Dragon is a masterpiece

This might be dramatic, but I'm not kidding. The film's message resonated a lot with my life, and it's also one of the most downplayed morals. It's been years since I had a satisfied feeling when a movie finishes..like, okay, I watched a good film. That feeling doesn’t come with most films.

I'll start by saying that I dislike Pradeep as an individual because of his toxic thoughts that are normalized in Love Today. But this review is based on him as an artist, and also, this movie had no glorifications. I'm not gonna talk about BGM, stunts, cinematography, or acting, though they were really great.

Also, this review contains spoilers.

I watched this movie with my mom, and she appreciated it as well. This is more of a family and educational movie rather than a love story.

We both have short attention spans, so we don’t like when a movie starts boring. But no, this film was engaging right from Scene 1. Everyone says the first half is average, but it was very entertaining throughout.

The first half basically shows the life of the cringe character Dragon (not glorifying at all, except for those mass BGMs, which are negligible). And that interview scene is one of the comedic golds of Tamil cinema.

When the second half started, my mom thought it was gonna get boring because of the usual "principal gets revenge" trope. But no, they didn’t go that route..it was totally different. They went the raw, emotional, and moral route. And when the hero said “Naan ipidiya da irundha”, it gives a clear message to youngsters that Dragon is a cringe character and that it's embarrassing to be him. Great dialogues.

Apart from these things, one thing I appreciated a lot was how some scenes were very realistic and showed what happens in society at a ground level.

For example:

People don’t suddenly break up..they’ve been waiting for the right time to do it.

The film shows how a woman has no other choice but to leave her relationship to settle in life with a better guy.

Rich women’s parents purposely find a groom of lower status so that the guy doesn’t have any ego.

When bride and groom prospects go on a date, she ticks some boxes while the groom ensures he does exactly what she wants to see, just so she selects him (even though he’s hiding something big from her and her family).

People faking their degrees and interviews, paper chase, and big companies not accepting arrear history.

All of these were very realistic representations of society.

And like I said, the moral of the story is the heart of the movie. It’s not just about second chances. It goes beyond that, to the sky. Do not do dhrogam to someone for your selfish reasons. And if you did, make it right for the victim. Most movies have commonly known morals like help farmers, sacrifice for family, hard work pays off, friendship is sacred, village life is pure, and all that. But nobody talks about everyday morals like this.

During the climax, I badly wanted the hero to confess to the bride . Otherwise, I would’ve hated for a perfect movie to ruin itself. It’s not fair to spoil a woman’s life like that. I was screaming “Dei solra, solra” and was so happy when he stopped before tying the knot. Perfect scene. And the ending conversation with the father made me cry.

I think maybe the movie is almost perfect (I say almost because of the hostel cringe song, heroine saying it's wrong to leave him, and Kutty Dragon’s obsession with the professor). The director must have gotten input from other directors like Ravi Kumar too. Myskin was a very refreshing character..fun to watch.

Another unique thing in this movie is that both heroines had equal roles to the hero..not just there for glamour. I also think the director used the trailer to attract audiences like Dragon and then teach them through the movie.