Dragon

Ragavan has failed forty eight papers at university. When the bill for his irresponsibility comes due he takes the route of a forged degree, gets a job and rises. Then his past catches up. Ashwath Marimuthu directs, and wrote the story with Pradeep Ranganathan, who stars. Anupama Parameswaran is in the cast, alongside Kayadu Lohar in her first Tamil film. The interesting thing is that it refuses to make its hero likeable. Ragavan does wrong and keeps deferring the cost, the film does not forgive him, and the last section is built directly on that. It starts as a campus comedy and shifts into a completely different register in the second half, which is what gets argued about most. It was a large commercial success. Released on 21 February 2025, it took over 500 million rupees worldwide in its opening weekend and passed 1.5 billion against a budget of 370 million, becoming at that point the highest grossing Tamil film of the year. Who it is for: viewers who follow Tamil campus comedy and recent popular Indian cinema. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the first half's pace to hold. The second half slows down, and the instructive tone is too plain for some.