Tamil film star Madhavan and Marathi director Nishikant Kamat swung by NYC yesterday to screen their Tamil remake of Dombivli Fast. As a tale of a white-collar everyman who slowly escalates his rebellion against the corruptness of society, Evano Oruvan (Someone) plays much like Rang De Basanti, Falling Down and John Q. The protagonist is driven to violence when every little thing — water tankers, bank loans, school admission, police work, healthcare, even buying a soda — meets with an outstretched palm and a naked demand for a vig.

There are no surprises in this tale. The movie is far too obvious and full of speechifying (show, then tell, show again with a cricket bat, then tell again) to be palatable. But this recent wave of anti-corruption movies (Yuva, Basanti) is notable, the throes of a society reliant on greasing palms at every turn. Unlike the angry young man movies of the ’70s, which railed against the limited economic opportunities of a socialist economy, the new wave asks why a wealthy, capitalist India cannot throw off the stinking habits of its moribund past. But it is an Indian movie in the end — its solutions involve government set-asides for the poor.

Basanti was criticized by moralists with little taste for darkness, for its heroes’ moral choices. As a Tamil flick, and one succeeding Basanti, Evano’s script takes great care to keep its hero artificially pure. Madhavan was the pilot-martyr in Basanti too. He’s invested $1M in Evano and is distributing it himself, but he hasn’t grown in his choice of roles. If the reedy Tamil auntie audience was any indication (’Do you always make negative movies? Why didn’t you choose a positive message?’), his market is his tapasya.

Here’s the trailer: