After a long hiatus from Tamil movie watching, I recently watched a few Tamil movies. A couple of them I even tried to watch back to back the same day - With Love , followed by Dude. One of them left me scratching my head wondering what Tamilians see in perpetually melancholic/sacrificial-lamb type of male leads, while the other reminded me even though all the love stories have already been told, we can still find a unique untold angle that makes a story engrossing.
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| With Love (2026) |
Let's start with the disappointment that is Dude. Here's my gripe: why is Pradeep Ranganathan being packaged as yet another soup boy in the Dhanush mold? I don't understand Tamil cinema's obsession with heroes who look like they've been personally victimized by the universe since birth. What's worse is watching Mamitha Baiju's spunky, electric screen presence get absolutely wasted in service of this melancholic male fantasy. The woman has talent that crackles off the screen, but instead of letting her shine, she's relegated to propping up our brooding protagonist. It's like buying a Ferrari and using it only to go grocery shopping, technically functional, but criminally underutilized.
Now, With Love is a different beast altogether, and I mean that as the highest compliment. This is new-age filmmaking done right. Anaswara Rajan is basically playing herself here, and yet there's an authenticity to her performance that feels refreshing in an industry often drowning in artifice. My only complaint? Abhishan Jeevinth, in his 'lead'-acting debut lets his older version hide behind that beard. Come on, man, you have a jawline. Flaunt it! Youth is fleeting, beards are optional. Director Madhan, kudos for a simple yet entertaining debut movie.
What makes With Love work is that it doesn't pander or apologize. It's unapologetically a GenZ movie – the pacing, the emotional beats, the relationship dynamics all feel contemporary without trying too hard to be cool. There's a easy-going naturalness to it that Dude desperately lacks. While Dude is busy manufacturing angst and positioning its hero as some tortured, self-effacing type, With Love just lets its characters breathe and let them exist in their messy, relatable reality.
The contrast between these two films is stark. One treats its female lead like an accessory to male suffering, while the other gives its actress room to be a fully realized person. One feels calculated to hit tried-n-tested emotional notes and fails (IMHO,) while the other trusts its young audience to appreciate something genuine. I tried to give Dude the benefit of doubt and tried even watching it by fast forwarding, but I could not even get past the half way mark.
If you're picking between the two, skip the soup boy dude chronicles and go straight for With Love. Your time is precious, and Mamitha Baiju's wasted potential in Dude will only make you sad about what could have been.
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