Movies Part 1- 2016.

HI all,
As the curtain for 2016 is falling, with my free vacation time I thought I will watch all the movies which I missed during the year. And I realize that its been long time since I wrote anything about movies.
I saw quite a good number of Tamil Movies this year(as always) and liked some.
Here I revisit some of my favorite ones this year, in order of their release (courtesy Wikipedia).



Kathakali :
This movie directed by Pandiaraj with Vishal as lead hero, is one movie which I definitely liked a lot. It is not a typical hero-centered flick , and thanks to Pandiaraj,

as he had made the film with no star value, but just what the film required. It had enough powerful scenes to keep the audience clap and enjoy as well as good amount of scenes to guess what is happening. I must admit, though one would easily always know that ,the hero is going to win the battle in the end, it is still worth a watch with its racy screenplay particularly in the second half !







Irudhi Sutru:
This movie is a nice sports drama film directed by Sudha Kongara. Like most of the sports drama film it is like underdog-to-gold-medal in this as well, this is one of the very few movies where you would say almost all the characters were a perfect fit and had equal importance and depth. Madhavan as the rough coach, and Ritika Singh as the boxer were simply perfect , and I liked very much Nasser's and Radha Ravi's role. The way the relationship between Nasser and Madhavan was taken and with Radha Ravi was different and nice. Songs and background score were definitely a big plus for this movie and its definitely to be mentioned that not everybody can weave an interesting story around real facts and still make an engaging movie ( if not this would have been what we call as a documentary type movie) this movie definitely did that!.

Visaranai :
This movie is definitely not for the weak-hearted, its reality at its brutal best. This one is India's official nomination to the Oscars, that stands as a testament to it, so nothing to be added from my side. When many peo
ple speak about the first half (adapted from a book), it would take real guts to direct the second half. I would say that first half definitely makes you feel sorry for the boys and you definitely would feel afraid seeing what power in wrong hands can do. If first half was making us afraid, second half definitely makes us think and for people who can connect with the real life characters of the second half, they are definitely in for a treat ! A justified national award for Samuthirakanni.



Mirudhan:
I liked it, for the mere attempt. It is a fairly nice attempt which would give enough thrills for someone who has not seen this kind of movies in English. Duration of the movie was short whic
h is a big plus to movie, and if not for the unwanted song sequence in the second half it is a definitely a onetime watch for me.











Sethupathi:

It is again one of the very few movies where you know the hero is going to win , but still keeps you guessing what next. This movie is one of the few movies where I would say the hero is a cop and he already has kids and still the story does not have any flashbacks ! This is what Vijay Sethupathi can pull and I think nobody else can make it ! It is still a hero-centric film, but with grounded reality and still with enough scenes to give you goosebumps. Song sequences and the family portion of the movie is a huge plus in addition to the interesting twists in the story.



Pichaikaran:
This is a standout in this year, this story was tailor made for Vijay Antony and he would definitely be thankful to Sasi for making this at this point in his career. While many have done rags-to-riches or riches-to-rags story, this is different definitely! And the facNooru Samigal Irundalum is what Vijay Antony would do for an master piece of Pichai Paathiram by Ilayaraja for Naan Kadavul and Nenjorathil too is a nice melody which will keep you humming for the entire day!
Fact that it is based out a real life story simply leaves the viewer in awe! This movie has good songs to listen individually , and the placement in the movie as well is very good.


Pugazh:

This is a decent movie with Jai as hero, and just like his previous movie Valiyavan which went unnoticed this too faced the same. Both the movies had a good story and nice screenplay to keep one engaged, but for no fault in the movie, these go un-noticed. This is definitely a one time watch , it has good amount of politics, friendship and hero-centric, but still routed. Jai and Karunas play nicely their roles, and the villain ( I do not know his name) too plays his part well, the characters are written well, their motive is all clean and bang-on their target. It is very rarely that one would see in a political drama film, that villain does not have huge number of goons in his command, and both the villain and hero realize and act accordingly to what they can and what they cannot.

Vetrivel:
Vetrivel, where Sasikumar plays the hero says it all. Set in a rural background somewhere in and around Madurai, as always.
The movie seemed interesting to me for one, Sasikumar had references to his previous movies himself when other actors were referring to Rajini/Vijay/Ajith. This simply shows that he has grown as an actor and is confident of pulling things out himself.
Though it is the same love-against-parents story, this movies has good twists and nativity in it which usually goes missing in these kind of movies. Though the end was  a bit dragged with some fight sequences added just for keeping fight sequences in the climax, this movie is definitely a one time watch.

24:

With Muni came the ghost-spree in Tamil Cinema, and with Indru Netru Naalai and 24 I thought its going to be series of time-travel movies. Though the spree never happened, 24 was a good one to come after Indru Netru Naalai.  Though it did not get into the depth of Time Travel, or go into the areas which Indru Netru Naalai did, this is what a time travel movie would look like if a star does it. It should have good punch dialogues, and if Suriya does a movie, it should have good acting scope as well for him to explore and exhibit his talent. 24 stands out for its story and screenplay and way Suriya played the triple roles, and particularly the fact that story justified the star value as well as the actor value in Suriya. Only few movies would require different characterizations and mannerisms in double role or triple role movies which are actually justified and 24 is one among them. With AR Rahman and an intelligent story, and justified multiple roles, this definitely is one of my favorite for this year !

Uriyadi:
When lot of movies claimed to be political movies and failed, those movies which did not have promotions and budget were the ones which actually drove politics deep into the viewer. If Visaranai was very raw and crude, Pugazh was good-vs-bad politicans, Uriyadi is directly hitting hard on caste-based politics.I must admit that though the movie was set in the early 90s, it had too much of drinking scenes in college which probably was not the reality at that point in time in our state. In spite of that, I felt that it was a message in the movie that unwanted quarrel can happen when one is drunk and all the portions where the friends get into trouble was either in a bar or when they are fully drunk.

The movie is not just about friends drinking and wasting their time off in college, it deals with caste based politics and what politicians did and what could happen if things go wrong. This is definitely a must watch, the background score Agnikunjondru song is an perfect fit for the movie.

Iraivi:

There are some movies which you watch for the star in it, some you watch for the story in it. But there are some which you will wait eagerly and watch for the brilliance in ManiRatnam, Shankar etc. 
 Iraivi is like that from Karthik Subbaraj, though the movie had unwanted controversies for portraying a film producer as villain, the movie essense was something else. I must admit that I felt somewhere disconnected and was wondering did I get clearly what was conveyed in the movie, probably it was over my head and I need to watch it couple of times more. Iraivi  is those kind of movies which you will watch to see the brilliance even if the message conveyed does not connect with you very well. This blog I saw covers the brilliance of the movie. I  myself have some catching up to do here :)
If not for this, I would not have appreciated the actor in SJ Suriya. Iraivi is definitely those kind of movies which I felt that I did not understand it fully, not because the movie had something lacking, but I did.

Oru Naal Kuthu :
For its interesting premise, and build to the story and the climax or anti-climax whichever way you call it. Some may not like it, but it is those kind of movies which you will say its a good movie but I still do not like it, but definitely a one time watch. In short in its simple story lies itscomplications.





Metro:

Though it is violent, the entire premise deals with chain snatching and is expected to be so. With Bobby Simha, playing kind of a side-kick here, movie deals with what can go wrong if one runs behind money in illegal ways. It is like a good documentary as well with a neat message.






Appa:
For Samuthirakani, this is definitely a feather in his cap. I liked the movie, for it was shot in the place I grew up with and it was captured beautifully. The movie was definitely no
t intended at changing our education system, and making statements, it was a nice drama about a father-son and just to see the depth in their relationships, they needed a contrast a highlight the difference, some scenes went far-fetched. For in reality, all of us are a mix of three father-son pairs shown in the movie.



Joker:

A hard hitting reality movie, this definitely falls into the category of documentary type movies, but it is the message it drives makes the difference. You would definitely think about the crux of the story for a long time after seeing this.
The hero, played this character to brilliance, and it is the same guy who played the acting teacher in the movie Jigarthanda.
Worthy of a award winning movie and actor I would say!





Kutrame Thandanai:

A good crime thriller, with no songs. Not many times we would see this combination in tamil cinema, and this one was just good enough to live without songs or comedy tracks.
It had good dialogues and the movie was short and crisp. I particularly liked the tunnel-eye vision and how the story unfolded it and the sequence between the hero Vidharth and Nasser.






Aandavan Kattalai :

2016 was Vijay Sethupathi's year and this definitely stands out for his performance. He portrayed various shades in this movie, and the movie itself is very engaging you would not realize that it would take immense amount of talent to portray such a character and he does it with ease. Heroine too played her role brilliantly and court-room portion will make you feel that comedy need not be injected separately in a movie, and it can be neatly done with the flow of movie. They could have made it a dark comedy, or a documentary type movie but the one we have is just brilliant. Lawyer-Junior lawyer combination was simply beautiful. If we see the scenes separately we may not appreciate it, but the movie has a whole is a good one.
Everything about the movie is so beautiful, that you would always love to see the movie.


Kodi :

If the year started with Irudi Sutru for a good female role movie, it ends with Kodi. A good political thriller, with heroism, love , betrayal. A good dual role for Dhanush and unfortunately the songs were a bit let down in the movie.







I had kept out Theri, as I wanted to write only about the movies made in Tamil directly for the first time, though I must admit it was a good entertainer and I liked it. I had kept out Kabali  as well , as I had scribbled something on it earlier which can be found here.

There is a next one for movies which I did not like as well, which can be found here.

Bye till next,