Maithri songs arrive with a plea: give small films time

The songs of Maithri are out, and the film now has a date: September 4. Debut director Bharath J.S. wrote the film, directs it, and plays its hero, with Gayathri Shan opposite him, under Tarun Kumar Bafna’s Perfect Picture Studios banner.

The most interesting credit sits in the music room. Joel Johns, who scored the Malayalam films Anuragam and Paalum Pazhamum across 2023 and 2024, makes his Tamil debut with Maithri, and he has an unusually deep lyric bench to work with: Yugabharathi, Kutti Revathi, Vasan and Pa. Raja, alongside debutant Ilamaran.

The film itself is pitched as a love story about the walls society puts up around couples, and the human struggle that follows, folded into the social questions of the moment rather than kept apart from them.

The sharpest thing said at the launch came from director Meera Kathiravan, speaking with distribution trade figures in the room. The press has always stood by small films, he said, but the theatres are another matter: a small film struggles to stay on a screen past three days now. He pointed to an earlier era when word of mouth could turn a picture into a hit a week after it opened, a runway that simply no longer exists. “Films with social concern like Maithri need to win,” he said, wishing the team well.

Nandan, Ravi Ezhumalai, Sridhar and Sivangi fill out the principal cast. Maithri opens on September 4, a date that is filling up fast: Yen Ennai Edho Seidhai and 7 Star Boys land in theatres the same day.