Hi all,
As the year end is approaching, so is the chance for me to pen down something as usual related with tamil movies. Here I wish to articulate on the movies I liked this year , similar to the one which I wrote last year. Gosh ! Time Flies !
This year I realize that it is turning out to be a year of newbies with lot of young crew making it big with nice content, when the big stars were finding it difficult to find good content.
Adhe Kangal
The year began with this movie, which turned out to be a very much interesting movie. I was in for a surprise with this, it appeared to me as a triangle love story in the beginning, then I thought the hero(Kalaiarasan) is playing a false game of being blind etc., but what turned out was totally out of the box for me.
The plot was refreshingly new and though I must admit that in the end it was turning out to be a bit predictable, but till the time the plot unfolded itself it was a very much engaging experience.
The heroine of the movie was from Zero, which was pretty much a bad movie for me last year, but this movie was a perfect fit for her.
The movie is surely a good watch for it is a rooted and believable thriller with no cinematic injustice added.
Managram
Set in the capital city of the state, this is a clear class movie of this year, with a cut above the rest.
Everything about this movie is perfect, the visual experience, audio experience with background score being so perfect for this.
I remember seeing this multiple times, and everytime it will give you jitters and will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end.
The fact that the leading characters do not even have their names called out, but still kind of end up in a tangle together is definitely a master piece, and this is definitely a master piece for the city itself.
Muniskanth of Mundasuppati fame, found his way back atlast in this and his role was outstanding, as a wannabe criminal with a easy-go attitude and his performance was brilliant.
While movies in the past couple of years, portrayed only North Madras as the place to live in, and the urban city where the rich live is not the place to be, this movie does not do that. It shows the lives of the people in city in various economic level and sections of the society and how they are all related in a good way, and also proves that all lives are related. Definitely a must watch !
8 thotakkal
This movie stands out again this year, for its pure content. The lead actor was definitely born to do this movie, and I am not sure if he was his natural self or he performed in a such a brilliant manner of a guy who has a unstable past and forced into a job which he does not like and does not have any friends/relatives to mingle with.
If at all a biography for M.S.Bhaskar is done, the single shot of a dialogue portion between the lead actor and M.S.Bhaskar will form the climax of that.
I remember seeing the interview of the director after watching the movie, and it was mentioned that it is 8 different stories for 8 bullets. I must admit that I did not realize that when I saw it for the first time, but later I realized it and probably that is the only thing which was planned in paper and did not materialize well.
A must watch for this year !
Bahubali 2
This is the epic movie of this year, answering the most wanted question of 'Why Kattappa killed Bahubali?'
When the big directors and stars were finding it difficult to manage the expectations with plenty of budget and a big market to cater, this one ruled them all like a boss !
It is not easy to manage prequels/sequels unless planned so meticulously and with so much of CG work involved in this deadlines will definitely slip a bit as we have not done this earlier.
In-spite of the delay, the movie was good and managed to exceed the expectations. It has good mass moments, as well as good content backing it.
Definitely a must watch !
Oru Kidayin karunai Manu
Again a new crew with a very small budget made a nice movie.
The only familiar face in this movie was Vidharth of Myna fame.
Apart from him, rest of them were pretty much new or persons whom we generally do not remember after the movie ends.
The intial 15 minutes of the movie, I felt it was going to be a typical village sentiment movie which was tried and tested in all the movies of 80s and 90s . I was not very happy in picking this up to watch. But what followed later was hilarious and totally worth the somber fifteen minutes, and then I could totally relate to the first 15 minutes.
It is not an edge of the seat suspense thriller, but if you ask for a movie where you want to know what is going to happen next every 10 minutes then this will be it.
It is not an emotional drama, but if you ask for a movie where you want to know how people react when faced with adverse situation this is it. It has a mix of black comedy, satire, everything you need !
Rangoon
Gautham Karthik found at-last something to cheer about in his career.
The movie is wonderfully done with small incidents moving the story beautifully with many people involved and all of them have a significant role to play.
The movie goes into details of black market and makes a mark in that aspect of making a convincing movie out of the lives of the people involved.
It is not edge of a seat thriller, but keeps you engaged till the end, though must admit that however realistic they try to make the movie there was some additions for the sake of doing it.
Like all movies which show North madras, this movie too does the same with friendship, betrayal among friends, revenge etc.
But that is where the twists reside and the beauty of the movie.
Maragadha Naanayam
From last year, the horror movie genre spree continued this year too. Fans of this genre generally to do not approve of horror movies in tamil, as they generally do not provide the thrill which foreign movies of this genre do.
Apart from the target audience and market reason, there is an economical reason as well for mixing comedy with horror as to get a U certificate and then become eligible for tax exemption.
In this trend,among the movies which released this year this one I felt is a cut above the rest.
Anand-Raj once a dreaded villain, is now the go-to man for a villain with a bit of comic sense. There are some decent twists and role-play involved in this which I liked. What makes it a cut above the rest is that the comedy portion is not forced here, but is pretty much part of the story and not a track running in parallel.
Uru
Kalaiarasan the lead man in this movie, like Viddharth had a decent year with two good releases with this and Yeidhavan. This movie though belongs to both the lead actors.
Continuing from Thirandhidu Seesae , Kabali,
Dhansika too must be lauded for her performance, has been choosing movies with scope for performance which is rare in tamil movies.
The movie has been inspired from various movies and has credited them all , and still cannot be counted as a remake or a pull-off.
In spite of that very rarely we get a tamil movie with such an ending open for interpretation and the movie justifies its title and instills fear for sure.
Pandigai
Another low budget, not a strong hero , and riding on the fact that the content is the hero.
Couple of movies this year I thought were inspired from Fight Club which I was partially correct and wrong. One was this and other one being Bogan.
A decent year for Kreshna, the lead too with decent outings in this, Yakkai and Vizhithiru.
And after ParuthiVeeran this is the movie where Saravanan had a good role to play once again, of a gambler trying to hit the jackpot.
This movie is a mix of underworld, gambling, unauthorized fight clubs, and heist movie as well.
The movie has drawbacks as well, with unwanted songs sequences, forced romantic portions with plenty of cliches which has been tried and dusted in tamil movies.
But inspite of the drawbacks, the movie provides enough thrill to keep you engaged.
Vikram Vedha
It was raining Vijay Sethupathi movie last year, and this year though the count was less, the movies which saw the daylight had covered up all classes or centers as they call it.
After a very long time a good movie with enough mass moments and brainy moments as well with such seasoned actors this is a perfect treat for a commercial movie fan.
I had written a separate post for this movie, and the only one which I wrote this year related with movies prior to this one.
Everything about this was a perfect, with awesome background score, lyrics, songs and too top it all Vijay Sethupathi and Maddy's performance !
A must watch for this year, can ignore the rest if you have not yet got a chance to experience this !
Taramani
This is Ram's world where he tries to capture the persons whom we hardly notice in our busy life. This movie is purely for the people living in cities and who have experienced the globalization.
Like Bala, Ram has got his own trademark style now.
All his movies deals only with characters with extreme nature be it love or hatred and he shows them both in one person. Irrespective of whether you buy into the content or not, one can learn a lot from his movies in terms of the writing and you see only characters evolving and behaving.
I liked the way of promotion of the movie with the inverted mute of words, the voice over of the director and not from the hero which we are used to, and makes a cut into all pressing issues of the society with demonetization, relationships, ego, illegal relationships, living-in etc.
Kurangu Bommai
Another awesome movie this year for Viddharth, proves that he believes in good content and knows his strength.
After Pandiya Naadu, an awesome performance of Bharathiraja in this.
As expected the main crux of the story does not involve heroine and does not require it. But still the portion involving Viddharth and heroine was refreshingly new and does not give you a boring feel.
The way all scenes knit together in the plot is interesting and has good emotional content as well with friendship, loyality, questioning of ethics for a loyal behavior in an unethical smuggling business. The bag serves as a metaphor for the monkey in all of us searching for a route to fix our problems. Except for a few scenes which look forced, this movie is a nice routed thriller with a package of emotions and engaging twists and turns.
Vizhithiru
This movie has the leadwith two actors who have had a successful 2017 : Viddharth and Kreshna.
There has been some similarities with Managaram and this, as both of them deal with incidents happening in one night.
But what the movie deals is different, and also how it deals is also different.
What I liked in this movie is that the movie begins with a message and ends with the same, and in the end we can understand the message conveyed better, and there lies the strength of the movie.
The second half was a bit dragged but still worth a watch for the plot and message conveyed. It is not preaching like Samuthirakanni's movies, but it just sheds light on the message and makes us think rather than having scenes to justify and elaborate on it.
Theeran
When big stars tried to make a commercial flick with mass fan boy moments and still worthy content, here was a movie where fight sequences were a bit cinematic, some moments for the whistles and claps, but still had rooted content.
The fact that it was made out of real life incidents and real cops, was an added advantage for this movie.
It cannot be counted as a regular commercial flick, as there was enough thrilling moments and keeps one guessing on what next rather than when to whistle and hoot.
A proud moment for the original cops involved in the chase, and really serves as a testament to them.
Except for the initial romantic portion between the lead pair, the content was very much bang-on the topic and very much gave a chill to the viewers.
Velaikaran
The last movie of this year for me, from Jeyam Raja and SivaKarthikeyan.
Raja's name should be christened now to Thani Oruvan Raja , and this movie serves as the perfect sequel to Thani Oruvan.
If Thani Oruvan was man in power questioning the injustice in the society, this is a common man questioning the things, on things which we deal with day-to-day life for our life and job.
The dialogue writer in Raja is very much alive and has not come out of Thani Oruvan yet, and had enough content to make it very powerful. A mass hero could not have done this, as the content would have been diluted a bit to add mass moments and hence a perfect fit for Siva Karthikeyan.
First half of the movie was very much bang on, and some important artifacts used in the first half did not appear in the second half, it looked as the villains in the first half and second half changed, those things too changed :)
The movie has a big star cast in terms of the support actors, and everybody had an interesting role to play with. Except for the comedy portions which was forced in here with Robo Shankar, everybody else was very much wanted in this script.
Since it deals with the problems we face day to day, it would relate with everyone and whoever stayed till the end will appreciate the guts of the director for making an end card with a message of success of the movie.
I say here 'stayed till the end' because of the song sequence in the end after the climax , when people started walking out as it was more like end credits rather than the movie. I did not like the song and neither the placement of it.
When Karuthavan ellam galleejam was placed perfectly, Iraivi song was a bit forced to add a romantic number, the last song was intended as the fast song before climax, but was in fact added after climax !
There are probably some more ,which I have not got a chance to see yet, but these are the ones which I felt was worth its salt :).
If you have stayed till here, then I wish you a happy new year :)
Bye till next,
As the year end is approaching, so is the chance for me to pen down something as usual related with tamil movies. Here I wish to articulate on the movies I liked this year , similar to the one which I wrote last year. Gosh ! Time Flies !
This year I realize that it is turning out to be a year of newbies with lot of young crew making it big with nice content, when the big stars were finding it difficult to find good content.
Adhe Kangal
The plot was refreshingly new and though I must admit that in the end it was turning out to be a bit predictable, but till the time the plot unfolded itself it was a very much engaging experience.
The heroine of the movie was from Zero, which was pretty much a bad movie for me last year, but this movie was a perfect fit for her.
The movie is surely a good watch for it is a rooted and believable thriller with no cinematic injustice added.
Managram
Set in the capital city of the state, this is a clear class movie of this year, with a cut above the rest.
Everything about this movie is perfect, the visual experience, audio experience with background score being so perfect for this.
I remember seeing this multiple times, and everytime it will give you jitters and will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end.
The fact that the leading characters do not even have their names called out, but still kind of end up in a tangle together is definitely a master piece, and this is definitely a master piece for the city itself.
Muniskanth of Mundasuppati fame, found his way back atlast in this and his role was outstanding, as a wannabe criminal with a easy-go attitude and his performance was brilliant.
While movies in the past couple of years, portrayed only North Madras as the place to live in, and the urban city where the rich live is not the place to be, this movie does not do that. It shows the lives of the people in city in various economic level and sections of the society and how they are all related in a good way, and also proves that all lives are related. Definitely a must watch !
8 thotakkal
This movie stands out again this year, for its pure content. The lead actor was definitely born to do this movie, and I am not sure if he was his natural self or he performed in a such a brilliant manner of a guy who has a unstable past and forced into a job which he does not like and does not have any friends/relatives to mingle with.
If at all a biography for M.S.Bhaskar is done, the single shot of a dialogue portion between the lead actor and M.S.Bhaskar will form the climax of that.
I remember seeing the interview of the director after watching the movie, and it was mentioned that it is 8 different stories for 8 bullets. I must admit that I did not realize that when I saw it for the first time, but later I realized it and probably that is the only thing which was planned in paper and did not materialize well.
A must watch for this year !
Bahubali 2
This is the epic movie of this year, answering the most wanted question of 'Why Kattappa killed Bahubali?'
When the big directors and stars were finding it difficult to manage the expectations with plenty of budget and a big market to cater, this one ruled them all like a boss !
It is not easy to manage prequels/sequels unless planned so meticulously and with so much of CG work involved in this deadlines will definitely slip a bit as we have not done this earlier.
In-spite of the delay, the movie was good and managed to exceed the expectations. It has good mass moments, as well as good content backing it.
Definitely a must watch !
Oru Kidayin karunai Manu
Again a new crew with a very small budget made a nice movie.
The only familiar face in this movie was Vidharth of Myna fame.
Apart from him, rest of them were pretty much new or persons whom we generally do not remember after the movie ends.
The intial 15 minutes of the movie, I felt it was going to be a typical village sentiment movie which was tried and tested in all the movies of 80s and 90s . I was not very happy in picking this up to watch. But what followed later was hilarious and totally worth the somber fifteen minutes, and then I could totally relate to the first 15 minutes.
It is not an edge of the seat suspense thriller, but if you ask for a movie where you want to know what is going to happen next every 10 minutes then this will be it.
It is not an emotional drama, but if you ask for a movie where you want to know how people react when faced with adverse situation this is it. It has a mix of black comedy, satire, everything you need !
Rangoon
Gautham Karthik found at-last something to cheer about in his career.
The movie is wonderfully done with small incidents moving the story beautifully with many people involved and all of them have a significant role to play.
The movie goes into details of black market and makes a mark in that aspect of making a convincing movie out of the lives of the people involved.
It is not edge of a seat thriller, but keeps you engaged till the end, though must admit that however realistic they try to make the movie there was some additions for the sake of doing it.
Like all movies which show North madras, this movie too does the same with friendship, betrayal among friends, revenge etc.
But that is where the twists reside and the beauty of the movie.
Maragadha Naanayam
From last year, the horror movie genre spree continued this year too. Fans of this genre generally to do not approve of horror movies in tamil, as they generally do not provide the thrill which foreign movies of this genre do.
Apart from the target audience and market reason, there is an economical reason as well for mixing comedy with horror as to get a U certificate and then become eligible for tax exemption.
In this trend,among the movies which released this year this one I felt is a cut above the rest.
Anand-Raj once a dreaded villain, is now the go-to man for a villain with a bit of comic sense. There are some decent twists and role-play involved in this which I liked. What makes it a cut above the rest is that the comedy portion is not forced here, but is pretty much part of the story and not a track running in parallel.
Uru
Kalaiarasan the lead man in this movie, like Viddharth had a decent year with two good releases with this and Yeidhavan. This movie though belongs to both the lead actors.
Continuing from Thirandhidu Seesae , Kabali,
Dhansika too must be lauded for her performance, has been choosing movies with scope for performance which is rare in tamil movies.
The movie has been inspired from various movies and has credited them all , and still cannot be counted as a remake or a pull-off.
In spite of that very rarely we get a tamil movie with such an ending open for interpretation and the movie justifies its title and instills fear for sure.
Pandigai
Another low budget, not a strong hero , and riding on the fact that the content is the hero.
Couple of movies this year I thought were inspired from Fight Club which I was partially correct and wrong. One was this and other one being Bogan.
A decent year for Kreshna, the lead too with decent outings in this, Yakkai and Vizhithiru.
And after ParuthiVeeran this is the movie where Saravanan had a good role to play once again, of a gambler trying to hit the jackpot.
This movie is a mix of underworld, gambling, unauthorized fight clubs, and heist movie as well.
The movie has drawbacks as well, with unwanted songs sequences, forced romantic portions with plenty of cliches which has been tried and dusted in tamil movies.
But inspite of the drawbacks, the movie provides enough thrill to keep you engaged.
It was raining Vijay Sethupathi movie last year, and this year though the count was less, the movies which saw the daylight had covered up all classes or centers as they call it.
After a very long time a good movie with enough mass moments and brainy moments as well with such seasoned actors this is a perfect treat for a commercial movie fan.
I had written a separate post for this movie, and the only one which I wrote this year related with movies prior to this one.
Everything about this was a perfect, with awesome background score, lyrics, songs and too top it all Vijay Sethupathi and Maddy's performance !
A must watch for this year, can ignore the rest if you have not yet got a chance to experience this !
Taramani
This is Ram's world where he tries to capture the persons whom we hardly notice in our busy life. This movie is purely for the people living in cities and who have experienced the globalization.
Like Bala, Ram has got his own trademark style now.
All his movies deals only with characters with extreme nature be it love or hatred and he shows them both in one person. Irrespective of whether you buy into the content or not, one can learn a lot from his movies in terms of the writing and you see only characters evolving and behaving.
I liked the way of promotion of the movie with the inverted mute of words, the voice over of the director and not from the hero which we are used to, and makes a cut into all pressing issues of the society with demonetization, relationships, ego, illegal relationships, living-in etc.
Kurangu Bommai
After Pandiya Naadu, an awesome performance of Bharathiraja in this.
As expected the main crux of the story does not involve heroine and does not require it. But still the portion involving Viddharth and heroine was refreshingly new and does not give you a boring feel.
The way all scenes knit together in the plot is interesting and has good emotional content as well with friendship, loyality, questioning of ethics for a loyal behavior in an unethical smuggling business. The bag serves as a metaphor for the monkey in all of us searching for a route to fix our problems. Except for a few scenes which look forced, this movie is a nice routed thriller with a package of emotions and engaging twists and turns.
Vizhithiru
This movie has the leadwith two actors who have had a successful 2017 : Viddharth and Kreshna.
There has been some similarities with Managaram and this, as both of them deal with incidents happening in one night.
But what the movie deals is different, and also how it deals is also different.
What I liked in this movie is that the movie begins with a message and ends with the same, and in the end we can understand the message conveyed better, and there lies the strength of the movie.
The second half was a bit dragged but still worth a watch for the plot and message conveyed. It is not preaching like Samuthirakanni's movies, but it just sheds light on the message and makes us think rather than having scenes to justify and elaborate on it.
Theeran
When big stars tried to make a commercial flick with mass fan boy moments and still worthy content, here was a movie where fight sequences were a bit cinematic, some moments for the whistles and claps, but still had rooted content.The fact that it was made out of real life incidents and real cops, was an added advantage for this movie.
It cannot be counted as a regular commercial flick, as there was enough thrilling moments and keeps one guessing on what next rather than when to whistle and hoot.
A proud moment for the original cops involved in the chase, and really serves as a testament to them.
Except for the initial romantic portion between the lead pair, the content was very much bang-on the topic and very much gave a chill to the viewers.
Velaikaran
The last movie of this year for me, from Jeyam Raja and SivaKarthikeyan.
Raja's name should be christened now to Thani Oruvan Raja , and this movie serves as the perfect sequel to Thani Oruvan.
If Thani Oruvan was man in power questioning the injustice in the society, this is a common man questioning the things, on things which we deal with day-to-day life for our life and job.
The dialogue writer in Raja is very much alive and has not come out of Thani Oruvan yet, and had enough content to make it very powerful. A mass hero could not have done this, as the content would have been diluted a bit to add mass moments and hence a perfect fit for Siva Karthikeyan.
First half of the movie was very much bang on, and some important artifacts used in the first half did not appear in the second half, it looked as the villains in the first half and second half changed, those things too changed :)
The movie has a big star cast in terms of the support actors, and everybody had an interesting role to play with. Except for the comedy portions which was forced in here with Robo Shankar, everybody else was very much wanted in this script.
Since it deals with the problems we face day to day, it would relate with everyone and whoever stayed till the end will appreciate the guts of the director for making an end card with a message of success of the movie.
I say here 'stayed till the end' because of the song sequence in the end after the climax , when people started walking out as it was more like end credits rather than the movie. I did not like the song and neither the placement of it.
When Karuthavan ellam galleejam was placed perfectly, Iraivi song was a bit forced to add a romantic number, the last song was intended as the fast song before climax, but was in fact added after climax !
There are probably some more ,which I have not got a chance to see yet, but these are the ones which I felt was worth its salt :).
If you have stayed till here, then I wish you a happy new year :)
Bye till next,
No comments:
Post a Comment