L2: The ending of Empuraan revolved primarily around the resolution of two subplots: Zayed Masood's revenge and Priyadarshini Ramdas's rise to the leadership of the IUF (Indian Trade Union Front). So, back in 2002, when a train fire sparked communal riots, Balraj Patel, Munna, and their group of religious fanatics murdered Zayed's family and several members of his community. A few months later, Zayed was kidnapped by a terrorist group that wanted young people like him to fight communalism with communalism.
But Khureshi Ab'raam (aka Stephen Nedumpally) saved him from falling down that path and recruited him into his elite group of international vigilantes who helped the weak and eliminated tyrants. Meanwhile, Balraj and Munna founded their political party in northern India, ASM (Akhanda Shakti Morcha), and between 2024 and 2025, they entered Kerala through the IUF (PKR).
Director: Prithviraj Sukumaran
Writer: Murali Gopy
Stars: Mohanlal, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Rick Yune
After becoming Chief Minister six years earlier, Jathin Ramdas had become a corrupt politician and wanted to usher in an era of communal politics in his state. When the IUF wouldn't let him, he left the party, formed the IUF (PKR), and allied himself with Balraj. Therefore, all eyes were on Priyadarshini. If she succeeded in convincing the public as the IUF leader, both Balraj and Jathin would be vulnerable. Stephen would have to seize that opportunity to hand Balraj over to Zayed and also instill fear in Jathin.
Stephen left the IUF in Jathin's hands, hoping that he would adhere to the political party's principles: equality, fraternity, and secularism. Above all, he assumed that Jathin would not betray the people of his country. But, over the course of six years, I presume Jathin began to absorb the propaganda of North Indian politicians and believed that the people of his state were, in fact, communal by nature and only pretending to be secular. Since Balraj had built his political career on communalism, Jathin thought that making him his ally would allow him to add fuel to the fire of alleged intolerance in Kerala, thereby extending his reign of corruption.
However, I don't think Jathin really cared about religion or what his voters wanted. He wanted the criminal cases that central agencies had filed against him over the past six years to go away, and he wanted to receive central government funding for the check dam that the state government was building (reportedly with some support from the Koreans), most of which he would divert to fill his coffers. He knew that Balraj wanted access to Kerala's airports and docks to smuggle all kinds of illegal goods. If Balraj benefited from this, Jathin would also receive a share of that money, which would fuel his future political campaigns. So what if the structure of his state crumbled? Power and uninterrupted corruption were what Jathin craved most, and he wanted to sit on the throne for the rest of his life.
Now, Jathin had the courage and arrogance to do all this because Stephen hadn't shown up for the past five or six years. But when he learned that Stephen had allegedly died in Iraq, where he was attending a meeting with Kabuga, Jathin didn't hesitate to threaten Priyadarshini, believing that the IUF's moral compass had perished with Stephen. Priyadarshini was expected to attend a protest against the aforementioned check dam, as its construction would ruin the lives of the residents of Nedumpally.
Until then, she was a figurehead of the IUF, being the daughter of PK Ramdas (PKR), and not actively involved in politics. However, attending that rally would essentially mean that she had taken over from PKR and was ready to lead the IUF. Jathin knew that would weaken his political position. Therefore, he directly ordered Priyadarshini not to go on stage to berate him and his government. The funny thing is that Priyadarshini had no intention of going to that protest in the first place. Just before Jathin called her, she was literally telling him that she didn't want to oppose her own brother so openly. If Jathin hadn't said anything, Priyadarshini wouldn't have launched into her most polite speech about the state government's shortcomings; Jathin might have had a chance to scratch Balraj's back, and Balraj would have scratched hers. That said, since Jathin stepped forward, Priyadarshini managed to divert the public's attention from any kind of communalism to government corruption.
Desperate to downplay Priyadarshini's scheme, Balraj, Munna, and I.B. Officer Karthik ordered a group of thugs to kill her ruthlessly. Stephen and his army of elite operatives showed up to rescue her, and he ordered her to take charge of the IUF while he hunted down Jathin, Munna, and Balraj to punish them for their sins. To be clear, Jathin had no idea that Munna, Balraj, and Karthik had orchestrated the attack. Karthik told him that revolutionary terrorists had attacked her, and Jathin believed him.
Jathin thought he was the smartest of the bunch, but in reality, those North Indian politicians were manipulating him like a marshal. To be fair, Balraj wasn't all that clever either, because by sending the NIA to arrest Priyadarshini on some flimsy money-laundering charges, he actually rallied the public around her even more. They probably felt that the central government was suppressing dissenting voices in the state just after the national party (which had formed the central government) joined forces with a fractured wing of a regional party, which was also the voice of the PKR's daughter, and they couldn't allow that to happen. Thus, Stephen and Priyadarshini's gamble paid off.
At that time, the ASM-IUF (PKR) alliance was at its weakest and most desperate point, so much so that they forgot to give Sajanachandran, the key man in bringing Balraj and Jathin together, what he deserved. So Stephen struck hard. He kidnapped Jathin and Munna, and while Jathin was taken to an abandoned oil rig in the middle of the ocean, Munna was taken to the spot where Zayed's family and members of his community were mercilessly murdered. After berating Jathin for his transgressions, Stephen summoned Balraj and forced him to report to where Munna was being held. As soon as Balraj saw Munna bloodied and mangled, the bomb attached to the skin of his back exploded.
This was followed by a brutal beating of Balraj and his men, which ended with Zayed gunning Balraj down, drowning him in the swamp that Zayed had to cross as a child to escape the religious fanatics fanning the flames of communalism. I thought this moment was a kind of wish-fulfillment scene for writer Murali Gopy and director Prithviraj Sukumaran because, in real life, it is impossible to punish the butchers who have seized control of national politics after turning their state into a communal hellhole. So, just as Quentin Tarantino killed Hitler in Inglourious Basterds, the makers did the same with you-know-who (I'll let you speculate), thus breaking with any kind of realism. However, I was wrong, because killing Balraj and Munna completed Zayed's revenge saga, but it worsened the country's political landscape.
L2: The ending of Empuraan revealed that the ASM had started riots to protest Balraj's disappearance. Whether those protesters cared about Balraj or not didn't matter, but it hinted that someone, probably more vicious than Balraj and Munna combined, could present him as a martyr and use his death to commit all kinds of collective crimes in Kerala. Namely, a terrorist faction of the ASM had apparently planted bombs in the state's existing dam with the intention of harming the people. Just because the police prevented it once doesn't mean something of that magnitude couldn't happen again. Priyadarshini, who was freed from the NIA's ties according to the agreement reached between Stephen and Balraj before the latter's death, had a tough road ahead of her. Yes, the film presented it as a moment of triumph, but if you think about it, she's entered the world of politics at its most volatile. Some will confuse the IUF with the IUF (PKR). Communal politics will experience a boom. And she has to live up to her father's legacy. Of course, Stephen and his colleagues will help her from the sidelines. That said, she must ensure the public is on her side and willing to reject intolerance to save the nation.
What happened to Jathin while all this was happening? After learning of the deaths of Balraj, Munna, and Karthik (who was shot by a young protégé of Stephen's), Jathin felt despondent. He had hit rock bottom, and to help him out of that predicament, Stephen gave him two options. Jathin could rejoin the IUF as a regular party member and serve the people until his last breath, or suffer the same fate as Balraj or Bobby (Lucifer's main antagonist and Priyadarshini's late second husband). Jathin didn't give Stephen a clear answer. Perhaps he planned to prove himself by his actions upon returning home. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
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