'Naadodigal' has been one of the never skippable movies of Director Samuthirakani. Although it hit the big screens a decade ago, it still has a special place in Tamil Cinema as the movie had presented the audience with the package of friendship, positive thoughts, interesting chase, close to life comedic scenes, stressing advice, and a new dimension of the screenplay towards love and friendship and after ten years, Naadodigal 2 has hit the screens now and apart from the name, the second version carries the different story of the friendship that would go to any extent in the protecting the love and the couples. Did Samuthirakani's second version and its new centric motive manage to surprise and stay close to the audience or backtracked, unlike the first one? Let's review...

Jeeva (Sasikumar), a young activist who is desperate about bringing change in the society by upholding the importance of social responsibility than the personal life. He donates his salary to construct the sanitation facilities in his village and protesting against the societal issues. He is the son of the veteran communist leader who sacrificed his life for social welfare and Jeeva has strong support from Anjali, Barani and his friends for his social activities. Sasikumar has been working towards creating caste free society by establishing 'Naamaavom' foundation and his works were criticized and opposed by his caste people and they decided that their daughters should not marry Sasikumar for conducting social activities. In the middle of that, Sasikumar agrees to marry a woman after her parents approached him to marry her. It was after the marriage, it comes to the revelation that the woman (Athulya) has already been in a love affair with a man (Esakki Bharath) who belongs to the oppressed community. The rest of the story deals with the decision of Sasikumar and its impacts.

Samuthirakani has directed the movie with the motive of doing good for Tamil Nadu, inciting the young generations to travel on the right path and by accepting that it's his responsibility to voice against the injustices. His desperate and strong motive for creating a positive impact in all of his movies must be lauded and appreciated. Sasikumar surprises the fans through his unchangeable act like how he was in Nadodigal's first part and Sasikumar implies that he is the right choice to speak Samuthirakani's societal vision in the movie and he shows the strong pulse towards the commitment. Actress Anjali attracts the audience through her transparent speech, acting and her vivid thoughts while the interactions between Barani and Moothavar managed to attract the fans. The romantic moments between Sasikumar and Anjali had stayed close to the fans as the duo's acting as social activists had lauded by the audience. But Samuthirakani's vision of social responsibility and campaign had surpassed all these elements.

It's noticeable that the story and the screenplay were filled with the centric motive of abolishing the caste and the movie had touched upon dozens of issues which in turn presented with issues to the movie. The injustice faced by Udumalpet Shankar and Kousalya, Jallikattu protests and the police brutality, NEET exams, Traffic police attacking a pregnant woman and a woman who proclaimed herself caste free and so on...and the movie has covered up the issues happened recently and these stories were covered with either having no match to the real story or had exorbitantly covered beyond the scenes of the movie and this is the element made the movie to stay far from the audience and their expectations. In fact, the movie carries the scenes that were close to its motive, but these scenes can easily be counted.

Since the beginning, Sasikumar exhibits himself more brisk and desperate in his cause and the rest of the crew and important actors had their space that was enough to the story and Justin Prabhakaran's melody music blooms beautifully and the background music increases the anxiety and expectation of the movie while Ekambaram's cameras done justice by fulfilling the need and the scene and the filming that speaks about injustice faced by Shankar and Kousalya had brought the exhitement.

The first part of Nadodigal had presented the thrilling experience in the climax through 'Sambo Siva Sambo' song and the second version has brought the same thrilling experience even after a decade and it's not only the song and the music but the screenplay which stayed close to the audience had played a strong role in the climax of both the movies and the social responsibility that flourished in Samuthirakani's career that had somehow lowered the naturalness of the movie that had sacrificed the main and centric story of the movie. Certainly, Nadogidal 2 hasn't created the impact that was created by the first part, but it's a watchable movie.