Imagine the alphabet 'A'. Now, type this letter on an empty Microsoft Word document and save it as "Punyalan Agarbattis'. After that, use the formatting tools to play with its font size, color, design, and shadow. Once you are done and content with your dilly-dallying, 'save as' it on your computer and name it 'Punyalan Private Limited'. Director Ranjith Sankar's sequel to his 2013 hit film film is basically a re-purposing of the first film. The only two differences are: here Joy Thakkolkaran (Jayasurya) is promoting water made out of elephant urine (compared to incense sticks made out of elephant dung) and cribbing about the NDA government (compared to the UP government). Although Punyalan Private Limited starts off well and resumes where the prequel ended, it goes downhill very fast, and then spirals into a mess about political criticism. Thakkolkaran is fed up with the government, and this time, instead of knocking the court's doors, takes it up directly against the chief minister. There's no novelty in Sankar's writing, nor is there any freshness in Jayasurya's portrayal. It's all water under the bridge, except for Dharmajan's comedy and other occasional humor by the supporting cast. If you are from Kerala and follow politics, then this will be a much more entertaining affair. Otherwise, Punyalan Private Limited is just a rehash of what we saw four years ago. TN.
