Naan Mahaan Alla

Suseenthiran's 2010 Tamil film tells the story of an ordinary young man turning to revenge with unusual patience. The cheerful, untroubled life of Jeeva changes when his father witnesses a horrific crime. The first half is given almost entirely to family life and a romance, a slow build made deliberately so the violence of the second half has something to rest on. Karthi's performance refuses the template of the heroic policeman or the invincible man; he is afraid, he makes mistakes, he pays for them. Suseenthiran's use of the streets of Chennai is realistic and the fight scenes feed on chaos rather than choreography. The film's idea of justice at the end is open to argument: showing the legal route as entirely useless legitimises private revenge. Who it's for: viewers who like Tamil crime drama and revenge stories built at a realistic scale. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding violence and sexual assault content, or uncomfortable with revenge being justified.