by Sam Trailerman
I thought I’d never see the day where there’d be an adult black comedy in Tamil cinema. But here comes Perusu (Respected Elder), a 2025 Tamil-language film directed by Ilango Ram.
Jointly produced by Stone Bench Films, Baweja Studios and Ember Light Studio, it stars Vaibhav, Sunil Reddy, Niharika NM, Chandini Tamilarasan and Bala Saravanan. It’s actually a remake of Ilango’s 2023 Sri Lankan Sinhalese film, Tentigo.
Perusu was released on March 14, 2025 to both super positive and negative reviews from critics.
In the film, two brothers discover their deceased father with a persistent erection and scramble to conduct the funeral rites while hiding this embarrassing condition from their gossipy small towners. The film revolves around the funeral of the elderly man, whose two sons are dismayed to find the old man’s erected penis.
In their attempt to conceal the situation discreetly, they are forced to confront their strained relationship and reveal their deceased father’s love life.
My thoughts on this: making a Tamil movie like this is actually risky. The whole plot revolves around the patriarch of a family passing away. But the person dies with a hard-on. Thrown into a such a stiff situation, the immediate family must do whatever it takes to hide this hilariously weird scenario.
Perusu could have started the ball rolling for this genre for future Tamil adult comedies. A kick-starter for more creative and mature humour. This is definitely a story where you might only see in an English film like Leslie William Nielsen’s The Naked Gun. Seeing it in a Tamil is a major surprise.
In terms of the movie’s quality, it wanes here and there, sometimes searching for the next pole point of hilarity. What the movie should have done more was to focus on how this weird situation was bringing out the family’s secrets and quirks.
The film barrels forward like a runaway hearse, rarely pausing between its rapid-fire dialogue and increasingly absurd attempts to conceal the hard stuff. It revolves around each new person that is drawn into the “conspiracy” — the wives, mother, the loyal but exasperated Ameen (Bala Saravanan), and one very confused auto driver.
The two-hour run time is committed to absurdity as the film tries to deliver what it promises: a consistent stream of chuckles punctuated by a few genuine laughs.
Sadly, Perusu falls short of becoming a brilliant comedy, largely due to its complacency. It doesn’t move much from the phallic jokes, which become redundant after a while.
On top of that, it could have done well with much needed character depth as characters are not one-dimensional but possess a range of traits and motivations.
In the end, the audience also doesn’t know much about this family. It’s a film that concentrates much on gags and one-liners. Perusu could have used more emotional moments to bring out some much-needed weight to reflect the film’s overall story.
It should have worked more on the dialogues to escalate its characters and scenarios to bring about a more unique watch.
But the truth is also that this is definitely not a family comedy! For many commentators in the social media sphere, Perusu might be a harmless film which takes off on a high note. But for some prudish watchers, they even lament that it has brought shame to Indian cinema. Disgusting movie, one said. A stupid and nonsense movie, another said. It was in bad taste as it centred on a “joystick”, said one who watched at length. Another opined that the female actresses acted heartlessly.
For the record, when a person dies, the heart stops beating. And there is no simulation in the brain. There will also be no blood rushing to that part of the body! Without the heart pumping blood, vital organs, including the brain, quickly begin to shut down due to lack of oxygen. A Google search enabled me to find the answer for the final erection, also known as “angel lust” or terminal erection. It happens in the moments after death.
Scientists believe that it may be due to pressure from the noose on the cerebellum, that part of the brain at the back of the head, just above the spinal cord. Meaning “little brain” in Latin, it plays a crucial role in motor control, balance, coordination, and fine-tuning movements. It also helps regulate voluntary movements like walking, writing, and speaking.
A death erection, angel lust, rigor erectus, or terminal erection is a post-mortem erection, technically a priapism. Priapism is a prolonged and painful penile erection that is not related to sexual arousal. These symptoms have been observed in the corpses of men who have been executed, particularly by hanging.
I got to admit that Perusu was funny in a few parts, all in all about 25 per cent. It should have been a shorter film at 90 minutes where the unnecessary fillers could have been snipped away.
In the final analysis, the film fails to engage despite carrying a truckload of genre-friendly actors. One die-hard Perusu fan cheekily said this in Tamil — Seththa Unga Appa Maari Saavanum (If Dying, One Must Die Like Your Father)!
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