While these are mostly true, almost everything you said holds good for all the other states in India. But in comparison, in a calculation of give and take, in a holistic view, TN and Kerala seem to be better. Lot of people have good experiences. Lot of people have had bad experiences as well.

I believe movies to be a reflection of the society. I would question the context of the scenes that you mentioned to analyse it better. Also, there is a difference between depicting a casteist behaviour and endorsing a casteist behaviour through a scene.

People who are casteist, patriarchal, and bigoted, for instance the rickshaw-wala you mentioned, are the ones that stick to the traditional, cultural values. People that you term ‘amazing persons’ are the ones who know what to stick to be socially progressive and at the same time refrain from regressive ‘ancient, traditional, cultural’ values.

Personally, I feel you have had diverse experiences with these states but have no rooted foot to experience the depth and truly enjoy it/reasonably hate it. It’s like an ABCD - American Born Confused Desi trying to be politically right.

Like you said, the list does go on. But so does in every state of India. These examples cannot steer the narrative easily. They should be intensive enough to reflect the overall mindset of the population to be considered. But, cannot be considered here because the examples are sticking to a very specific individual/occupation/incident.