3

3 (2012) is from Tamil cinema, and you almost certainly know its song better than the film. Why This Kolaveri Di comes from here. Dhanush wrote the lyrics and sang it, Anirudh Ravichander composed it, and it exploded online in late 2011. Heard on its own it sounds like a funny break up song. Watch the film and it becomes something else: the sound of Ram being unable to carry what he feels. The story starts as a school romance. Ram and Janani marry. Then Ram kills himself one day and Janani starts looking for the reason. What she finds is an undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The first half plays like a romantic comedy, and from the second half you look back and understand what some of those earlier scenes actually were. The structure is built on that reversal. It is Aishwarya Rajinikanth's first film as director. She is Rajinikanth's daughter and was married to Dhanush at the time. It is one of the earlier mainstream Indian films to take mental health as its subject. The handling was contested, but raising it mattered. It runs 145 minutes. Good for: Tamil cinema, musical drama, and tragic romance. Less good for: suicide is the central subject and it is shown. Many find the portrayal of mental illness problematic.