By Anu Nivas:
The trailer of Vikram’s next flick, “Iru Mugan” in which he plays a double role had fans praising his ability to play the role of an “effeminate villain”, Love in an effortless manner. Perhaps it is true that the trailer made the hero-villain distinction obvious. But even if not, the hangover of previous portrayals would have had the audience making up its mind about the hero it wanted to emulate – the conventionally smart, macho dude with a beautiful girlfriend and the villain it despised – in this case a character who makes no effort to hide his preference for the feminine and therefore needs to be portrayed as an abnormal, leering, and of course merciless with a lust for power.
Then I began wondering what if Love actually turned out to be the protagonist? After all they do dare to be themselves and doesn’t have to give a damn. They define their own style quotient and carries it off. The character even appears to be intelligent. When we brand a character as a villain do we also realise that they have positive qualities that could outshine even the hero’s? And why is the portrayal of an effeminate character always associated with some negativity or deformity? Why did Vishal have to squint in Avan Ivan and Ajith, rape a woman to avenge his mother’s death and leave her to lose her sanity?
The only movie that comes to mind is “Bommalattam” which portrayed the effeminate trait in a beautiful manner.
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