Uriyadi

Vijay Kumar's 2016 Tamil film is set at an engineering college at the end of the nineties. A group of students falls into the plans of a new caste organisation aiming to become a political party; an incident that seems minor at first turns lethal fast. The film takes caste violence as its direct subject rather than as background. How the organisation is built, how the young are used and how politics feeds it are each shown; the narrative does not hesitate to take a side. Vijay Kumar both directs and stars, and made the film with his own means. The cast consists of unknown performers; the violence is short, sudden and unaestheticised. Who it's for: those who like socially grounded Tamil cinema. Who it's not for: viewers uncomfortable with graphic violence; the film shows it directly in its final section.