Right in its opening scene, The Real Lion (Thilagar) stakes its claim to be in the firmament of blood-soaked movies set in south Tamil Nadu. Four teenager, who have been arrested for murder, decide to kill the eight-year-old boy who will come to identify them in an identification parade the next morning. Even though there is no violence in this scene, it manages to be chilling, just by showing us the manner in which these boys behave at the juvenile home and how casually they talk about murdering someone.