Mandela

Madonne Ashwin's first film, from 2021, is a political satire set in a Tamil village. The village barber is a man at the very bottom of the social order, without so much as a name of his own; he chooses Mandela for himself. When the gap between two candidates in the local election comes down to exactly one vote, the barber nobody has ever counted becomes the person who decides the outcome. Both sides begin begging, bribing and threatening him. The film names no caste and no party; it does not need them to describe the system. Yogi Babu, usually cast as comic support, carries the lead here and never lets his character be made ridiculous. It won National Film Awards including best feature film in Tamil. Who it's for: viewers who like political satire and the independent strand of Tamil cinema. Who it's not for: anyone unfamiliar with local politics and caste dynamics who will miss the references.