5 striking similarities between Dulquer’s 'Kaantha' and Mohanlal’s 'Iruvar' fans didn’t see coming

Highlights:

• Dulquer’s Kaantha teaser draws eerie parallels to Mohanlal’s Iruvar
• Both films dive into 1950s Tamil cinema and its political undercurrents
• Iconic white dhoti-shirt look connects DQ to MGR-inspired screen legends
• Kaantha explores a bitter fallout between a director father and his star son
• The film mirrors Iruvar’s emotional depth and mentor-protégé conflict

You watched that Kaantha teaser, right? That grainy footage, Dulquer Salmaan looking sharp as hell in white, that tension crackling in the air? And then it hit you. A weird, familiar shiver. Wait a minute... this feels like... Iruvar? You’re not imagining it. The smell of old studios, the weight of ego in the editing room, the political undercurrent behind every camera roll. For anyone who’s watched Iruvar, that gut feeling was familiar.

Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj and starring Dulquer Salmaan as a brooding, beloved superstar, Kaantha seems to walk a parallel path to Mani Ratnam’s 1997 masterpiece Iruvar. But this isn’t imitation. It feels like a spiritual continuation, a new take on the same obsessions: cinema, power, betrayal.

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Here’s why it’s giving us serious déjà vu:

1. The air they breathe: 1950s Madras studios, sweat and celluloid

Kaantha throws us into 1950s Madras: full of soft lights, dusty reels, and studio walls that seem to breathe stories. The visuals are soaked in sepia-toned nostalgia. It’s the exact same raw, black-and-white (or beautifully muted) world Iruvar built. Iruvar too begins here, when cinema was booming and film stars were morphing into gods. Not just a setting, it’s almost like a character.

2. The white dhoti, the sunglasses: the star

You can’t miss it: Dulquer in that white veshti-shirt combo, hair sleek, eyes hidden behind thick vintage shades. The reference is loud and deliberate. It’s a statement, the same powerful, iconic look Mohanlal’s Anandan wore in Iruvar, the uniform of the Tamil matinee idol. You see it, and you know: this guy owns the screen, owns the crowd. Instant icon status.

3. The director and the star, locked in battle

This is where it gets juicy. Kaantha isn’t hiding it: Samuthirakani’s "Ayya" (the director, the creator) is locking horns with his own protégé, his star (Dulquer). Ayya’s film Saantha gets hijacked, renamed Kaantha by the actor’s sheer force. Sound familiar? That’s the exact gut-wrenching core of Iruvar – the brilliant writer Tamizhselvan watching his actor-brother Anandan eclipse him, their bond shattered by ambition and ego. It’s the artist versus the icon, played out in painful, glorious detail.

4. Films within films

Both movies are about movies. Kaantha begins with a project being made, a horror film called Saantha. That production, and its title, are stolen and reshaped by the actor-son. The industry is shown as a battleground where stories are constantly hijacked. Iruvar nailed this decades ago, peeling back the curtain to show the rehearsals, edits, and rewrites, all mirroring shifts in real power.

5. The father figure fracture: it’s blood this time

Iruvar gave us the tragedy of brothers in spirit torn apart. Kaantha twists the knife deeper. Here, the conflict is blood. Samuthirakani’s Ayya isn’t just a mentor; he’s the father. He built this star, nurtured him, and now watches helplessly as ego and ambition poison everything. In Iruvar, Tamizhselvan and Anandan’s brotherhood crumbles not because they stop loving cinema, but because they start loving their own versions of it more. Both relationships feel destined to fall apart. And watching it unfold is heart-breaking.

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So, what does it all mean?

Iruvar was about two men shaping Tamil Nadu. Kaantha seems to be about a man trying to shape his father’s film and failing. Both stories carry echoes of real-life legends, but that’s not the point. Kaantha looks ready to walk the path Iruvar carved, but maybe, just maybe, with a heavier heart. And honestly? We can’t wait to see if it bleeds.