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Beast:
Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, Beast was the most anticipated Vijay film of the year. Pooja Hegde was credited as the lead of the film along with Vijay. Surprisingly, Aparna Das, who played a supporting role in the film, had more depth to her character than Pooja Hegde. Pooja’s entire premise to fall in love with Vijay and then romance him while he saves the day could have been entirely avoided. The movie would have worked perfectly well without the character ‘Preethi’. The fact that the movie also had several other illogical loopholes is yet another debate altogether. Some scenes, like the one where the psychologist objectifies Preethi was also extremely problematic. The movie also perfectly fails the sexy lamp test. It is to be noted that last year, Master, yet another Vijay film, also made it to this list.
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Maaran:
One of the most unexpected misses of the year, Maaran starred Malavika Mohanan alongside Dhanush. The movie also starred Smruthi Venkat in an important role, as she played the sister of Dhanush. The movie clearly gives prominence to Smruthi and Dhanush’s relationship and therefore her character has more detail and depth. Malavika Mohanan makes an appearance only to romance Dhanush. Again, her absence in the film would not have really made a difference. Unfortunately, Malavika’s role in Master was also pretty meaningless and maybe she could have chosen a better second film in Tamil.
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The Legend:
Although the movie itself was an expensive joke, it is important to mention that Legend Saravana’s wife in the film, played by Geethika Tiwary, had no role whatsoever. The story frames her first as a damsel who Saravana falls in love with and marries. Then, this damsel gets into distress, and Saravana needs to save the day. She literally only exists in the film to die so that Saravana can become the hero. It’s high time we start using actresses for better purposes than just to ‘Heroify’ the lead actor. Urvashi Rautela definitely had a better role as the villain of the story. Geethika Tiwary could be taken away from the film, and the film would still remain as miserable and humourous as it is now.
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Viruman:
A debut for Director Shankar’s daughter Aditi Shankar, Viruman only gave her the chance to play the cliche village belle who romances the rugged Hero. A typical Muthiah heroine, Aditi tails around Karthi and points out all of his ‘Heroic’ qualities. The way she falls in love with Karthi is also unrealistic and should have been written better. No doubt, it was easy to identify that the actress is a good dancer, with the abundance of duets in the film. But, Aditi could have definitely chosen a better role for her cameo, all the more to prove her prowess in acting.
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Captain:
Directed by Shakti Soundar Rajan, Captain stars Arya in the lead role. Apart from him, Harish Uthaman Bharath Raj and Malvika Avinash play prominent supporting roles in the film. Simran is credited as the antagonist of the film. While all of these seem perfectly in place, Aishwarya Lekshmi is credited as the lead of the film, which does not exactly fit. Aishwarya Lekshmi’s screen time in the film will not add up to more than 10 minutes, inclusive of a song with montages. She only comes to romance Arya, a role any other actress could have played. Aishwarya Lekshmi has given some of her best performances this year in films like Ponniyin Selvan, Ammu, Kumari, and many more. Her role in Captain pretty much jinxes all of the good roles she has done this year.
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Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu:
We all thought that it was impossible for a Director like Gautham Vasudev Menon to have a poorly written woman character. Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu’s Paavai, played by Siddhi Idnani disproves this point. Well, many hoped that this happened only because the director adapted the film from a story, written by author Jeyamohan. All said and done, this character was extremely disappointing coming from a Director like GVM. Siddhi Idnani only comes into the film to light up the screen with her performance. In the life story of Muthu, Paavai doesn’t really serve a purpose, other than becoming his wife. The way she falls in love with Muthu is also impractical. Considering the movie is likely to have a sequel, the hope remains that there will be more to Paavai at least in that film.
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Sardar:
Directed by PS Mithran, Sardar had not one, but three actresses in prominent roles. Of the three though, Raashi Khanna was credited as the lead of the film alongside Karthi. While Raashi Khanna was forcefully made to fit into the role of a lawyer, her character was not given enough importance. She conveniently fit into the role of a lawyer when the story demanded it, while at other times, she was just a pair for Karthi. Rajisha Vijayan, who played the wife of the older Karthi, also did not have much of a role, but she wasn’t at least considered as the lead. While the film dealt with a different concept, it could have had a better-written female lead character.
Some of these movies were hits, while some were misses. But, all these movies failed to recognize their female leads. Kollywood has normalized actresses making an appearance only for the actor and to show that he has a love interest. Just like the outside world, the movie world also shows that the heroine’s life is surrounded by the hero’s life and every action she takes corresponds to his decisions. Directors should first stop adding female leads with meaningless roles in stories and actually write them in only if they have a role to play in the movie.