Why is Tamil cinema so reluctant to explore varied shades of romance?

Greta Lee’s Nora turns her back to Teo Yoo’s Hae Sung and to a life she could no longer even daydream, and walks back to John Magaro’s Arthur, a life she was gifted with. And hours after watching Past Lives, a romantic could only sigh at the cinematic wonder and whisper, “How could something seem so effortless?” Back home, meanwhile, a believer in Tamil cinema raises a suspicion, of what seems like a growing distrust in exploring niche conflicts in a relationship, with creators always opting for a more mainstream approach to silver screen romances. The death of old-school romance With creators struggling to understand the sensibilities of Gen Z audiences who are quick to conclude any old-school displays of emotions, like love, as ‘cringe-worthy,’ the long-gone but still dampening fatigue for old-school romance has evidently affected the way creators look at relationship dramas. While we have seen many love stories this year that sometimes teased a niche conflict such as in Dada, Good Night, and segments of Modern Love: Chennai, it becomes apparent that even though good love stories are in regular supply, there has been no mainstream attempt to evaluate if there’s an audience for a Normal People-like series, even on streaming platforms. The need for niche romance Conversely, ‘mass’ romance has been doing well; films that just want to tell a simple and good love story that can easily connect with the audiences, like Nitham Oru Vaanam, Sita Ramam, 96, Dada or Love Today are still going strong.