Tillu Square (2024)

Half the jokes in Tillu Square are callbacks to DJ Tillu, so if you skipped the first one, they sail right past. Siddhu Jonnalagadda is back as Tillu, who has turned last year’s chaos into Tillu Events, a company that books DJs for weddings and parties. At one gig he meets Lilly Joseph, played by Anupama Parameswaran, falls for her immediately and loses her just as fast. When she resurfaces, she invites him, on his birthday, to the very apartment where his trouble with Radhika began a year earlier. Tillu has learned nothing, and that’s the joke. Jonnalagadda sells it with rapid-fire one-liners and the comic timing critics loved, and Parameswaran’s sharp new look gets noticed too. The weak spot is the plot, twist after guessable twist, stretched too long for an impossible-mission caper. The songs help. A 6.3 because Tillu is a riot even when the story isn’t. $418 says you start calling yourself an events company the minute you bring a speaker to a party.

What works: Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s timing and one-liners make Tillu a blast, and the soundtrack keeps the energy up between twists.

What doesn’t: The plot stacks twists that are easy to guess and hard to follow, and the callbacks to the first film often feel forced.

Who it’s for: Fans of DJ Tillu who want more of the same fast-talking mess, and anyone who likes Telugu comedies built around one big personality.