Vaathi

In 1990s Andhra, a private school chain is pushing government schools out of existence: the good teachers have been poached, the state schools emptied, and education tied to ability to pay. Bala Gangadhar Tilak is cheap labour for the chain as a maths teacher, and is sent to a government school as punishment. The students he finds there go to the fields rather than the classroom, and Bala starts taking the job seriously. Written and directed by Venky Atluri, the film takes on the privatisation of education directly. He tied his choice to set it in the 1990s to his own school years, when private schools were rapidly overtaking state ones and it had become a public argument. The film was shot simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu version titled Sir. Dhanush leads with Samyuktha opposite him. It opened on 17 February 2023 to mixed reviews and took 105 crore worldwide, among the year's highest-grossing Tamil films. Who it's for: Viewers who like issue-driven Indian drama, teacher stories, and Dhanush. Who it's not for: The telling is heroic and reduces the solution to one man's effort. The song and action interludes also break the pace.