In the iconic interview scene from this film, the CM is cornered by the interviewer with facts.
To save his dignity, the CM challenges the interviewer to take up his job for one day.
The hero panics at this unexpected twist.
The CM then utters Kural 691.
"With fire,
Go too far & it doesn't warm you.
Come too close & it might burn you.
So, keep a safe distance with fire and kings"
- Kural 691
The interviewer had come too close to fire & is now facing the wrath of the king (CM).
An apt usage by dialogue writer Sujatha.
2. Super Deluxe (2019)
This hyperlink film uses Thirukural in a subtle way.
In the lift scene with Fahadh and Samantha,
the husband is furious with his wife's adultery.
Power goes off in the lift and Samantha reassures Fahadh that it would be back soon.
Fahadh insultingly asks her: "Are you a pathini (faithful) for power to come back if you say so?"
But it is back the next second!
This is adapted from Kural:55:
"If a devout wife says "let it rain," it will rain."
Samantha's faithfulness in the climax is foreshadowed here!
3. Ghilli (2004)
Thalapathy wants to secretly go to Madurai for his Kabbadi semis.
He uses Kural 314 to convince his mom to attend a relative's function.
If not for this Kural, Thalapathy would not have met Dhanalakshmi / Muthupandi to give us the blockbuster of the decade.
4. Ko (2011)
Two journalists hide the truth about the CM's character to save an otherwise well qualified government.
In fact, they blatantly lie & report him as a martyr instead of an opportunist. All for the greater good.
This is justified using Kural 292 in the end card.
"Even falsehood has the nature of truth, if it can confer a benefit that is free from fault."
- Kural 292
Both the journalists are reinstated, their resignations aren't accepted, as their choice to lie is defended by Thiruvalluvar himself.
5. VTV (2010)
This film uses 3 Kurals in the song Mannipaaya and one of it summarises the core theme of the film.
The Kural 1259 states:
"My pride filled mind wanted to quarrel with him.
But the moment I saw him, my heart decided to embrace him instead."
This Kural states Jessie's psyche precisely in 7 words.
Jessie has an internal conflict - fighting constant battles between her mind & her heart.
Her mind says "This will never work out, I should stop it" but her heart falls in love despite all this!
The film's core theme!
Bonus: "Iru Dhuruvam" series in SonyLiv uses Thirukural as a plot device.
This is a cat & mouse game between a psychô and a cop.
The psychô drops in Thirukural clues after every murdër he commits.
Each relating to eyes, ears, smell, mouth etc.
Watch the show to find out more.
Thirukural from 2000 years ago is relevant till date.
Smart film makers use it for its literary merit.
What other films have you seen Thirukural being aptly used?
Drop in your comments.
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A historic moment for TN today as a non-DMK/ADMK CM will be sworn in after 50 years. Even expert pollsters missed reading the Vijay tsunami. This is no overnight success. He had carefully and consciously planned his politics in his films.
An unbiased 🧵on how Vijay won TN (1/n)
Vijay's rise starts with his father, SA Chandrasekhar, famous director who had observed MGR from close quarters. Infact, MGR as CM met SAC and said he'd watched his "Needhiku Dhandanai" (Punishment to Justice) film 5 times, offering him advance for his own MGR films productions.
SAC realised the power of cinema in capturing public imagination, as he'd seen MGR's charismatic image of a do-gooder. MGR was partly inspired by Hollywood actor and Democratic political activist Gregory Peck who often portrayed protagonists with ‘fiber’ within a moral setting.
If any of you feel disappointed with TN results, please read this thread that may change your mood:
You feel fearful or uncertain or confused about Vijay's TVK, which is understandable for multiple reasons - his having EVR as a leader, his Jan 14 Tamil New Year wish, his opposition to Parandur, promise of freebies, general lack of serious policies etc. But look historically.
DMK was built on a foundation of hate, with decades of toxic articles, cartoons, speeches, rallies which culminated with the anti-Hindi protests that finally catapulted them to power. As early as 1948, poet and Mahatma Ramalingam Pillai worried about our beautiful Tamil being polluted with such disgusting discourse.
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.