Spoilers ahead…
There are films that cater to the actor, and there are films that cater to the star – in Velayilla Pattathari, Dhanush gets a film where he gets to showcase both sides. In the first half, we see Dhanush as we know him from Selvaraghavan’s early films, a loser named Raghuvaran who just can’t catch a break. But he’s no aimless lowlife. He’s a civil engineer who wants to put his education to use – in other words, he won’t settle for an easy, lucrative BPO job. He shares his life with a father (Samuthirakani) who taunts him constantly, a mother (Saranya) who keeps defending him, and a younger brother (Hrishikesh) who is lighter-skinned, gainfully employed, English-speaking, more wimpy, and, in general, checks off all the “second hero” boxes of a Selvaraghavan movie. The family lives in a cramped home, and the detailing is perfect. The floor doubles as the dining table, a bed doubles as an ironing board, a mirror doubles as a sticker-pottu holder. And the girl next door (Shalini, played by Amala Paul, who’s simply required to look pretty, and does) – richer, fairer – doubles as the love interest.
But Raghuvaran doesn’t obsess over her. He doesn’t want to get into her churidars. There’s hardly a romantic track to speak of – and certainly no silly duets. She keeps trying to kiss him on the mouth, and he keeps resisting (yeah, right!) – though, at first, he does behave like a Selvarghavan hero. He fashions a telescope and ogles at her. (Later, in an unexpectedly touching moment, the gesture is reciprocated.) But he doesn’t get too creepy. There’s a very funny scene where he’s listening to a Tamil gaana song and humming along, and when he catches her staring he switches to a Backstreet Boys number. That’s the general tone of this romance. Along with these rich-girl-poor-boy scenes, we get the sarakku scene (and the accompanying song-and-dance), the fight scene, the amma-sentiment scenes – but these clichés don’t feel like clichés. The director displays a sure hand. You can see that he wants to make a “safe” movie, but he goes about it in as organic a manner as circumstances permit. The lines are snappy (but not showy), the scene segues are fluid. And despite the shadow of Selvarghavan, the film – at least, the first half – isn’t disturbing. It doesn’t gnaw at your insides the way a Selvaraghavan romance does. There are no serrated edges, nothing that signals a director emptying his troubled soul on screen. It’s just… smoothly entertaining. For a while, Velayilla Pattathari plays like a Selvaraghavan movie you can take your mother (and her mother) to.
There’s just one artificial – or cinematic – scene in the first half, involving a sum of money that Raghuvaran intends to use for something else, but even this is redeemed by his reaction, the headiness that he, for a change, happened to be the one holding up the umbrella when it rained. The first real shock comes at interval point – the dramatic development is too heavy a contrivance given how easygoing things have been till then. And Velayilla Pattathari changes tracks, becoming a more overtly commercial proposition. Earlier, the comedy was situational – Raghuvaran begging his rickety moped to cooperate (of course, he drives a rickety moped), or laughing loud when Shalini asks him if he is free the next day. But now, we get a separate comedy track, with Vivek (who gets some funny lines). Suddenly, there’s some sort of second heroine, a villain (a bland Amitesh, bearing the inevitably Brahminical name of Arun Subramaniam). A textured narrative turns unrelentingly black-and-white.
And the actor turns star. It was always Raghuvaran’s story, but earlier, he was one character among many. We saw him the way his mother saw him, and other times, we saw him as his father did. And we saw them too, as they were – the simple woman who describes Titanic in the most reductionist manner, and the exasperated man who wavers between love for his son and anger, regretting a slap, and, the next moment, wishing that a couple of extra blows had been dealt. (Saranya and Samuthirakani settle into their parts beautifully; not a single moment is overplayed.) But now, it’s just Raghuvaran’s movie, with no room for anyone else. Earlier, he watched mega-serials and helped Shalini’s mother with the dishes, and even the fight in the first half had comic overtones – with a standout visual gag where a garden hose faces off with a knife. But now, he becomes one-dimensionally macho, with a six pack and a shirtless scene to go with it. The fights degenerate into those dreary affairs where a number of thugs buy a ticket and wait in line till it’s their turn to be pulped by the hero. Now, the clichés really begin to feel like clichés, all the way to the predictable end.
But Dhanush acts his heart out, and I just couldn’t look away. He aces the small moments in the first half – like the one where Raghuvaran tells Shalini he isn’t jealous of his brother who’s just bought a car. He pauses a beat, just a beat, and then admits that he is jealous, just a little. And he’s terrific in the scene where he finally gives in to accumulated sorrow, letting the tears flow – the stretch is all the more remarkable because we don’t actually see the breakdown, which happens off-screen. As for his long, show-stopping monologue, delivered in an unbroken close-up, I’ll have to watch the film again to have an opinion on it – the audience around me depleted their lungs by whistling non-stop. This, then, is Velraj’s achievement. He’s given actor-Dhanush fans half a movie to love, and he’s handed over the rest to fans of star-Dhanush. Is there much use complaining when both actor and star are in such fine form?
KEY:
* Velaiyilla Pattathari = A graduate without a job
* “second hero” = see here
* sticker-pottu = see here
* amma-sentiment scene = see here
* sarakku = booze
* serrated edges = see here
* Vivek = see here
* fight = see here
* actor-Dhanush + star-Dhanush = see here
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2014 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Ragul Thangavel
July 19, 2014
Watch Arima Nambi legally on http://www.herotalkies.com
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MANK
July 19, 2014
For a while, Velayilla Pattathari plays like a Selvaraghavan movie you can take your mother (and her mother) to.
Ha, Ha, LOL. Great review. but selvaragavan has been moving away from this obsessed stalker story in last couple of films, so pls cut him some slack!.
As for his long, show-stopping monologue, delivered in an unbroken close-up, I’ll have to watch the film again to have an opinion on it – the audience around me depleted their lungs by whistling non-stop.
Brangan,Glad to know that you too are human 🙂 . I am always amazed at your superhuman power at analysing scenes and recollecting dialogues verbatim in the first viewing itself.So does this also mean that the you liked the movie well enough to go for a second viewing?.
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Aravindan
July 19, 2014
>>Later, in an unexpectedly touching moment, the gesture is reciprocated>>
Exactly. I really really liked the scene. I quite liked the “first half”. But after the sudden dramatic scene the film quickly became *shabba*. (Also, when the film left the hero’s house to the construction areas which it is not quite aware of). (The father quite aptly says at one point – இவனோட அம்மா சென்ட்டிமெண்ட் டார்ச்சர் என்னாலயே தாங்க முடியல)
It was so wonderful to watch the crowd applaud not just for “heroic” scenes but also his performance otherwise. They just love watching him. And something that I have been observing – the viewers very reluctantly only admit when a film tries to get “serious” – especially after you have so much fun. They try to crack some jokes, they end up laughing at inappropriate places but finally give in. சரி, சீரியஸ் ஆகித் தொலயணுமா, தொலயறோம் level. (Not sure how much this has to do with how not so good / bad these scenes were anyway). And when Vivek cracks an excellent “சாரி சார், நானும் general audience மாதிரி react பண்ணிட்டேன்” amusingly it was so well received 🙂
And is this the first time Abbas Kiarostami’s name graces Tamil screens? (She gifts him “Close Up” DVD). இதுல என்னவோ ஒரு பெரும.
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nishanth
July 19, 2014
What do you think about how this is just the nth time Dhanush is having very troubled relations with his on-screen dad? Does it come across as cliched? What makes an actor choose such an aspect of a role repeatedly. Just that it has worked earlier or is it a quest to outdo every expression? Or is it something truly personal to dhanush via a via kasthuri raja?
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cl
July 19, 2014
‘ those dreary affairs where a number of thugs buy a ticket and wait in line till it’s their turn to be pulped by the hero. ‘
🙂
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brangan
July 19, 2014
MANK: No, no. Not seeing it again.As in, “unless I watch it again, I can’t really tell.”
Aravindan: I really really liked the film till that breakdown scene. The roof tent was a brilliant touch. Then, of course, as you say, shabba. But still, several notches about the Veeram/Jilla levels of shabba.
Regarding “They just love watching him…” I love watching him too. He’s a very unique actor. He doesn’t really disappear into a role. You can see his image, his persona all the time. But within that zone, he gives extraordinary variations. As I said, imagine what an Ajith or a Vijay would have done in VIP’s second half.
” இதுல என்னவோ ஒரு பெரும.”
LOL!
nishanth: As long as it’s not boring, why not? But that said, I think there are daddy issues at work here. See this interview with Selvargahavan.
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k
July 20, 2014
First up, I’ve got a new broadband connection and have been devouring tamil movies from 2011-14, for which your site is one of my only two markers, the other being a Tamil movie buff friend whose views I respect. And going by these two parameters I have hardly ever watched a boring movie.
There have been times I got a sense of what to expect from a movie just by talking to my friend or by reading your review.
Tonight, for the first time, I feel compelled to leave a comment cos I found the review disappointing. For the record I watched the movie earlier this evening before I read this review.
So my mind was made about the movie before I read this.
My basic problem is that while talking about the two dhanushes, the review doesn’t tell me 1. If it achieved what it set out to do,and 2. If it would appeal to anyone, besides the lead actor’s fans.
Setting my opinion on these two counts aside, this is one of your reviews that doesn’t say much to a neutral reader. The previous one being Raanjhana.
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Afridi
July 20, 2014
Do villains really inevitably bear a brahmanical surname? Don’t most characters in Tamil films usually go by a first name basis? Or did you mean that this was inevitable in a Selvaraghavan movie (or for a bland actor)?
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Venky
July 21, 2014
Hey, what new did you see in this movie that Dhanush has not done earlier? I didn’t see anything different. Ya, he had a longish dialogue that he delivered well, but isn’t that what you would expect of an actor with 25 movies under his belt. Agreed, he is a decent singer and dancer, but how does this movie add to his repertoire. And come on, busloads of people coming to help you just because you put up a FB post????? And that too for free???? Which world are you living in? At the most, I would have expected a lot of likes or maybe a post on change.org. Yes, there were some nice moments but overall, I was disappointed.
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Venky
July 21, 2014
Also, the movie (though I know it is not a PSA) displays complete disregard for organ donation rules when it shows an organ recipient happily walking into the house of a donor, when the rules forbid the registry from giving the name of one to the other.
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brangan
July 21, 2014
And gt this via email:
Mr.Rangan,
I read your review of Velai Illa Pattathari. I do appreciate that your style of review have changed a little bit over the last few months – especially the “review for the dummies” synopsis box.
Here’s some gap worth remembering when you write the review next time:
– Story/Script review? Almost all the movies that are successfull have a pretty good script. There’s no mention of the script here. Is it just non-existent or did you not bother to review it?
– Broader message? – There ought to be a message that the director attempted and especially in the current economic context where IT industry thrives whereas all the industry takes a backseat – and a horrific reminder of what happens when things like these percolate into our society – collapse of a multi story building scrupulously built to satisfy the ever growing demands of the public.
And there are many more bones to pick – but I am sure you get the gist.
Now where I really have an issue is your perceived casteism resulting out of clouded r”eview goggles” – a specific reference to “Brahminical” Arun Subramaniam, who’s the villain in the movie. I couldnt find any reference to the character being a Brahmin – so not sure where you got the hang of that caste?
Just because the guy happens to be lighter skinned (and Dhanush’s brother seems to have the same skin type) and has a name “Arun Subramaniam – doesnt make him a Brahmin.
Here’s what I would like you to see – raise your voice against casteist references to TV Ad’s that explicitly and unabashedly intone Brahminical references all over – like the Cinthol Ad – where there’s an Iyer in the name, Horlicks Ad – just to name a few, before bringing up your perceived slight on caste.
I want to see the Brahminical reference taken out of your review. Pls dont assume/presume thing that do not exist in that movie.
Thanks,
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brangan
July 21, 2014
k: Thanks. But I’m afraid my reviews aren’t of much use when it comes to deciding the “watchability” of a movie. But that said, I do think this is a fairly positive review (which means, as per your point 1, the film did do what it set out to do).
Afridi: Not villains. But opponents. This, to my eyes, is just taking the “versus” thing in these films one step further. Dark skin versus fair skin. English-speaking versus non-English-speaking. Rich versus poor. And now this reference to (what could be inferred as) “those guys who get all the breaks in life and make lots of money”.
I am not saying this is a problem. If it was done intentionally, it’s a narrative trick to make the target audience cheer for the hero some more. But it just appeared strange to me that this chap was constantly addressed by that full name — I mean, why not just call him Arun? Then it occurred to me that MAYBE this was something done for “versus” purposes.
Venky: Why should the evaluation of a movie depend on whether the actor has done this earlier? All that matters is what’s done is done well.
Also “change.org…”? We *are* talking about mainstream cinema, right?
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c4c
July 21, 2014
In his recent movies, Dhanush seems to be making a conscious effort to mimic Superstars’ mannerisms, expressions, especially in the way he smokes & in some comedy scenes.
I had always hoped he would go after Kamal’s crown.
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Afridi
July 21, 2014
brangan: Fair enough. I haven’t seen the film but I was just curious about your statement on the ‘inevitable’ brahmanical name of an opponent, and whether you thought that was universal.
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venkatesh
July 21, 2014
c4c: Yes yes yes , I mentioned this a few years back; he seems to be consciously doing this.
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Prabhu
July 21, 2014
Good review Mr.Rangan.Overall the movie was good.. Also did you notice the scene when dhanush talks about the jammer and how it would disable any electronic device in vicinity.. If that’s the case then how come his hd camera worked??I think the scriptwriters got caught in their own web there.. Apart from that him swearing that he wont hit anyone in one scene and getting into a fight the very next scene was funny…. Also so many engineers coming forward to work for him for free.. really. And the villain dhanush said it himself “unna patha villain feel eh varala”..
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vijay
July 22, 2014
BR, Mariyaan, Ranjhana and now this… it sure sounds like you have some sort of man-crush on Dhanush 🙂 If it weren’t the professional critic in you tempering your reaction I have a feeling that you might have emptied your lungs out too. Or maybe you were already doing it in your mind.
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SK
July 22, 2014
Forget appa issues, the moral of this story is that a mama’s boy truly matures only after the umblical organs have been duly harvested. 😛
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TheKomentor
July 22, 2014
I knew the moment I read the word brahmanical in the review that there would be a bunch of velayilla people baying for your blood.
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Mambazha Manidhan
July 22, 2014
“stretch is all the more remarkable because we don’t actually see the breakdown, which happens off-screen.”
It was a powerful moment indeed.
Also, Sudhish Kamath delivered a cracker of a performance as the villain Arun Subramaniam. He looked a bit different though. Maybe, it was filmed when he was young-u.
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oneWithTheH
July 23, 2014
Mambazha Manidhan:
Sudhish Kamath from The Hindu? I watched the film after reading your comment and repeatedly was trying to figure if it was really him. Please tell me that was not him!
These Anirudh musical have a definite trend oflate – excellent pre interval, terrible post – VIP and the 2 sivakarthikeyan movies.
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Cinemakkaran
July 24, 2014
Watched VIP last night, Both halves were different as chalk and cheese. First half reminded me of other Dhanush movies I have seen (The kinda families portrayed in Polladhavan, Yaradi Nee Mohini so on). Second half was the kind of Tamil movies that I stay away from. He probably was channelizing his superstardom. I have this theory that Dhanush the actor and Dhanush the star are completely different entities and at times at least in this movie he is winning over a villain just coz it was meant to be like that in the script.
P.S:That Arun Subramaniam guy has a slight resemblance to Sudhish Kamath. But as far as his acting skill goes that probably is on par with Sudhish Kamath’s film making skills.
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sai16vicky
July 24, 2014
@Mambazha Manidhan : That was Amitash Pradhan and not Sudish Kamath. LOL 🙂
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Mambazha Manidhan
July 24, 2014
@onewithTheH haha.. My work here is done.
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Sanjay Kumar
July 25, 2014
there are enough references about villains’ demeanor location his slang his disjointed family and most importantly his name such as maari soori makeshu in numerous films to easily tell what his social standing or what his caste is…that stereotype exceeds far more than a supposedly a brahmin villain in few films here and there…a typical fat brahmin remark can at worst be called ad hominem, but a dark skinned dalit harms dalits more because of the asymmetry in social standing between the two…(if it affected equally i would have seen more poor brahmins cleaning toilets instead of being a yezha purohitar in temples)
this is as simple as it gets while taking offense at portrayal of certain oppressed communities…
//I knew the moment I read the word brahmanical in the review that there would be a bunch of velayilla people baying for your blood.//
i do not who this person is but one vendugol: “ayya baddy postla ellam yezhuthiveenga aana neenga vela pankareenga, mathavenga post yezhuthunaa vela ellama irrukkoma”! How privileged is your worldview
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Anuja
July 27, 2014
“Is there much use complaining when both actor and star are in such fine form?”
I’ll have to disagree there… The actor was in fine fettle as always but Dhanush the wannabe maarana mass star wasn’t in the same league. His dramatic monologue was just painful to watch especially since somebody like STR could have pulled it off in his sleep (as he ought since he has been nailing it from his little superstar days). Dhanush’s turns as a star are indicative of the fact that he seems to find the whole thing more than a little ludicrous and it shows for he can’t really sell it. However I thought he was more effective during his showdown with Amul baby’s father but even there I felt the credit would have to be shared with Velraj, the director for his deft touch.
Still, Dhanush was absolutely delightful in the first half and it is reason enough to give the film a watch. I am really loving the kind of films he opts to be a part off…
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palani...
July 27, 2014
I don’t know why, but I feel that Dhanush is unknowingly following Superstar’s laid out path.
This movie resembles more of Rajnikanth’s fighting against odds movies, they are still good to watch. I think this movie will push him towards the most coveted status.You know what I mean 😉
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sridhar270
July 28, 2014
The most amazing thing/revelation in the movie was the fact that there was a not a single woman-engineer WITHOUT A JOB! Amazing empowerment, eh?
And what is this constant fixation on using “potta” as a derogatory word! Not once, not twice, but three times!
I loved the first half, but the second half was so bad that I can’t look at this movie with too much of fondness. 😦
I am a huge fan of Dhanush, but his movie choices after Mariyaan are grating. He has KV Anand’s Anegan, on which I have very little hope.
Maybe Balki’s next. But what about Selvaraghavan? Nothing with Dhanush?
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Srinivas R
July 28, 2014
Actually Dhanush-Vetrimaran combination works very well in achieveing this star-actor balance. Hope they have something planned soon.
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Meenakshi
July 30, 2014
Was it my imagination or did the “amul baby” comment refer to Rahul Gandhi? I thought it was a strong Rahul taunt because it used “amul baby” and “you are nothing without your father’s name tagging behind your own” dialogue.
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Rahini David
July 30, 2014
I saw this movie yesterday (unimpressed).
“But it just appeared strange to me that this chap was constantly addressed by that full name — I mean, why not just call him Arun?”
There are two other instances in tamil movies where the actor is addressed by his full name repeatedly.
1. Sanjay Ramasamy
2. Santhosh Subramaniam
The point seems to be that they are daddy’s boys. In all three cases they inherit their daddy’s huge business. It is actually spelled out during one of those punch dialogue spells that Raghuvaran unleashes on Arun.
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Priya
August 22, 2014
Dear Mr. Rangan, lovely summary + review for this nice film. I just happened to watch this movie, and after that I was looking to read the review done by you. So, here I am !! Good read.
Look forward to more such sensible, feel-good reviews.
Regards,
Priya
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Rajeev Hari Kumar
September 21, 2014
Spot on! The first half was fairly engrossing, and I really liked the older brother-younger brother angle that they touched upon. The second half, however, felt like a completely different film. I felt like I was watching a re-run of “Thiruvalaiyadal Aarambam”.
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Raghav
June 19, 2015
I happened to watch the movie in both the languages (Tamil and Telugu).I was impressed by the dialogues in the telugu version.
For Ex:during the scene where Vivek is overlooked for the project handed over to Dhanush,the dialogue (in the tamil version) by the boss is simply that “Dhanush is more capable” to which Vivek murmurs something to the effect of “I’ve been here for more than 10 years” or some such.
The same scene in the telugu version has the boss saying “one rice grain is enough to inform you if the rice is well cooked” to which Vivek murmurs” But I’ve been cooking all this while here..!”
Unable to recall a few more of them but on the whole the dialogues enhanced my movie experience
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Viraj Gurjar
November 28, 2022
I am Marathi person who generally likes
Hindi Movie SONGS, English pictures and Marathi Plays.
However now a days I have taken liking to South movies and stars such as Mamooty, Allu Arjun and Mohanlal. After seeing just opening of movie VIP I am thoroughly floored by ease with which Dhanush plays the character of Raghu.I might add that I was also fan of his mind boggling song which was popular throughout India which was rarity for South film at that time.
Best wishes for future.
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Raghu Narayanan
November 28, 2022
@Viraj Gurjar: Great to see that you have added more variety your list and even more happy that you are open minded enough to appreciate diversity in language as well as cinema. Kudos!
If, as a fellow movie-enthusiast, I could egg you further on your journey, I would do so my requesting you to not use a rather wholesale bracket of ‘South’ movies in referring to movies coming from the south of India. I am sure you know that there are actually 4 different movie industries operating in this part of the country. Each bring a fantastically original, vibrant and unique dimension to movies. So it could help you appreciate the movies, and what these individual industries bring to the table, at a vastly higher level if you perceive and refer to these as Malayalam, Tamizh, Kannada and Telugu movie industries.
Based on my observation, this practice of referring to any movie coming out of these 4 industries as a ‘South’ movie is prevalent among the Bollywood film stars, which I have been ascribing to either their ignorance or indifference or both. I hope that we, as fellow consumers, can be as discerning in our references as we are in selecting and appreciating good movies.
And one quick tip at the end, try watching these in their original language (I dont know how you do it, so am just going by some assumption here, apologies for the same) with sub-titles if you can. The originality does come thru better, speaking just from my experience. I have seen that when some of these movies get dubbed in Hindi, they do not cross over all that well, barring a few exceptions. Happy watching more and more ‘South’ movies :-).
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Viraj Gurjar
November 28, 2022
Dear Raghu Narayanan,
Happy to note your appreciation. By great coincidence your name is also Raghu which in ne of hero in movie Tip which adds to my pleasure.
Regarding clubbing together 4 languages films South Movies kindly note that if one decides to go really deep into the subject in all probability we may loose our way. So it is better to generalize than make blunders.
If you make the songs as appealing to us as Bollywood numbers (particularly of60s and 70s),I shall not hesitate to see them in original language even it may pass over my head.
Because if there is one field where Bollywood has scored e en now it is songs.
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