas and Baba Baskar, the gaana-driven musical explores the class divide in the music world and the struggle for gaana to find mainstream recognition. Spanning the musical dreams of three generations, the film has an interesting premise but remains disappointingly hollow.

In Short

• Meesaya Murukku 2 highlights gaana music's struggle for recognition
• Film spans three generations facing similar challenges
• Caste and class divides dominate gaana's fight for space

Meesaya Murukku arrived in 2017 and remains a film that still serves as solid motivation to youngsters. A coming-of-age musical that doubled as Hiphop Tamizha Adhi's biography, it was everything youngsters lapped up. Eight years later, Meesaya Murukku 2 is here. A spiritual sequel, the second part now sheds light on gaana — often linked to a particular era — and how it hasn't got the recognition it deserves.

Das (Hiphop Adhi and Karunas), a popular gaana singer from Royapuram, is looking to take the art form mainstream. His biggest support is his wife Lakshmi (Chaitra J Achar). His son, Tiger Siva (Adhi again and Baba Baskar), is another talented musician who is still struggling to find a stage to champion his talent. His wife Vaani (Ramya Ranganathan), hailing from a Brahmin household, is his biggest support and feels that every art form — gaana or Carnatic — deserves a stage.

Cut to 2026, we have Jeeva (Adhi again), a DJ waiting to get his break as a musician. One thing that's common across the musicians of all three generations is their inability to go mainstream. Jeeva's life hits a roadblock just like his father's and grandfather's did. Will the third-generation star get his much-needed recognition as a gaana singer? What stops him — is it the lobby, is it the class divide, or is it caste?

Director Hiphop Adhi's Meesaya Murukku 2 has an interesting premise. That the gaana art form deserves a stage is a conversation that still holds today. Even though the film is set across the late '70s, the '80s and the 2020s, the struggles remain the same. It also does a fine job portraying how the sabhas are hogged by Brahmin musicians who don't think twice about asserting their authority over auditoriums and studios, shutting out any other art form trying to find space. Yet, the world gaana inhabits is vibrant, colourful and full of life.

Meesaya Murukku 2 now has the material. But how does director Hiphop Adhi propel the story to prove a point? This is where Adhi, as a director, fails to explore his potential. Meesaya Murukku 2 is a drab, flat story on gaana singers and the lobbying that exists in the musical world. Yes, there is caste discrimination. Yes, there is class divide. But Adhi chooses to deliver monologue after monologue to make his case, rather than weaving scenes that incorporate the conflicts more organically.

The film doesn't get to its central conflict until just 10 minutes before intermission. Adhi promoted the film as a musical, and we do get foot-tapping numbers. But does it take the story forward? No. So what does it do? It beats around the bush by showing Jeeva and Laila (Ketika Sharma) trying to romance with their limited expressions.

Meesaya Murukku 2 also has a sequence that ridicules people who fall under the LGBTQ spectrum. Though Adhi's Jeeva mouths a dialogue about equality, it undoes the message by mocking them first before preaching.

Meesaya Murukku 2 works in parts when it's self-aware. Some of the quirks, one-liners and Easter eggs that connect the first part with the sequel are particularly enjoyable. Harshath Khan's counters, especially in the Thug Life sequence, left the hall in splits. Adhi appears in a triple role and does justice to all three. The decision to play all three himself, while also casting Karunas and Baba Baskar in the same roles, is an interesting writing choice.

Another major disappointment in the Hiphop Adhi directorial is how late it introduces the central conflict. At a crisp runtime, Meesaya Murukku 2 only scratches the surface of the politics of the gaana art form.

Meesaya Murukku 2 raises a conversation on gaana, caste and class that's well worth having, but doesn't quite follow through on it. The film has the right instincts, yet its flat writing, late-arriving conflict and heavy dependence on speeches keep it from landing the impact it clearly intends to. For a film about an art form fighting for its place in the mainstream, Meesaya Murukku 2 ironically struggles to find its own voice.

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