After two years of the first film DJ Tillu, its sequel Tillu Square is released. It comes as no surprise that the makers of the movie thought of part deux and set it in motion instantly. There are no superheroes, spies or any such assortments commonly found in franchising films but what it does have is a cartoonishly exaggerated protagonist (played by ‘Starboy’ Siddhu Jonnalagadda), who doubles down on his relatability quotient with never-ending stream of observational witticisms. The character is so colourful, even the people around him are instantly memorable by their interactions with Tillu. It almost feels like they’ve jumped worlds from one to another. Or did they?
The movie opens, for reasons best known to itself, not being named after events that take place exactly a year after DJ Tillu much like a second season would start. Our hero and his cronies seem to have upgraded their lives from all the money he made conning those who conned him in the previous film. Where he described his deejaying career as scratch untadhi in part one, we see him running an event management company in part two while moonlighting as a DJ.
If that wasn’t awfully convenient, we also see a bride claim to be his die-hard fan. In another scene from the film, he’s offered over two million rupees to play at a party but this isn’t where you question his popularity or skillset as a DJ for starters, it’s not about that. But you can’t also go all out and accuse the film of being illogical, every plot detail of this movie throws back to something else in an earlier instalment. Of course he’s still a DJ even though he got wealthy overnight; he might have moved into a bigger house than before but neighbourhood aunties are still on his case. Tillu might have been asked to get a job in the previous film, but he’s now being egged on to get a wife only that Radhika (Neha Sshetty)’s emotional scars, immortalised by the retellings of his own misery, still live here.
He remains cynical even as he’s seen flirting with different women (Priyanka Jawalkar makes a blink and miss cameo). Enter Lilly (Anupama Parameswaran) aka Radhika 2.0. Against his own better judgement, Tillu falls in love with her. And soon enough, trouble befalls him again. In a way, Tillu (DJ, Square) is every male writer’s comprehensive character sketch of every young man.
Yes they fall in love and make terrible self-destructive mistakes and their hearts get broken. Yet they will go out of their way to help the very women who have stubbed their hearts like cigarettes on an ashtray. But the male writers of this movie were smart enough to not give us mawkishly sanctimonious treatment of their observations of men. Thankfully sentimentality is doing backseat driving in this comedy ride.
The pursuit to understand women goes on. It is the same with his Krishna and His Leela and Maa Vintha Gaadha Vinuma movies as an actor screenwriter although they are completely different from the Tillu franchise in every sense of the word. Rather than that class and first world trappings of his previous films, he has exchanged them with riotous lines like “aa notlo pedatharu pedda mudda” Siddhu Jonnalagadda made a name for himself by taking up what he loves most into entertaining settings.
Usually direct sequels send their characters into a new timeline and new-ish situations but Tillu Square backtracks its way through its predecessor’s beats quite literally. They started from satire on habits of rich people (keto diet, activated charcoal mask etc) to parodying Tollywood’s current fascination with spy movies.
Murali Sharma is barely convincing as the feared gangster Sheikh Mehboob who happens to be the latest addition to this franchise but maybe that’s part of it all. While Neha Sshetty’s Radhika was always called femme fatale, Anupama’s Lilly in typical sequel fashion outdoes Radhika so much you wonder why Radhika was even called femme fatale in the first place. Soothing and competent without being too safe one-liners of Tillu Square work their way through huge expectations set by its predecessor.
They’re better than they look on paper thanks in no small part to Siddhu’s performance. Bottom line it deserves as much credit for its delivery man as it does for everything else about itself. It is open season for Tillu’s zingers, ranging from patriotism to piles.
Before this movie came out, Siddhu Jonnalagadda said that Tillu Square would do better if seen alone rather than as a sequel, I disagree entirely because I think this film works best when viewed after seeing the original. It is as though at times where it could have focused on its pacing, Tillu Square stops for a beat or two so as to sync with DJ Tillu’s moves if not imitate them.
Older actors from first film especially Muralidhar Goud as Tillu’s father come back with solid performances never missing a single beat. Anupama Parameswaran however is not in the same league. While she is generally good actress, she remains detached by a few notches failing to fully match up Lilly’s vagueness.
All said and done what next for Tillu? Tillu Cube? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Siddhu decides to expand on this franchise a Rubik’s cubes or QUBE copies joke might not be far off.
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