'Second Case of Seetharam' movie review: Vijay Raghavendra shines in poignant crime drama

A town in Karnataka’s Malnad region is terrorised by a series of gruesome murders, each marked by a chilling pattern of torture, drawing Inspector Seetharam into a tense hunt for a psychopath.

A town in Karnataka’s mountainous Malnad region witnesses a series of murders. The brutality stuns everyone. The deaths follow the same pattern — severe torture before the fatal blow.

The pathologist performing the postmortem says the killer looks like psychopath. Inspector Seetharam (Vijay Raghavendra) embarks on an adventurous investigation, and each time he thinks he has caught the killer, another body is found.

But who is the killer? Will Seetharam find him? Deviprasad Shetty builds a poignant narrative to answer these questions.

‘Second Case of Seetharam’ does not paint the protagonist as a super cop. He is human, makes mistakes, and even gets beaten up by the bad guys. And Raghavendra plays true to his character and delivers a compelling performance.

One can see an organic growth in Shetty’s work as he has progressed from great plots with weak narratives to a crime drama with a touching story. He again reminds you how the life stories of villains are far more interesting than those of heroes. The novelist Mary Shelley stated that monsters emerge not from emptiness or darkness or of their own accord, but from the circumstances and wounds inflicted on them. And they show us what could happen to us if the world were to turn its back on us. Shetty’s antagonist is shaped by such circumstances. He makes us root for him without justifying his crimes.

It is also intriguing how the entire drama is built around the world of classical music. When a girl goes seeking art and music, she is creating a personal space for growth and self discovery. And historically, men have intruded on spaces women build for themselves. In that way, the director offers a subtle yet powerful commentary on gender and power dynamics within families and societies.  And how the barbed wires look like the strings of a veena!