Let's take "Alaipayuthe" first. Here we have the hero, who's not doing anything worthwhile, other than wooing the medico heroine, having a "start up" - yes! a software start up! Thanks to his dad (a lawyer), he has an office with a few staff, and some computers. Of course! whether there was some venture capitalist involved isn't clear in the movie as also the area of work - whether e-commerce, web hosting, B2B, portal or any other buzz word.
Our hero is the boss, and towards the end of the movie, what should happen than a phone call from, where else, California! The girl who's at one end of the call, says "Yes, Sir", "Thank you, Sir" and turns around and exclaims, "We have won the contract for 2 million US dollars!"
Oh boy! things couldn't be any better!
Now we come to "Kandukondein". Here the heroine, Tabu, is the Principal, yes, Principal of a Computer Institute in a small town (franchise, perhaps!). There is a computer at her desk, which one never saw her tapping.
Later, the heroine lands up in Madras and goes from one company to another (software ones, of course!) on a job hunt. (Wonder why she didn't check out one of the Job portals - beats me!) "Madam! you may be a Principal, you may be experienced in programming, but you need experience certificate" is what's told to her.
She ends up being a Telephone Attendant in a software company, but can't resist helping out a pregnant lady programmer in some project release, working late and overtime. "Madam, those two commands are not there in Developer 2000", says she and goes ahead and does some coding.
She is promoted as "Junior Programmer" and is now full-time into software - to the extent that when an "onsite" assignment comes up in, where else, California, she is selected! "How is the warehouse project coming up?" asks the boss. Looks like this company is not into ecommerce!
It's a different matter that her US trip is compromised due to a reconciliation with her lover!
Thus, when Vairamuthu's (or was in some other lyricist?) line went "kadalukku fishing net, kaadalukku inter net" (for the sea, fishing net, for romance, internet), in the Tamil remake of "You've got mail", little did he realise he was just starting off a trend in South Indian movies!
But one shouldn't forget that even earlier in "Kaadal Desam", "internet" figured, maybe not in a big way!
Wonder what the future holds for IT in the Indian movies!