equanimus

It is important for the film that nothing fatal happens to the kids, for instance. When it does dwell on their suffering, it is only to raise broader questions about the conditions that create the suffering and our apathy towards this kind of livelihood we quietly look past.

And this is all to say, IF viewed through this frame of reference, it is not IMO a painful watch like what most folks (well-meaning no doubt...) typically find it to be.

Stated differently, it's hard for me to imagine nearly the same effect in the portrayal of Krishna's character (his quarrels with Panjabi and touch-and-go friendship with Muthusamy) with a less graver turn of events. It is all, well, for dramatic effect.

Actually, this film more or less demands the viewer to go past the tragic events in the lives of the hero and his family. Its deeper rewards are elsewhere, I'd argue. But the stakes are made starkly higher by the dramatic events and the artifice of the fight against the villains.

MAHANADHI, actually. It's remarkable how fluidly it segues into dealing with broader questions with the 2nd hour set fully in the prison.

Important question. Please RT.

But what we still don't have: a culture of articulation wherein such straight-faced comparative analysis should not merely raise eyebrows or awkward silences but open up discussions where interlocutors even on the side of Tamil cinema don't frame things in an apologetic manner.

The kids have seen all of that and still can't have enough of our own filmmaking culture and storytellers doing their own thing.

I am generally positive (and has only got better in last decade!) about the world of movie buffs and the general cinephilia around us. All the Charu Niveditas, Karundhels and Arun Mos have quietly receded. It's not anymore automatically cool to point to the outside world.

And invested in a range of artistic concerns that are simply wider than Tarantino's. I imagine the filmmakers practising in Tamil cinema themselves learn to grow out of this undue adulation over time. I'd really start with the critics! There, I said it.

I'd seriously like more of this! Individual people's reasons might differ here and there but overall we need to learn to talk about our filmmakers on their own merits. I for one have long found Karthik Subbaraj more interesting than Quentin Tarantino!

Film Twitter, search is dead. Pls do your thing. There's this video/short meme that film buffs use. Wherein someone asks them, "சினிமால்லாம் பாப்பீங்களா?" And in their mind-voice, they're going like "பாப்பீங்களாவா?" and a collage of movie moments they grew up watching plays.

Unfortunate!

Style wise, that is. Say this wrt your note about perfect predictability. Overall arc, one could characterise Abishan's directorial as similarly pandering but the way it goes about it is charming (to this viewer).