Tillu Square movie review: Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s sequel takes it a notch higher, gives us a successful comedy franchise

Tillu Square movie review: Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s sequel takes it a notch higher, gives us a successful comedy franchise

Cast: Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Anupama Parameswaran, Muralidhar Goud, Lakshmi Sujatha

Director: Mallik Ram

In a recent interview of his, Siddhu Jonnalagadda had claimed that Tillu Square, sequel of DJ Tillu that he co-wrote, would not be better than its predecessor. Now that I have seen the film, I wonder if this claim was an attempt at ensuring that the sequel was not overhyped leading to audiences being underwhelmed at a later time. You see, one of the big reasons sequels fail is because the audience walks into the theaters with a level of expectation that has to met. This level is built on the foundation of the original film. However, Tillu Square makers and the cast did not have to worry about this at all. For once, here is a homegrown comedy franchise that has come out with a successful second outing. I believe that the filmmakers understood their assignment pretty well. They oompahed up the elements that worked wonders for the previous film that came out in 2022, and corrected flaws that could have dragged the film down otherwise.

While DJ Tillu struggled with an unexpected murder in 2022, he is back in Tillu Square, a year after the events took place. He intends to stay away from romantic entanglements but cannot help but look back when Lilly (Anupama Parameswaran) enters his life. After struggling with his situationship/relationship with Radhika (Neha Shetty) in DJ Tillu, you would think that Tillu now knows better. Fortunately for the audience, he doesn’t, and that is the beginning of all things funny in the film.

The main plot doesn’t revolve around a murder in Tillu Square though. It is a great set up with an mafia guy taking the reins, and the humor — be it situational or parodical — plays off without a hitch. There isn’t a false note for the most part and that is the reason why from the beginning until the end the film manages to hooks us right in. There is something about Siddhu as Tillu that is not just charming but also magnetic. He keeps the focus of the audience on screen, and this time, with great support from other cast members, Tillu Square was a wholesome watch. My personal kind of comedies are the offshoots of mistaken identities leading to chaos — from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kamal Haasan’s Panchathanthiram to even ManmadhanAmbu — a dash of chaos does serve comedy well.

The trick is in unravelling this chaos towards the end of the film, and in a way that keeps everyone as entertained as when the chaos ensued in the first place. In a way, DJ Tillu unfortunately did not have a great second half, and I believe this unravelling did not take place as seamlessly as I would have liked. In fact, this happened to be one of the reasons why I was on the wall about the film that was otherwise entertaining. Tillu Square, though, has thankfully managed to get out of this quagmire, and for this reason, I find the film to be all the more endearing.

Yes, not just funny, but also endearing. I found myself endeared by the characters in the film, and their treatment. This film showcases how comedy that is rooted in drawing out the situations in a protagonist’s life is brilliant. The plot is not thick to draw you in, but the situation is, so at no point do you find yourself questioning logic, or loopholes. It is about Tillu’s life, which has never made sense anyway. Tillu finds himself in a situation eerily similar to his past, but also different. He is the underdog again, he is in love with a woman who maybe what we call a walking-talking red flag and for this very reason, the sexism in how he generalises women get swept under the rug. After all, he is speaking from experience. The reason why you cannot really question this line of thought here is because we are rooting for Tillu and the writers have been smart in setting us up from the very beginning. There is really no space for a conversation here, because the story itself is focused on Tillu, his life, his opinions and his one-liners. Sure, I did instinctively want to call out the scene, but also, from Tillu’s perspective, his claims make sense. So instead, it ends up becoming a moment that you take with a pinch of salt.

The one thing that was unfortunate in the film is the makers attempt to include bits and pieces that was a call back to the original. It did not go well with the sequel, and to be honest, the audiences did not need a call back for DJ Tillu continues to be a part of pop culture references even today. We did not need a reminder, and its forceful presence in the film did affect the overall experience that was otherwise endlessly entertaining.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Tillu Square is playing in cinemas

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics.