Idhayam Murali

Raja (Murali), from Kathir’s debut film, Idhayam (1991), may have become iconic over the years, partly due to the grating niceness and tragic innocence of the character (and mostly due to Ilaiyaraaja’s music). But in a contemporary world in which we reevaluate gender, misogyny and the obsessive nature of love, the idea of unrequited romance makes the conversation feel like the colloquial phrase we use to describe it—one-sided. Rathna Kumar’s superior Meyaadha Maan (2017), refracts the idea through a class lens, where the disparity in economic positions chokes the character out of expressing his true love. This year’s Hollywood phenomenon Obsession reimagines extremities of a nice-guy-dream realized to the point of stifling one life for the other’s wishful fantasy.

There are several hilarious chunks in Idhayam Murali, but the funniest one is unintentional. In the second half, Sam (Preity Mukundan) tells Idhaya (Atharvaa), in the same breezy tone you’d use to describe wrapping up a work call, “Ippa thaan oru mission mudichom. So konjam naalaiku rest” (We just finished off one mission. We will rest for a while). By this point, it is well established that Sam is a NASA astronaut, which is exactly why the line lands as comedy rather than drama. It’s a very specific kind of silliness, one Tamil cinema has flirted with before. The film doesn’t hide that it’s chasing a Gautham Menon-ish vibe, and this scene recalls a bit from Neethaane En Ponvasantham: a throwaway line establishing that Varun’s (Jiiva) family has grown rich and posh, simply by mentioning that his retired parents are now off travelling the world. Both moments reach for a big, specific, hard-to-verify detail and use it as shorthand for status or drama, without doing any of the narrative work to earn it.

Tamil cinema fans from the ’90s have grown up hearing Idhayam Murali in their everyday life. For those who don’t know the context, late actor Murali acted in a film titled Idhayam, where his love remains one-sided as he never confesses his feelings. Little did anyone know it would become a pop culture term. Decades later, Murali’s son Atharvaa is headlining Idhayam Murali, playing a character who just cannot bring himself to confess his love.