Taramani

Ram's 2017 Tamil film is set in Taramani, the IT district of Chennai, and follows the relationship between Althea, a single mother, and Prabhunath, who falls in love with her. She lives by her own rules; he finds this attractive at first and then begins to claim and police her. The film's subject is not love but how jealousy dresses itself in the language of morality. Ram does not build this as a one-sided accusation and shows Prabhunath's collapse from inside. Andrea Jeremiah's performance carries the film. The censor board demanded cuts over elements including the woman character drinking and living with a partner; the producer refused the cuts, took the adult certificate instead, and the film mocked that stance on its own posters. Who it's for: viewers who like contemporary Tamil cinema and films built on the dynamics of a relationship. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a comforting romance, or avoiding scenes of verbal and physical violence.