Master

JD, an alcoholic university lecturer, is sent to a juvenile home as a disciplinary posting. There he finds children being used by criminal organisations, run from outside by Bhavani. For the first time he has to sober up. Lokesh Kanagaraj directed. Vijay plays JD, Vijay Sethupathi plays Bhavani. The film's centre of gravity is the villain. Bhavani is written as someone used as a child who then built the same system himself, and Vijay Sethupathi's performance became the most discussed part of the film. It opened in January 2021, as cinemas reopened after the pandemic, and was among the first big Tamil productions to bring audiences back into theatres. The news broadcast, the train sequence and the final fight were all widely argued over. Kanagaraj went on from here to keep building an interconnected universe in Tamil cinema. It runs close to three hours and the pace drops in the second half. Who it is for: viewers who like Tamil star vehicles and action with a strongly written villain. Who it is not for: anyone after something short and tidy.