Flashy, flawed and furious: Meet south cinema’s angry young men

Pushpa naam sunke flower samjhe kya? Flower nahi fire hai...,” This iconic Allu Arjun punchline from Pushpa: The Rise, perhaps best encapsulates the rage of a new breed of action heroes from south India that’s become the toast of the nation.

- Suhas Yellapantula

Fans of Kannada star Yash will contend that Rocky Bhai’s punchline ‘Meri dosti layak koi yaar nahi. Meri dushmani jhel sake aise talwar nahi,’ from KGF: Chapter 2 is the epitome of onscreen fury. Some others might vote for that deafening roaring match a chained Bheem (played by NTR Jr) has with a tiger in RRR. The more woke among us will root for that goosebump-inducing scene from Karnan, where Dhanush smashes a bus and goes on a rampage by unleashing the pent-up angst of his community that lives in a village which doesn’t have a bus stop of its own, as the best of them all. Whatever your sensibility, these matinee idols from the south are making all of India sit up and take notice while breaking the BO with their wrath. Looks like the angry young man Amitabh Bachchan personified in ’70s and ’80s has been reimagined in an angrier, nattier and brasher avatar. We decode what is it that makes them tick.

BIG B’S ANGRY YOUNG MAN REINVENTED WITH A SOUTH INDIAN SWAG