Idli Kadai

It doesn’t take Dhanush more than five minutes to both frustrate and fascinate you with his filmmaking. In one scene, we see Murugan (Dhanush) on a video call with his fiancée Meera (Shalini Pandey) after returning to his village. Murugan is in Tamil Nadu and she’s in Bangkok; he is poor, and she is rich. But instead of using a line or a frame to underline this disparity, director Dhanush stages Meera outside her mansion, seated on the bonnet of a white Rolls Royce. The next time we see her, she FaceTimes Murugan with a champagne flute in hand, strutting around the deck of her yacht. And in a silly line, her wealthy father Vishnu Vardhan (Sathyaraj) explains to his spoiled son: “We millionaires don’t get to where we are in life just because of hard work and talent.”

Dhanush, as an actor and director, has a strong track record of producing heartwarming family dramas. From ‘Velaiyilla Pattadhari’ to ‘Thiruchitrambalam’, many films from his filmography have that recall value that makes for a perfect weekend watch. Dhanush is now back with ‘Idli Kadai’, his fourth directorial venture that promises another solid drama packed with emotions.