The first trailer for Kadhal Reset Repeat, directed by Vijay hinted at yet another film based on amnesia, a condition/character that continues to make a key cameo appearance in many films to take the story forward—a confused man/woman who's struggling to grapple with reality and relationships. In this film, Jiya Shankar's character cannot remember beyond 24 hours, leading to chaos, comedy and emotional turmoil between her and Arjun Ashokan and Madumkesh.
As the film gears up for release soon, we take a look at some other films through the years which have used amnesia in its storyline...
Kamal Haasan and Sridevi's classic romantic drama Moondram Pirai, directed by Balu Mahendra has Bhagyalaksmi/Viji (Sridevi) suffering from retrograde amnesia. Srinivas aka Cheenu (Kamal), a school teacher rescues her and protects her from doing sex work. He makes her stay at his place and the two develop a deep relationship with Cheenu falling in love with her. The emotional story shows how she recovers her memory with the help of Kamal's character.
Flip the genders and we have Ghajini, AR Murugadoss' action thriller which has Sanjay Ramaswamy / Manohar (Suriya), an affluent businessman developing anterograde amnesia after a major head injury while trying to save his girlfriend Kalpana (Asin). He loses his memory every 15 minutes and uses a system of photographs, notes, and tattoos to recover his memory. The story follows his everyday struggles and difficulties in piecing his memory together and his mission to take revenge on those who wronged him and Kalpana.
The festival that went wrong. Ravi Mohan's Deepavali, directed by S Ezhil had Bhavana as Susi who suffers from PTSD after an accident and forgets events that happened in three specific years of her life. When she falls in love with Billu (Ravi Mohan) and connects with residents in the area, she is afraid her condition might re-appear. Unfortunately, as feared, she forgets Billu and other residents in the months that come after that. What follows in the rest of the film is Billu's emotional ordeal in making her remember their relationship.
Similar to Deepavali, Vijay Sethupathi's missing pages in his memory comes back to haunt him in Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. Directed by Balaji Tharaneetharan, Vijay Sethupathi plays C Prem Kumar, who experiences anterograde amnesia after a head injury two days before his wedding. His friends struggle to ensure the wedding happens before he recovers and conceal the incident from others.
Siddharth's 2024 romantic movie Miss You revolves around Vasu (Siddharth) who gets in an accident after being threatened by a Minister's goons, and experiences intermittent memory loss. When he leaves the town to Bengaluru, Vasu meets Subbulakshmi (Ashika Ranganath) and falls in love with her. She rejects his proposal and the family too rejects her. Unbeknownst to him, Subbulakshmi was Vasu's wife before his memory loss, stirring a chain of choatic and comedy events.