Director-actor Dhanush’s ‘Idli Kadai’ is an oddly tender protest. South cinema, after all, has long been an altar of audacity, serving up stories with all their jagged, glorious edges.

‘Idli’ carries the stillness of a house locked for summer vacation — when you return, everything feels familiar, yet somehow ‘emptier’. Fittingly, Dhanush tells us the film is inspired by real people he met on childhood visits to his ancestral village.

The story centres on Murugan (Dhanush), son of idli shop owner Sivanesan (Rajkiran), whose craft is religion. He wakes up at 3 am, ferments his batter with near-biblical devotion, and scoffs at machines that “help” but never make the idli quite right.

Years later, Murugan, a culinary graduate, moves to Chennai and then Bangkok. The once-innocent boy becomes

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