‘Dorothy’ movie review: Karthik Subbaraj’s most audacious, disruptive film yet is a crowning achievement
The film 'Dorothy', directed by Karthik Subbaraj, is being praised for its bold exploration of queer themes within mainstream Tamil cinema. Despite online backlash from bigoted groups, the film is noted for its clever subversion of genre expectations.
Why it matters
The film represents a significant cultural milestone for LGBTQ+ representation in Indian regional cinema.
(This review might contain mild spoilers about the sub-genre, as Dorothy makes it necessary to tackle the online bigotry that has spoiled the film’s cleverly concealed sub-genre)
A man contemplates killing a part of himself because another woman embraced a part of herself that she had been suppressing all her life. This is a thread from the film we are discussing, but also an allegory for how queerphobic individuals on social media have been killing their own humanity these last few days, after the TIFF premiere of Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy revealed that this could be the first major queer entrant in mainstream Tamil cinema.
In a way, Dorothy , starring Sananth, Rishikanth and Keerthy Suresh, has exposed queerphobia in modern Tamil society even before its release.
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