Adithya Varma

In the opening scene of Adithya Varma, we see an old woman (Leela Samson) talking about the obsessive nature of her grandson with pride to her friends. This scene gives an inkling into why Adithya Varma (Dhruv Vikram) is the man he is. His grandmother is just one among the people in his inner circle who have enabled his abusive behavior since childhood and turned him into the angry, rebellious, possessive and abusive young man who cannot take rejections.

In his introduction scene, we see Adithya getting frisky with a young woman. But before they can have sex, the woman's fiance knocks on the door. While the woman, who had been a willful participant until then, stops him, in a momentary fit, the enraged Adithya threatens her to undress at knife point. Director Gireesaaya stages this scene in such a way that the power that has gone off in the house acts as a visual metaphor. It's almost as if the switch inside Adithya's head has gone off, bringing the darkness inside him to the surface. But then, the power comes back, and Adithya comes back to his senses. What follows next establishes his mental state. He desperately wants to get physical with a woman, but when he realizes that might not be possible, he cools himself off by putting ice in his groin.

Adithya Varma is the remake of the Telugu film Arjun Reddy (which was recently remade in Hindi as well - Kabir Singh) and this opening stretch - which glorifies the acts of the protagonist and tries to project them as bad-ass and cool ("unconventional mindset" and "free-spirited" are some of the terms that characters in the film use to describe him) - makes you realize that the criticism that the films have invited are valid. But thankfully, this Tamil version also sets right some of the problematic aspects of the original.

The narrative switches between these episodes of Adithya's self-destructive behavior and the past, where, he, as a house surgeon, falls in love at first sight when he sees Meera (Banita Sandhu)...