'Anniyan' to 'Super Deluxe': Tamil films that talk about mental health issues

The Tamil film industry has explored multiple genres, and apart from just focusing on action and romance, certain films have expressed the sensitivity of mental health issues in both serious and comical ways. Certain movies raised awareness about mental health problems, which gave society a sense of how to reduce the stigma surrounding the topic. Here is a list of Tamil cinemas that approached mental health issues to raise awareness and give an understanding to the movie audience!

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Directed by Selvaraghavan, the film was released in 2003. The movie starred Dhanush and Soniya Agarwal in lead roles, and the film revolved around Dhanush, who is portrayed to have a psychological disorder, and his obsessive love for a woman because of his mental instability. The movie was critically acclaimed and it was later remade into other languages.

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Directed by Pa Ranjith, the film was released in 2016. Starring Rajinikanth in the lead role, the film portrayed the emotional struggles faced by the youth after getting addicted to drugs and the trauma of living in despair. The movie made up to Rs 450 crore at the box office. The film released one day ahead in Malaysia before it was released in Tamil Nadu.

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Directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja, the film was released in 2019. The movie intertwined multiple stories that ran parallel, and the film focused on various mental health issues that included the struggles of acceptance, identity, societal norms, religious beliefs, and even alien existence. The movie starred Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Fahadh Faasil, Mysskin, and Ramya Krishnan.

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Directed by Shankar, the film was released in 2005. The movie starred Vikram and Sada in lead roles, and the film revolved around Vikram, who is affected by dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. The film gives us an understanding of how a person struggles to fit into a society that he has no trust in.

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