Rating - 5.4:
Overall, a Tollywood sequel with traditional South Indian action sequences and a memorable character performance from Allu Arjun, but the bloated story makes this movie run for a lot longer than it needs to.
Direction - Decent:
The direction on a macroscale is a well-executed, over-the-top action movie, like you see in other Tollywood movies; The direction on a microscale is decent; The storytelling is decent; He builds tension in a way very on par with other Telugu movies
Story - Pretty Bad:
The concept is a standard sequel; The plot structure is pretty simple for the most part, but the final 40 minutes of the movie are completely useless as they start a new storyline; The character writing is good for Pushpa as they continue to build this memorable character for this character-driven franchise
Screenplay - Decent:
The dialogue is decent; the humor is pretty good; the symbolism is somewhat present because the major themes of this movie deal with family and acceptance; the foreshadowing makes the movie pretty predictable
Acting - Decent to Pretty Good:
Allu Arjun - Pretty Good (It really embodies the character and makes its presence known on screen), Rashmika Mandanna - Decent to Pretty Good (Plays the love interest well and has good chemistry with Arjun), Fahadh Faasil - Decent to Pretty Good (Plays the over-the-top villain well), Rest of the cast - Decent (Decent performances throughout really help make the movie enjoyable;)
Score - Decent:
Helps establish the tone of this movie, in a very Telugu way
Soundtrack - Pretty Good:
Pretty good songs, but not as good as the first movie
Cinematography - Pretty Good:
Feels very high-budget, and they do a pretty good job with this;
Editing - Pretty Good:
A lot of fast cuts make this movie feel very South Indian
Sound - Decent:
Very over-the-top sound effects that make this movie feel very South Indian; The ADR was pretty obvious
Visual Effects - Pretty Bad:
Felt a little overproduced as they relied a little too much on it
Production Design - Pretty Good:
Many grand sets help make this movie feel very South Indian
Pacing - Pacing is very slow as it feels like they are dragging the story out;
Climax - Climax is unnecessary, as they added a brand new storyline that added nothing to the original storyline; this could have been cut, and the movie could have been a lot tighter
Tone - Tone is very action-Tollywood.