Why I Hate Mainstream South Indian Cinema

Sexism and Misogyny is pretty much the answer

It's hard to get a banner for these movies.

South India cinema always remained somewhat a niched genre in itself in Indian cinema. It was confined to the Southern states and hardly ever reached the general audience through television. Around 2005 to 2006 the South Indian cinema finally started to gain a wider audience through dubbing and became popular among kids and younger audiences. Bollywood took its notice and started remaking these movies and literally printing money out of it.

While the trend remains the same and people's love for these movies keeps growing I for one absolutely hate these movies. Now, don't jump to any conclusion. There are various reasons why these movies don't work for me. If they work for you it's absolutely fine. They work for my family too and I cannot change that. They are entertaining because the filmmakers take the absurdity to the next level.

The ratings these films get are nothing but obsessive fanboys giving 10/10 while they deserve 2-3 in reality. In this article, I'll try to explain why these movies are disaster one way or the other why I hate them. 

1. The Plot Is Written By The Same Group Of 10-Year-Olds

You wanted to kill me and my family, then you wanted to rape my daughter who is your sibling but yet I'm going to make you our CEO because our feud is finally over because somehow an orphan who is also your sibling and my long lost kid, intervened and kicked your ass. Happy ending, right? No! This is just the first half of the film. 

From the story writing to dialogue writing, I find all the South Indian movies the same. It's always a revenge story. The main hero of our story is either an orphan or a rich guy who has lost a mother, a brother or a sister. Somehow he or his family is outcast from their rural village. Somehow there is a feud between two families which will be sorted out only one guy's intervention. Somehow the woman he loves has a connection to the plot points that I mentioned earlier. All of this is somehow connected to a national or international terrorist's evil plan and there is only one guy that can prevent it. If the story isn't absurd enough, let's add some reincarnation shit too. All the stories are similar and feel like written by a single person.

Now I know nobody watches these movies for plot. They are pure entertainment but the way these movies are hailed by Indian viewers promotes lazy writing in even mainstream Bollywood films. Just use some big star, put grand entries, slow mos, vehicles exploding, a hot actress and a hilarious fighting sequence saved for the climax of the movie. All of this but no logical or even subpar writing.

The only reason I think these movies are watched by Indians is that we Indians hesitate to invest our time and attention to movies and these movies can be watched at any point of their runtime because they at least have two to three flashbacks which somehow explain and connect the whole story in the final showdown.

2. Action Sequences Are Unoriginal & Bland

Actually, he is my favorite actor in the bunch but the continuity in this movie's action sequences is zero.

In my book, action scenes only work when they are well choreographed, have a flow and smoothness in their editing and are interesting in their presentation. There are countless action sequences that I can list out from even low budget Hollywood movies that have some of the best original ideas and continuity. 

In South Indian cinema, I find none of it. Most of the time the scenes are copied exactly the same or are a mix of multiple action sequences from Hollywood movies. Well, that too is okay but the way they are presented is horrendous and laughable. There is nothing such as continuity in storytelling and fighting in South Indian Cinema. I cannot ignore so many inconsistencies in any movies. 

3. Male Power Fantasies

I hate this guy. Yuk.

The way the movie plays out is pretty much a male power fantasy. The hero in these movies is a morally corrupt or shady guy. He does so many questionable things until the final act of the movie which ranges from thievery to stalking of young girls and sexism which I'll talk about in detail next.

They have no jobs, no household worries. There is no character development save for the flashback. These people just have sex with beautiful girls and then beat the shit out of goons while everyone else just applauds and blesses them for their mardaangi.

Women either stalk them or they stalk the women and its totally fine. They can slap a woman's ass or accidentally 'put their hands' on a woman's breasts. No questions asked because they are MANLY!!! Just imagine these scenarios in real life. The bigger problem is this is being normalized in mainstream Bollywood movies too. 

4. Sexism & Misogyny

The blatant sexism, colorism, and sexism prevent me from enjoying these movies. Nobody in my circle ever brought this up when they praise these films. I feel very offended by the way women are objectified and used as a prop in these movies.

The inclusion of women is just to please the male audience. The women in these movies have nothing to do except giving sexual innuendos to the hero and the viewers. That's it. Nothing more.

I'm so manly that her navel doesn't affect me.
South Indians have a weird navel fetish. Check on Quora.

Women in South Indian films are very submissive, childlike and are ready to do it with anyone if he is manly enough. They have no plot or character development at all. They are used as a damsel in distress. You cannot even call them damsel. They are just sex toys at this point and I don't know why even the big actresses never object on being reduced to such thing. They have no independent life in their movie universe and the presence of a man is the only thing that gives meaning to their existence.

Director: I want shadows to be lowered.
Editor: How much?
Director: Everyone should look fairer than Yami Gautam.
Editor: Say no more.

They are there to just look pretty and do the fan service. The way these movies are edited you can actually see how much the director wants their actresses to look as Gora as possible. These actresses look ugly in many movies because of the lack of facial features. What's with this Gora fetish? Imagine how insecure the brighter girls may feel when watching these kinds of movies.

My friend with an MI A1 shoots and edits better than this.

The way the cameras move through specific angles whenever showing the female lead is very questionable. Their assets are more photogenic than their face for these directors, cameramen and sadly the audience.  

Director: Shriya you are in my next movie.
Shriya: What's my role, Sir?
Director: Not much but there is a point where your cleavage is very essential to the story. You in?
Shriya: Yes Sir, I was born for this.

Even when they make a 'women-centric' movie they use females like these.

A strong female lead. That's what you wanted, right?

You see where this is going? I mean is this a parody of the whole argument or is it the real thought process in South Indian cinema and the audience? 

I can ignore the plot inconsistency and enjoy a movie but I can never ignore misogyny and sexism in any movie and that's why I hate mainstream South Indian cinema, It is nothing more than playing on the male power fantasies of Indian men. I don't know how female viewers feel about their representation in these films. 

So that was it guys. Many things that I wrote can also be said about Bollywood films and sexism is an issue in every film industry but I only took a dig at South Indian Cinema because it is very shameless when it comes to sexism. 

Have a happy time watching movies and reading books. I'll be posting an outbreak-related must-watch movie list maybe tomorrow.