Pushpa 2: The Rule, directed by Sukumar, once again takes us back to the badlands of Chittoor, where we are made privy to the life of the laborer-turned-crime-syndicate leader Pushpa Raj. After watching the animosity increase between Shekhawat and Pushpa, I presumed that that conflict was going to be the central plot of the second film, but it isn’t so. Pushpa 2 is a cumulation of many subplots, and there is no central conflict that binds the narrative together. That said, let’s explore all the major events of the second part of the film to find out what exactly happened between the titular protagonist and his arch-nemesis, IPS Shekhawat.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Pushpa make Siddappa the CM?
Bhumireddy Siddappa Naidu maintained a good relationship with Pushpa, and unlike other politicians, he didn’t hide that fact. Siddapa knew that without Pushpa, he wouldn’t be a part of the ministry, though he felt that his own party often neglected him and gave him the least important portfolios. Siddappa was well aware of the kind of influence and power Pushpa had, and we, too, got a demonstration of that when, at the beginning of the film, Pushpa made all the police officers of a local police station take voluntary retirement with his smuggling money. The issue was that Shekhawat had arrested the men who worked for Pushpa after he conducted a raid at Pushpa’s base, located in the forest. One of those men had their wedding the very next day, and Pushpa was aware of it. When the groom went missing, his family questioned his choices, and they believed that he had committed a blunder by working for Pushpa. The obvious question that the entire family of the boy asked was why Pushpa would help a poor laborer when he had so many other things to handle. But they didn’t know the kind of man Pushpa was. They didn’t know that he was also once a laborer, and he hadn’t forgotten about his days of hardship.
Pushpa barged into the police station, and he asked the inspector to release just that boy since he had his wedding that day. Pushpa would have left only with him, but then he noticed something on the bodies of his men. They had wounds all over their body, and Pushpa just couldn’t turn a blind eye towards it. Shekhawat had beaten them not because he wanted them to testify against Pushpa, but because neither of them spoke a word against their boss. Pushpa got angry and asked the inspector to release everybody. When the police officers told him that by helping him, they would be suspended or fired, Pushpa decided to compensate them fairly and help them retire. This news reached the state’s CM, and a meeting was arranged between him and Pushpa. Before leaving his house, Srivalli, Pushpa’s wife, told him to get a picture clicked with the CM Narasimha Reddy, so that she could frame it in her house. Pushpa loved his wife more than anything else in the world, and whenever she made a wish, Pushpa went to extreme lengths to fulfill it. When Pushpa met the CM, the latter refused to get clicked with him, as he felt that it was not good for his public image and also insulted Pushpa for listening to his wife. Pushpa felt insulted, and at that moment, he decided that he would conduct a coup and make Siddappa the next CM of the state. It was an impulsive decision, but that was how Pushpa was. He even went and announced in front of the media that the CM would come and visit him at his place on a specified date in the future, as he knew that by that point he would be able to gather resources, funds, and support to topple the government.
Did Pushpa apologize to Shekhawat?
Pushpa and Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat had a good equation in the first film, but then things went downhill between them. Shekhawat was hellbent on making Pushpa pay for his actions. Firstly, as stated earlier, he conducted a raid on Puspa’s hidden base in the forest, and then he tried everything in his hand to sabotage his plans. There came a time when Siddappa tried to make both of them resolve their differences, as he knew that if they joined forces, then everybody would benefit from it. Siddapa told Pushpa that he should just come and apologize to Shekhawat, and then he could also lead his life and carry out his businesses peacefully. Pushpa accepted Siddapa’s request, but not because he wanted to apologize to his arch-nemesis. The only reason why he apologized was that the entire crime syndicate blamed Pushpa for the death of one of their members. Actually, it was Shekhawat who had thrown that man off the bridge, but he lied to others that the man had committed suicide.
Now, Mangalam Srinu, for a very long time, had wanted to take revenge on Pushpa. We had seen in Part 1 how Pushpa had become the leader of the syndicate by killing his brother-in-law Mogileesu. Srinu didn’t have the courage to say anything to Pushpa to his face, and so he played all his petty games behind his back. Pushpa came to apologize to Shekhawat, and the latter was over the moon. He couldn’t imagine how Pushpa could agree to such a thing. Pushpa came, apologized, and left the scene, feeling extremely humiliated and embarrassed. Pushpa’s men were well aware that the man wouldn’t be able to tackle such insults. On his way back, Pushpa decided that he was not going to let Shekhawat mock him like that. He went back, and he took his revenge. Pushpa announced that he was going to send a consignment of red sanders, and he challenged Shekhawat that if he caught even a single log of wood, then he would resign from the syndicate. Poor Shekhawat tried his level best, put in all his energy, and applied all his tactical mind, but he wasn’t able to stop the consignment from crossing borders. For a moment or two before Pushpa revealed everything to Shekhawat, the latter believed that he had actually seized the consignment. Later, he learned that the wood was not originally red sanders but Sandra which looks like the red sandalwood from the outside. Shekhawat had announced to the media that the head had seized the consignment, and after he had learned the truth, he didn’t know how to navigate through the issue and how to save his reputation.
Did Pushpa’s family accept him?
Pushpa’s step brothers, Molleti Mohan and Dharma Raj, never accepted him as a part of the family. Even though Kaveri, Mohan Raj’s daughter, time and again tried to make things better between them, nothing could deter Mohan Raj from the path of hatred that he had chosen. Now, things took a drastic turn when Kaveri was abducted by Buggi Reddy, who was a central minister and Pratap Reddy’s nephew. Now Kaveri’s family came to Pushpa for help, and the man didn’t even flinch once before taking the decision of going on a rescue mission. That decisiveness said a thousand words about Pushpa. We had seen earlier in the film how Mohan Raj made sure to hurt Pushpa time and again. This was not the first time that Buggi had tried to molest Kaveri. Earlier, too, he and his men did the same thing at the Gangamma festival, and then Pushpa came and taught them a lesson. Even after Mohan Raj saw what had happened, he said a lot of hurtful things to Pushpa, as if it was his fault that he was not accepted by society and his own family.
Later Pushpa killed Buggi, something he knew would have grave consequences for his and his family’s life in the future. Pushpa knew that Pratap Reddy was not the kind of man who would let go of that issue so easily. He knew that the central minister would try everything in his power to avenge the death of his nephew. But still, Pushpa went ahead and killed Buggi and even Buggi’s father Subba Reddy. At the end of the film, Mohan Raj realized his mistake, and he came to apologize to Pushpa. He invited Pushpa’s family to Kaveri’s wedding, and he knew that his brother was not like him and that he wouldn’t miss his niece’s wedding for the world. Pushpa, Srivalli, and their entire family came to Kaveri’s wedding, and Mohan and Dharma hugged their brother for the first time and cried their hearts out. It felt like Pushpa found that one piece that was missing from his life. But he was wrong, as somebody was lurking in the shadows and waiting for an opportunity to take revenge on Pushpa.
Did Shekhawat kill Pushpa and his family?
Now, before talking about what happened in the end-credit scene, let’s understand what exactly happened with Shekhawat after he suffered a humiliating defeat at Pushpa’s hands. Shekhawat decided to burn the entire consignment down, as he knew that people wouldn’t be able to differentiate if it was real red sanders or something else if it was reduced to ashes. We saw that there was a huge explosion at the warehouse after Shekhawat put it on fire. The logical presumption of anybody watching that scene would have been that Shekhawat died inside the warehouse, but I don’t think that he would go away so conveniently. At the end of the film, a bomb was planted at Kaveri’s wedding venue while a bouquet was delivered at the same time to Pratap Reddy’s place. There was a huge explosion at the venue where Pushpa’s entire family was present, though he didn’t come to know who died and who all survived.
In the next scene, we see a man standing on a cliff and watching Pushpa’s entire family burn to death. Now, the first theory could be that the anonymous mastermind could be Shekhawat, who had come back to take revenge on Pushpa. Shekhawat had every motive to do that, and he also knew that he needed to be on good terms with Pratap Reddy. The enemy of an enemy is a friend, and I believe that Shekhawat believed in that saying. I have a gut feeling that this person could also be an entirely new villain, somebody whom Pushpa would have wronged in the past. Whatever the case might be, I don’t think that Pushpa will die in that explosion. I am pretty sure that he would beat the odds and somehow manage to survive, though I have a feeling that Srivalli would have a miscarriage, and Pushpa won’t be able to see his child. Also, it could be a possibility that, once again, Pushpa and the Molleti family will stop talking to each other. I say that solely because it is because some of the family members may die in the explosion, and the surviving ones would blame Pushpa for the loss. Whatever the case might be, Pushpa will go on a rampage, and he won’t forgive those who tried to kill his family.
