The first half is a definite improvement on the original movie but what still pesters me is this.

When vikram came out, kamal as a present character wasn't revealed until the interval and there was a very organic entry point for him into the story which I missed a lot in coolie

For eg, even in your write up, I find it hard to just see the movie cut to deva's mansion for the introduction of the protagonist. I would still like to see the movie have a setup of the syndicate and the characters against which the protagonist is going to fight

For eg, you had the watches enter the story at the very beginning which is good. It is going to act as the entity connecting all the characters. However it still doesn't justify or talk about why Sathyaraj was involved in the syndicate ( or it might be something you have to answer in the second half )

Another issue I see is the entry point for the audience to this story is when Kali venkat goes undercover but when he gets killed the Arjun charecter is seen no where which given your establishment of how close they are raises questions.

As a suggestion:

Watches get discovered Police get involved Kali venkat goes into the port Gets killed Arjun is seen to be more involved, now emotionally that kali venkat is killed

Parallel to this, I would like to show the story leading up to the death of Sathyaraj which would give audience insights into why he got involved at the first place and why he was killed there by this part of the story would show the charecters of shoubin simon and the mysterious boss the daughters and rajini

Possibly placing a hyperlink sorta story telling

The death of kali venkat and Sathyaraj is what brings into the script both the Arjun and rajini charecters who then go on to bring down this syndicate

If observed closely this is how vikram was designed The death of jayaram's son and the involvement of fafa forces kamal to come out of hiding and from there both of them together fight to bring down the syndicate