There are very few films that I go to without looking at any reviews. Karthik Subbaraj’s (KS) films are one of them. With Dorothy, he has proved again that I can continue to have that faith in him.
Some spoilers ahead definitely!
KS deals with a very complex subject of gender identity in Dorothy and what I loved a lot about this film is how true KS has stuck to what he wanted to make without any compromises.
This is one of the recent bold attempts in Tamil cinema. And kudos to KS for exploring gender identity in such a depth.
KS goes deep into the male ego just like how he did in Iraivi. And he delivers it in raw, on your face fashion.
A french kiss comes a full circle.
A person who runs a small “Military Hotel” and probably hasn’t even killed an animal okays killing of a person. While a person who does his living for killing questions who is he to take a life of another person. This also shows how society has conditioned us that it’s ok to take someone’s life in the name of “honor”.
There is a close up shot towards the climax where the facial expression reveals why the movie is about “Dorothy” – its just beautifully done. Hats off to Sanath for pulling it off.
KS also uses lot of visual elements to convey his thoughts in the movie – something I haven’t seen in his earlier movies.
There is a beautiful shot at the top of the mountain where one person is shown purposefully taller than the other – I won’t reveal much about this shot. It has to be seen to feel why KS is an important, intelligent director in the current times.
Similarly there is a landscape shot where two characters are shown against a backdrop of huge mountainous rocks – showing how small we humans are when compared to nature.
Overall it’s one of the finest work of KS – only next to Jigarthanda. That’s still his best work for me.
There was a lot of hype for Ilayaraja. It’s hard for me to say this as an IR fan – but his presence in the movie wasn’t felt that much. Except when Do Anything from How to Name It was beautifully used.
It appears that KS wanted to use a few IR past background scores and songs and instead of getting into copyright challenges with him, he just got him as the music director in the movie and still used his old compositions. There is a song in the second half which even sounded like “Maanin Iru Kangal Konda Maanae Maanae” song.
KS: You are an important movie maker for Tamil cinema. An intelligent one. As they say “moola kaaran”. I will continue to watch your movies. For you.
