At its core- the story theme is the same as Mahabharatha, Baahubali & Game of thrones, if you will.
One king is retiring. Who is going to become the next king?
The fight is for the Chola throne. The period is 968 AD according to Kalki.
Also, according to history!
A quick history lesson:
Parantaka-1 has 3 sons - the elder son died early in a war.
The middle son Gandaraditya became the next king. His son Madhurantaka was 1 year old when he dies.
So, Gandaraditya asks his younger brother Arinjaya to succeed him.
Fate played a game here!
Arinjaya died in a year after becoming king.
We have 2 choices for the next king here:
1. The 3rd brother and current king's son - Sundara Chola of age 20 (played by Prakshraj)
2. The 2nd brother and ex-king's son - Madhurantaka, of age 2 (played by Rahman)
They went with #1
24 years later, after Sundara Chola, who should become king?
1. Madhurantaka, age 26 2. Sundara Chola's 1st son Aditya Karikala (played by Vikram), age 25
Should the son of the older brother, or the grandson of the younger, be crowned?
A conflict as old as the Mahabharatha!
After multiple conspiracies, betrayals, battles, natural disasters,
The answer to this question is provided at the end of the book-5. (Part-2 movie!)
You are in for a delightful treat of a journey! A tale for the ages!
You are mistaken if you think Dravidawood detests all Brahmins equally. It despises only the men. But it loves the Brahmin women so much that it wants to liberate them.
An important thread that deconstructs this "Give your daughter to us" theme from 12 films since the 80s:
The template is simple:
- A fair, innocent, spirited but 0ppressed TB heroine "Mami"
- Her family is a cage that cuts her wings
- Her fiance/family are regressive, passive, weak, beta males
- Her savior is a progressive, strong, alpha Dstock man who liberates her from her cage
Nat'l award winning Sethu (1999) illustrates this template precisely.
- Heroine: Abitha Kuchalambal (called Agragaarathu mami by hero's friends), daughter of a temple priest
- She is a innocent, temple-going, murukku-making trad girl
-Her fiance is a beta, fearful temple priest
Should you have children of spirit or children of blood? Are humans overpopulating our way into extinction?
Is demography destiny or is it a Hindutva hype?
What does history & science tell us?
How should Hindus think about these civilizational existential questions? (1/14) 🧵
In 1798, Malthus predicted that population would outgrow food. He was spectacularly wrong. The Green Revolution, technology, and human ingenuity turned scarcity into surplus. Credible economists have mathematically established this.
Yet, this Thanos-ish thinking is popular.
Civilizations don't collapse from too many people. They collapse from too few.
Global fertility is already below replacement in most of the developed world. Without using fancy words, lets understand the math with simple numbers. Then we will know the true risk staring at us.
Anbe Sivam is one of the finest films ever made. Kamal's performance. Vidyasagar's music. Vairamuthu's lyrics. It earns every tear. It also deserves a full ideological deconstruction, cuz you missed most of 'em!
A thread decoding the greatest leftist film in Dravidawood history:
There are 2 ways to push ideology through cinema. 1. Ranjith style in Kaala: loud, brazen, obvious. You see the propaganda clearly.
2. Kamal style in Anbe Sivam: seductive, warm, beautiful. You don't even realize u're being sold an ideology.
Exactly why we need to decode it.
Inspired by Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), AS is a road movie featuring 2 strangers with different worldviews, forced to travel together. A capitalist Maddy & a commie Kamal, stuck in a cyclone hit Bhubaneshwar, must find ways to reach Chennai urgently - that’s the plot.
Read this thread to fundamentally understand why leftists are completely rattled by Dhurandhar and what the non-left should learn from this reaction and what Dharmics must do to sustain this momentum (1/12)
Leftists usually mock and move on when amateurishly made non-left films like Samrat Prithviraj, Ram Setu, Razakar etc. get released. Infact, they even eagerly anticipate such films.
Because the amateurish filmmaking gives them a chance to mock the idea behind the film itself.
But whenever a well-made RRR/Kantara/Amaran/Chaava comes out, they get mildly anxious.
They know that the best way to spread an idea amongst masses is cinema, which is why leftists absolutely hate well-made films that don't align with their ideologies.
Once, when Sundaramoorthy Naayanar was on a yatra to Chola temples, he crossed a river & continued to walk near Mazhapaadi, an area covered by dense Konnai trees.
He heard a voice: "Sundaram, Ennai Marandhaayo?" (Sundaram, did you forget me?) but it was not from any human (1/5)
Shocked, he enquired the locals if there were any temples around.
With their guidance, he discovered a small temple fully covered by Konnai trees (golden shower) that were fully bloomed.
This Kondrai flower is a favorite of Lord Shiva, who is called கொன்றை வேந்தன் (2/5)
Sundarar started singing: "Dear Lord, what question did you ask me? How can I think of anyone else forgetting you?"
And started singing:
"பொன்னார் மேனியனே!
அன்னே உன்னையல்லால் இனி யாரை நினைக்கேனே?" This verse is the favorite of Sendhan Amudhan from Ponniyin Selvan.
Here's Ramya's life journey: a coming-of-age tale of a perennially hormonal, self-centered girl who constantly makes bad life choices and then blames her parents or society for it.
An analysis of the psyche of a Bad Girl (1/12)
Open panna, Ramya is 16. Studies in Dronacharya Gurukulam (PSBB) that has Sri Ramajayam written on all boards.
Her age and her scores are a perfect match: has 16 marks out of 100 in MPC subjects, so the Brahminical school "denied" her any fun.
But she has her own fun anyways
As early as Class 9, she had a BF. The irony? Sidhu had proposed to her friend, got rejected, and Ramya the empathic martyr, accepts him out of pity.
Not out of romance. Out of dependence.
The kind that mistakes “being chosen” for “being seen.”
They have "fun" in the school's secret furniture room many times. Later, he moves on to someone else and she overhears him calling her an item. Yet Ramya never learns about boys from this episode.