I genuinely don’t understand why people find Karthi falling in love with Subbu in Dorothy artificial. Did y’all miss Vadivu anna saying he’s been acting strange for the past one month? Isn’t a month enough time to start recognising your feelings? Karthi literally says something’s been gnawing at him, that her face keeps flashing before his eyes and it’s killing him. The day before dropping her off, he already feels that something has changed. The way she stood is etched in his mind like a photograph. That’s yearning. That’s him slowly realising he’s in love.
And mind you, Tamil cinema has given us men falling in love at first sight, even disguising themselves as someone else and manipulating women into liking them. Yet a man spending a month gradually falling for someone, noticing her absence and carrying little moments with him is artificial?
I’ve seen childhood best friends realise they’re in love and marry at 23. People don’t all fall in love on the same timeline.
And even if the film hadn’t shown us Karthi gradually falling in love or given us all the little justifications for his feelings, would that automatically make his love any less believable? Not every realisation needs to be spelt out for the audience. The absence of a love-falling montage isn’t proof of the absence of love.