History MediaNotes / TheOtherwoods

Yet, the cultural fallout of these movies transcends their obscurity. Many South Indian movies became massive commercial or critical hits, went on to be dubbed in several other Indian languages, and then became hits in those languages also. Mani Ratnam's 1992 ''Roja'', an influential film beloved all over India, was first a Tamil movie, though its origin is often glossed over. This film also debuted the composer AR Rahman, who went on to win awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Oscars. But before he did Slumdog Millionare and before he worked in Bollywood, he spent a decade composing music for Tamil movies and still does so to this day. This not a rare scenario: it is easier for a no-name talent to debut in South India than it is in Bollywood. Many iconic Hindi film stars, from Aishwariya Rai to Kajol to Katrina Kaif, started their careers down south.

South Indian films borrow much from the Tamil dramatic traditions, such as exaggerated speech and action, formulaic plots, characters and tropes, and an abundance of music and dance. These films are today thought of as the LargeHam, even by Bollywood standards. They are unabashedly escapist. The heroes are generally unapologetic Stus of the highest order. The LoveInterest (called a "heroine", even if she never does anything heroic) is usually a straight-up [[TheChick chick]] and DistressedDamsel. Every film will have copious amounts of intrusive comic relief[[note]]Comedic actors in South India are popular figures and appear in almost every film .[[/note]] as most films attempt to stuff in as much action, romance, music, and comedy as possible. This all-in-one genre combination is familiar to Indian movie buffs as 'masala', but is more commonly called 'mass' in Telugu lingo. Even movies with a serious subject matter (politics, horror, history, mythology) may follow the same pattern. Combine all of that with the low quality special effects and you get an industry of Narmy, SoBadItsGood movies.

Sandalwood is the nickname given to the Kannada film industry, based in Bangalore. The name is derived from the sandalwood trees, that are ubiquitous in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka. They are in these times considered the [[AndZoidberg Zoidberg]] of South Indian film industries, owing to their movies being generally of lower production quality and having horrible plots. The truth is that this industry is a WhiteDwarfStarlet, which once produced movies equal in quality and commercial success to the other South Indian "woods", but have been in a prolonged DorkAge since the early nineties.

The nineties were not kind to this industry, seeing it JumpTheShark multiple times. While {{Fanservice}}, stereotype based humor, MartyStu leads and PlotTumor has always been present in all movies, these aspects were turned up in many films of this era at the cost of a good compelling story. As a result, these movies catered primarily to a rural and often [[ViewersAreMorons uneducated audience]]. This resulted in just sufficient revenue to offset production costs, but not enough cash to pay good screenwriters, good directors, good production crews, good score composers etc. Therefore, the industry seems to be mired in this DorkAge with little to no hope of recovery.

There are exceptions, such as ''Kandukondein Kandukondein'', a Kollywood adaptation of ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', which is slice-of-life drama, combined with romance and some mild satire. Some popular directors, such as Mani Ratnam, K. Viswanath, Ram Gopal Varma, and more recently, Rajamouli, are known to stray from the typical masala patterns. With foreign films[[note]]admittedly mostly American[[/note]] easily accessible, the expectations of the younger generation are changing, and so such exceptions are growing more and more numerous.

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* ''Film/{{Anjali}}'' (1990): A rare AwardBait film from Mani Ratnam, featuring a terminally IllGirl born with a developmental disability.

* Aapad Baandhava - the rarest of the rare - an Indian movie that received a Hollywood remake - the Creator/BruceWillis flick Film/MercuryRising (the autism and cryptography in the Hollywood version, being an upgrade over the deaf-mutism and post traumatic stress used in this movie).
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* ''Film/{{RRR}}'', a historical fiction where two freedom fighters team up to fight the British Raj.

** ''Film/{{Kaithi}}'': a recently freed convict was forced by a police officer to drive poisoned cops to the nearest hospitals while dealing with criminals who are eager to kill them.

* ''Vikram Vedha'' (2017), a battle of wits between a cop (Madhavan) who performs extrajudicial killings with a black-and-white sense of justice and a criminal (Vijay Sethupathi) who sees much nuance in between good and evil.

* Lokesh Cinematic Universe (2019-present): A series of films created by director Lokesh Kanagaraj about the protagonists who deal with crime through other means that are not covered by law. These are:
** Film/{{Kaithi}}: a recently freed convict was forced by a police officer to drive poisoned cops to the nearest hospitals while dealing with criminals who are eager to kill them.
** Film/{{Vikram}}: a former Black Ops agent takes down a drug syndicate while said syndicate tries to find the lost drugs to a drug kingpin.

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* Film/{{Anjali}} (1990): A rare AwardBait film from Mani Ratnam, featuring a terminally IllGirl born with a developmental disability.
* ''Nayakan'' (1987): A uniquely Indian musical version of ''The Godfather''.

* ''Film/RRR'', a historical fiction where two freedom fighters team up to fight the British Raj.

If Kollywood is TheLancer in this lineup and Tollywood is the BigGuy, then Mollywood is the SmartGuy.

* ''Film/MinnalMuralli''(2021) - Widely regarded as Malayalam's first superhero movie

* ''Film/Drishyam'' (Visual, 2013) - A gripping tale of a film buff who goes through great lengths to protect his family following their accidental killing of a police inspector's son. Has a sequel released in 2021.

* ''Drishyam'' (Visual, 2013) - A gripping tale of a film buff who goes through great lengths to protect his family following their accidental killing of a police inspector's son.