Generally scripts centered on female sex workers have made their way to celluloid. While a gigolo and his escapades, have been a no-no so far for the Tamil screen. But Rukmangathan has based his new directorial venture Antharangam on a script where the protagonist is a male sex worker. Gutsy in his expose of `the hidden truth’ being the film’s tagline, the director however has taken recourse to the sleaziest way in depicting it on screen, giving it a soft-porno look and feel. Madan working as a car driver and in dire need of money, reluctantly succumbs to the sexual overtures of his boss`s wife, and gets paid for services rendered. From then on, he`s passed on to her friends, wealthy, sexually frustrated, lonely housewives. Don ( aka Prasanna of Panchalankurichi, Madhumati), plays Madan with a total lack of inhibition, and with conviction and involvement. Admirable is his guts to take on a role which no hero would have dared to touch. Madan a bachelor finding it difficult to rent an apartment, strikes a deal with Mohana (Kamalika). She is a single girl working for a magazine, and on a house-hunt too. Posing as a married couple, they rent a place, and soon share an easy camaraderie. But the duo keep secrets from each other. He being a sex worker, and she about her traumatic experience at a brothel. Kamalika seems to have mouthed most of her dialogue in English, the lip sync going haywire as the poor dubbing artist tries to fit Tamil dialogues on to them. Wife swapping; pimps charming unsuspecting young girls and pushing them into the flesh trade; torture and auction of girls to the highest bidder at a brothel; a respected body-painting artist misusing his art, and having his nude models secretly photographed; cheating husbands, and sexually frustrated housewives, all form part of the script. The director through his characters offers justification for some of the sexual misdemeanours, at times pitching in a solution too. It`s no doubt a bold depiction of the murkier side of sex prevalent in society. But in revealing the hidden truth, the director has made it a voyeuristic journey of crude skin show, and titillating bedroom scenes. Some finesse would have made it more palatable, and the message taken more seriously.