'Dhadak 2' movie review: Candy-floss remake dilutes original’s anti-caste message

Watching remakes involves getting used to new faces, modified dialogues, and often altered screenplays to fit the premise of the new film and its targeted geography. But ‘Dhadak 2’, a remake of ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, has some great moments and dialogues that stand out.

A young law student from a marginalised caste falls in love with his classmate, Vidhi, a naive upper caste woman. The film follows how forbidden love creates ruptures in the social fabric revealing social evils. 

Occasional moments of strong emotions and hard hitting dialogues make ‘Dhadak 2’ a decent film by Bollywood standards; a far cry from how mainstream Hindi cinema has portrayed caste. Siddhant Chaturvedi as Neelesh does a good job while Tripti Dimri’s Vidhi is strong and likeable.

Vidhi’s character is well-written in ‘Dhadak 2’, compared to Jyothi in the original. Saurabh Sachdeva’s Shankar, a psychotic caste fanatic is a stark representation of many belonging to the upper caste society.

However, the film does suffer from Bollywood cliches and tropes. It fails to deliver a strong message. The ensemble cast remain as mere onlookers as opposed to the strong characters of the original.

The biggest disappointment is Karuppi, the dog from ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, reduced to a shallow one scene character, Birju, in ‘Dhadak 2’. Karuppi’s character is one of the darkest and strongest symbolisms of caste atrocities in Indian cinema. ‘Dhadak 2’ also fails to use strong symbolism and imagery.

Moreover, the film minimises casteism to a forgivable and individualistic trait rather than a system and an unwritten law of oppression.