It took me while to digest the movie, comprehend it and bring my thoughts out into words. I couldn’t say that this movie hasn’t impacted or left me speechless. Poke into the void ? Triggered ? Exposed ? Or left with wisdom? How should I distribute the weightage among these factors to arrive at a point?
The film exposes different layers of humans and life. Those have already been spoken by everyone across various platforms. This film makes you look beyond all the labels or the boxes that society asks you to fit into, as directors says in a podcast. Below are the key takeaways that I see.
- The consequences of strong identity or belief: Previously, I have written about the belief becoming the identity. The same goes for the men shown in the movie. Patriarchy has been imbibed in their cells. Karthi feels the weight of those beliefs and rest do not.
- The need of being understood: Being understood by at least by someone, or having someone who understand your POV, is rare, as said by Fyodor Dostoevsky in white nights. Dorothy was there to listen and understand. Otherwise his feminine side would’ve died or he could’ve killed himself.
- Practice vs. Preaching: There is this quote, “Practice what you preach”. Maybe that was well said in that movie through the parotta shop owner and Vadivu. The owner, who preaches kindness asks Karthi to kill him, and while Vavidu who practiced violence, ask him to not to.
- Love transcends all: Somewhere, the film made us understand that love transcends all the factors have been put out. Maybe gender, color, caste, age, income, religion add an additional factor to support the life or make it look simpler or more efficient.
- Conditioning: The act of men not crying and art of “women shouldn’t cry” was clearly emphasized at various scenes of the movie. The feminist movement has made brought out acts of patriarchy against women into the light but did men fail, or are they yet to realize, that they are also the victims? The struggle of Karthi to accept Subbu was the conditioning and it was beautifully portrayed. What if, there had been no Vadivu present to reflect back his emotions?
- Disgust: There was this disgust in imagining Subbu as Karthi partner or towards the transwomen in general, in the movie. The irritation and frustration were beautifully acted by Karthi. That reminded of me of a line from Ninaivo Oru Paravai in Modern Love Chennai. Is it because the capitalism has objectified women’s body and made it attractive irrespective of gender? Or just nature? IDK
- Kindness: The touch of kindness was brought out by the women. Dorothy, Karthi’s mother. The absence of women was portrayed well in the movie, but people mistake the absence of kindness for the absence of domestic labor to take care of the family.
Music is a blessing to this movie. Sanath did a great role, TBH, he lived that role. There was this Malayalam movie called Kaathal – The Core. It should be watched after Dorothy if haven’t already. This one speaks about the consequences faced by others if the gender identity was suppressed.
Dorothy asks you to raise above your conditioning and watch it. Give it a try!
Cheers!
Check out the previous post: I think, therefore AI?, Motha rathiri (2026) Movie Review & other movie reviews
If you like what you see and wish to support my work, then
Share your thoughts/suggestion at the comment section or mail at
randomwhyss[@]gmail[dot]com
Don’t miss out! Get notified about new blog posts straight to your inbox !
(No spam, pinky promise!)
Enter your mail to receive updates
