“Naa ongi adutcha ondra ton weightra!” (My blows carry the weight of a tonne and a half) is likely one of the most popular punchlines from ...
“Naa ongi adutcha ondra ton weightra!” (My blows carry the weight of a tonne and a half) is likely one of the most popular punchlines from Tamil cop films. It was delivered by an enraged Suriya in Singam (2010), which yielded a three-part franchise and inspired the Hindi remake Singham in 2011.
The hero-centric narrative in Tamil cinema tends to give the male lead near-unassailable moral rightness. The cult status of actors often mean that they are above reproach no matter what they do on the screen. Throw a khaki uniform into the mix and the results are extreme brutality unanswerable to neither regulation nor law. Violent acts done by the hero are mere vendetta dressed as justice.
These cop dramas follow certain formats. A personal tragedy spurs the hero to seek redressal through his uniform. His bid for vengeance, unchecked violence and brutal excesses are excused by past trauma (Darbar, 2020). Or, the villains are so despicable that the hero’s heavy-handedness and extra-judicial measures are presented as fair and even necessary. Too frequently, the victims are well-to-do and middle class while the criminals are dark-skinned wage workers (Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru, 2017).
Tamil Nadu is on the boil now as details of the custodial torture and murders of mobile accessory store owners Jayaraj and...Read more
