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December, 2017

  1. Romance in Tamil Cinema

    December 29, 2017 by Ajay

    Selvaraghavan once said in an interview promoting his new film that he was going to show us what real love was because, in his opinion, all other Tamil films deceive us with filmy love stories. Then he went on to release Irandam Ulagam.

    Maybe for Selva, voyeurism is the real form of love and he feels every other form is deceptive. But his take on romance is what makes a Selva film unique. Tamil filmmakers have a weird habit of including romance in their films, regardless of necessity, for the sake of reaching out to a wider audience. Maybe a part of the audience comes to watch a film only if there is some version of love involved in the story. But apart from it being a business, is there any reason why there are so many versions of unwanted romance we see in our films?

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  2. Aruvi

    December 23, 2017 by Guest Author

    A Tamil movie these days is often a template that writers/directors cling to for comfort. You expect a song to ‘introduce’ you to the hero. You wait for the leery introduction to the heroine (even in 2017), demand it even, and after that it is all fan service. So when a director comes up with art on a blank canvas, it is often refreshing.

    Enter Aruvi, Arun Prabhu Purushothaman’s seemingly unfiltered debut take on society as a whole. I say seemingly because the director is awfully intent on upending all our expectations. This is not a movie with a message, but by the end of it, it opens our eyes not by touching our hearts as much as shining a bright, well-intentioned torch in our direction.

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