On some random day in 2009, I happened to watch this movie, Polladhavan. This movie is Vetrimaran’s first movie. Half of the people adored Dhanush’s acting and the other half adored the love track between Dhanush and his Pulsar bike. G. V. Prakesh’s background score added more value to the movie. But the movie has more than that.

The lifestyle of the middle-class family, the strange girl becoming the hero’s lover, the love for bikes and the style of narration were the add-on beauty to the movie. Almost all the movies directed or produced by Vetrimaran carries the raw and blood-filled scenes in them.

We would have come across a phrase, “You too Brutus”, that phrase is from the play ‘Julius Caesar’. Caesar utters these words when Brutus Stabs in his back. It is a play written by William Shakespeare. Most of his play connects with the audiences or readers irrespective of time or period.

Caesar is in the Senate house. He is continuously stabbed by a group of people, who didn’t like his rule. He also finds his friend, Brutus standing one among them. He never expects his friend to stab him. When Brutus stabs, Caesar is filled with shock… He says or asks, “You too Brutus”, then he falls…

Vetrimaran’s movies carry some Shakespeare elements in them. This movie carries a similar scene to “You too Brutus”. The gangster, Selvam (Kishore) and his brother, Ravi (Daniel Balaji) are going somewhere in the car. Selvam advises Ravi, to kill for money, not for personal vengeance. Their car gets punctured. During that time, a group of people plot to kill Selvam. Selvam guards his brother, Ravi.

Later, he finds someone has stabbed him in the back. When he turns to slap that person, he is filled with shock. That person is his trusted brother, Ravi. He is stabbed again in the stomach. He utters “neeyuma da”. The same emotion is carried in the movie and the play. Both of these scenes are similar to each other.

Selvam – Julius Caesar

Ravi – Brutus

Out (Pawan)- Mark Antony

Pawan is one of Selvam’s henchmen. Pawan’s character will have the shades of Mark Antony. Mark Antony, in the play, takes up the responsibility of killing the people who were reasons for Caesar’s assassin. Pawan also does the same in the movie.

In the film Sorgam (1970), the murder scene in Julius Caesar is used to show the hurt felt by the betrayal of a friend. The actions of the characters playing Caesar and Brutus, in a college play. Sivaji betrayed by his friend Balaji, who played Brutus, says the play was a rehearsal for the actual betrayal being enacted at that moment.

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