Originally, 'Indian 2' was supposed to be a standalone sequel to 'Indian'. Later on, to cash in on the trend of multi-part movies, 'Indian 3' was announced as an afterthought.
If you think about it, 'Indian 2' has been trashed not just for its subpar screenplay, atrocious performances and poor heroics but also for its vacuous story. Did Shankar commit a blunder by artificially making his original story into a two-part one?
Let's think of an alternative story that combines Part 2 and Part 3 (to be released in theatres in 2025).
'Indian 2' should have been about Senapathy (Kamal Haasan) going about his vigilante activities secretly, successfully evading surveillance by the CBI and the Intelligence Bureau. His lid gets blown suddenly when he fails to kill a major industrialist. The government itself is shocked to learn that Senapathy is very much in India.
Ahead of the interval, it is revealed that Chitra Aravindhan (Siddharth) and other anti-corruption crusaders had asked him to leave the country following an emotional breakdown. Senapathy, a few years ago, made everyone believe that he had banished himself from India and went back to Japan. However, he remained very much within the country. The interval block should have ended with a cliffhanger point about why the selfless, revolutionary Senapathy was asked to leave the country by well-meaning youngsters in the first place.
The early portions of the second half should have been the flashback episodes about what led to Senapathy being invited to India through a successful online campaign, what call he gave to youngsters, and how the repercussions created friction between him and the anti-corruption crusaders. All this should have been narrated in a 20-minute flashback. In short, the entire 'Indian 2' should have been condensed into 20 minutes and narrated as a flashback.
The rest of the second half should have been about a cat-and-mouse chase between the cops and Senapathy, with Chitra Aravindhan and others acting as catalysts looking for redemption. While this story might bear similarities with some other movie, it wouldn't have been as bad a deal as what we got in the form of 'Indian 2', the earth-shattering disaster.
