Trailer: SADHURAM 2 Looks to Recreate the Success of SAW

Sadhuram 2 is "India's First Philanthropical Thriller." So says the tagline on the first look poster for Sumanth Radhakrishnan's upcoming thriller. This Tamil language film has been in the works for over two years now, with its first teaser having appeared online back in 2014, but it is finally making its debut on Indian cinema screens this week on September 16.

There are obvious creative debts owed to the Saw franchise, and in particular the first film, in this trailer for Sadhuram 2. However, unlike Indian films of the past where foreign films were ripped off wholesale, these days remakes are typically licensed and this appears to be the case for Sadhuram 2.

According to an interview given to The Indian Express, the film was authorized by the Saw team and the director had this to say about the connection:

“We’ve given credit to Saw. My music director Girish met someone from the team of Saw long back and authorization was given to make the film. We haven’t made anything as gory as Saw, because frankly you can’t, given our censorship rules."

Curiously, the film is not a sequel, but the first film of a potential franchise. The director stated that he wanted to title it as Sadhuram 2 because the film has an ambiguous beginning and end. Kind of an outré touch, if you ask me.

Now as far as the tagline, I'm not entirely sure what a "philanthropical thriller" is, but the director's concept seems to be that the film has socially conscious thematic elements and that qualifies as philanthropic. Not sure I buy that, but at least the tagline caught my eye, so job done.

Sadhuram 2 is scheduled to release in Tamil Nadu theaters on Friday, September 16.