Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Dorothy’ is a brave and unusual film, but it unfolds more like a statement than an emotionally affecting storyRishikanth and Sananth are absolutely terrific as Karthi and Subbu.
They are best friends, soulmates – and then Dorothy, played by Keerthy Suresh, comes to their village.
As a director, this is one of Karthik Subbaraj’s finest films, with Tirru’s extraordinary cinematography and Ganesh Siva’s furious editing.
This binary is no longer accepted in most circles, but it is a useful tool to begin talking about Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy.
The director seems to have split his masculine and feminine selves and created two characters containing his names: Karthi and Subbu.
Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Dorothy’ is a brave and unusual film, but it unfolds more like a statement than an emotionally affecting story
Rishikanth and Sananth are absolutely terrific as Karthi and Subbu. They are best friends, soulmates – and then Dorothy, played by Keerthy Suresh, comes to their village. As a director, this is one of Karthik Subbaraj’s finest films, with Tirru’s extraordinary cinematography and Ganesh Siva’s furious editing. Ilaiyaraaja delivers a grand score, though whether this minimalistic movie needed this kind of music may be a matter of debate. But the writing isn’t confident. The plot, the storyline, is fantastic. The destination is brilliant, but the journey is shaky. After watching the film, there’s the sense that the screenplay was trying to work its way backwards from the last scene, and the transitions from one emotional state to another aren’t fleshed out convincingly. There’s a lot of repetitive messaging, and the propulsive energy in this director’s best work is missing. That’s the storyline and the quick review. A longer analysis follows, and it may contain some minor spoilers.
There’s the traditional sense of some qualities being “masculine” and some qualities being “feminine”, and all of us – to varying degrees – are a mix of the masculine and the feminine. This binary is no longer accepted in most circles, but it is a useful tool to begin talking about Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy. The director seems to have split his masculine and feminine selves and created two characters containing his names: Karthi and Subbu. The setting of this story is a village filled with head-butting rams and cockfighting and much talk about virility. Karthi has the hairstyle of a rooster, and he has grown up with the idea that men don’t cry, but when we first see him, as a grownup, his eyes are filled with tears. This is the present day, which is shown in black-and-white. The past is depicted in colour. When Karthi and Subbu meet as schoolkids, Subbu boasts that his father and brothers have been in jail, and he speaks about how his mother and sister died. Again, Karthi weeps, but Subbu tells him to be brave. This is what Subbu’s been taught. As Karthi’s mother says, “Eduthu solla aalilladha pillai.”
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://galattaplus.com/karthik-subbarajs-dorothy-is-a-brave-and-unusual-film-but-it-unfolds-more-like-a-statement-than-an-emotionally-affecting-story/
You can watch the trailer / video review here:
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