‘Lambodhara 2.0’ movie review: Suni’s ambitious experiment lacks emotional heft

Suni’sLambodhara 2.0 is a better film than his Moda Kavida Vatavarana, which was released in June this year. However, it continues to suffer from the shortcomings that have plagued the career of the once-promising filmmaker from the Kannada film industry.

Lambodhara 2.0 explores the pertinent idea of data being one of the most powerful resources in the world. It asks its viewers if they are willing to let data influence their emotions. However, with reasonably impressive VFX and a serious theme, the movie had to be compelling to make an impression.

Suni’s attempt falls short due to his poor execution. The film moves at a sluggish pace in the first half thanks to silly humour, a trademark in Suni’s movies, as the director remains firm in his belief that such jokes appeal to the young crowd.

Part of the movie’s problem is also its eerie similarity to the Tamil movie Love Insurance Kompany (2026), starring Pradeep Ranganathan and directed by Vignesh Shivan. In LIK, a ring-like gadget monitors relationships of couples, while in Lambodhara 2.0, a wristband measures people’s happiness score.

In the Tamil movie, the matchmaking corporation is run by the antagonist (played by SJ Suriyah), and in the Kannada film, Kunal Kapoor, who plays the villain, is the founder of the tech-driven experiment. What’s more, SJ Suryah’s character has a humanoid robot girlfriend, and in Lambodhara 2.0, Kunal Kapoor’s character has an assistant, Jia, a real humanoid robot.

Lambodhara 2.0 stumbles on emotions, as most of the actors, except perhaps the female lead (Saachi Bindra), are robotic in their performances. The most jarring one comes from Kunal Kapoor, the seasoned Hindi actor, who perhaps found it hard to crack Kannada.

The hero, debutant Anil Shetty, is understandably raw, as he struggles to carry the weight of his character. Anil plays a hacker who falls in love with a psychologist (Saachi). While he indulges in the ‘Happiest Person In India’ challenge, she is against tech addiction.

Just like in LIK (oops, one last comparison!), Lambodhara 2.0 too has the major plot point of the protagonist taking on the evil-minded tech mogul after his romantic breakup. The movie has some interesting dialogues (co-written by filmmaker Abhijit Mahesh) on data’s potential to rule the world.

But the film is undone by its predictability. Even as characters exhibit shock at the so-called big reveals, for a regular film watcher, the twists are far from shocking. Eventually, Lambodhara 2.0 follows the trend ushered in by Kantara, ending with a divine intervention.

However, the movie needed saving from underwhelming writing. Lambodhara 2.0 is currently running in theatres