In defence of supposedly bad films

Note: This article discusses films from the Tamil (Indian) film industry. So the article addresses a niche section of people who read articles on Tamil films  

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There are legendary films that are remembered to this day, that are from several decades ago. They may be films that we have seen only once but we still remember very well. However, there are also films that are unanimouly regarded as bad considering the negative reviews that they received from prominent film critiques and the audience alike.

While the phenomenon is perhaps universal, I am of Tamil (Indian) origins and thus, this article is going to focus on the supposedly “bad films” post 2010 and would argue why they are perhaps needed, in the larger interest of film lovers and the film industry as a whole.

The Legend Saravanan reacting to the death of his wife in The Legend movie

At a personal level, enjoy these so called bad films, I would establish this at the outset. In my opinion, the best comedy is that which was not intended as such by the film makers. A recent example that I could think of is when Saravanan Arul, the multi-millionaire retail mogul turned actor, delivers a “punch dialogue” in his self-produced film The Legend (2022). With utmost seriousness, he tells Suman, “You are totally wrong!”, a moment where I could not control my laughter consider the intonation and the mismatch with his facial expression. I enjoy these more than intended humorous dialogues, wherein, when it comes to these, I can appreciate the wit of the writers and the acting of the comedian, but that is expectation being met by the execution. The difference here is the background music akin to legendary scenes is played, and it has no connection with the scene.

The three faces of Vishal in the Magudam (2022)

At times, the impact is also because of the director or actor being heavily involved in its promotions. A recent example I would pick is Magudam, actor Vishal’s directorial debut. He promoted the film by relentlessly pushing the “most innovative climax ever”, never seen before in world cinema. Before too long, the film was attacked by film critiques for its artificial and incoherent screenplay. The actor turned director himself added fuel to the fire, by uploading the behind-the-scenes video of the “climax”, which made meme creators enter the scene as well, to mock the difference. I watched the film and the only difference between climax of other action films and Magudam is that here, instead of going to the final showdown with friends, here the hero goes with an army of fisherwomen, armed with fishing knives. The logic is that “if they are good at chopping fish heads, they would be good at chopping heads off goons”. I could not control my laughter at the choreography of the scene and the bizarre logic to begin with. Ironically, this is not even the first film of Vishal where they used this logic. In Rathnam (2024), Vishal tells a group of temple priests to chop the villains with their sickle. They say they cannot engage in violence and to paraphrase the actor from the film, he says if they could use their sickle to chop pumpkins or coconuts, they can also use it to chop these horrible people. While I do not even remember several good, logical dialogues, I remember these very well.

However, these kinds of films show us a few things. Firstly, we learn that making a good or even an average film is not easy. In an era of instant social media virality, one blooper is enough for memes to flood the scene, some of which could stick to the rest of one’s career. So, a film that was just average with no howlers is a significant feat in itself.

Next, often such films are a wake-up call for the actors involved and the try to come back stronger, sometimes with an average film at first and then with a career-defining blockbuster. A couple of such examples are actors Vijay and Silambarasan (Simbu). Vijay starred in his 50^th film – Sura (2010) which was a box office bomb, but he came back with a movie that did decently well in terms of business and also reviews with Kaavalan (2011); and finally, it was Thuppaki (2011) – which not only revived Vijay’s career but also set a standard for action thrillers in Tamil cinema. Similar trend could be seen with Silambarasan – where he starred in Anbanavan Adaangadvan Asaradavan (AAA) (2018), lambasted by critiques and audiences alike for its screenplay and objectification of women. Simbu eventually followed it up with Maanadu (2021) which again, akin to Thuppaki, not only was a career-defining film for Simbu, but also set the standard for science fiction films in Tamil.

There is also the serendipitous effect of having scenes in bad taste. A quick disclaimer before I make this point is that I am not justifying the need for such scenes in movies – that objectify women, are casteist, glorify bad behaviour, etc. However, when a major star like Sivakarthikeyan acts in a film like Remo (2016) where he relentlessly stalks Keerthy Suresh throughout the film despite her refusing his advances – and this was a behaviour that was glorified. It was heavily criticised by film critics that the actor himself refrained from doing such films thereafter and such films, which were a common feature in 2000s and up until mid-2010s, are no longer in the mainstream.

Lastly, for a group of bored friends, there is nothing more entertaining than buying a large popcorn and watching one of these films on the silver screen, laughing together with your friends at the audacity of directing such scenes and presenting it to the audience. I can vouch for this form of entertainment given I have done this several times, including for some of the films stated in the article, such as Anbanavan Adangadavan Asaradavan (2019) and The Legend (2022) and I would say that I derived better value for money from these than for a film that received mixed reviews and was just average, like Beast (2022).

As on the date of this article, in September 2026, Magudam is one of the most mocked films among meme and content creators at the moment. I would admit that purely judging that film by screenplay and story, it is a terrible film. However, what I have been trying to argue in this article that however bad they are, they do indeed serve a purpose, arguably a valuable one.

I am not wishing for the Tamil film industry to be constantly producing such find of films, but having a “bad film” once in a while is not so “bad”, after all.

Happy watching!

Anirudh