My musings: Claps & Boos of 2011 , Part 1

Disclaimer: The content of the article is strictly my opinion & objectivity of this article can be tainted by my likes & dislikes. It is an analysis of Tamil cinema in 2011 neither by a journalistic point of view nor by trade view. It is purely how a movie buff in me observed Tamil cinema in 2011, so it won’t be bereft of any subjective proclivities. So if you are inclined to read an objectively written look back at the year kindly skip.

Year 2011 is one of those rare ones in which both the legends Kamalhassan & Rajnikanth didn’t have a release which means it was a huge disappointment for fans of both. Among the second rung of actors Vijay had 2 , Ajithkumar 1 , Surya 1 & Vikram 2 releases of which except for Vikram’s Rajapattai , (though it is too early to say as the movie got released just one week back) all other movies did good business. In the next line of actors Dhanush had 5 releases (!), STR 2 , Jiiva 4 , Karthi 1. Dhanush & Jiiva has 3 flops each and STR 1 (may be due to the law of averages) which means all these 4 had one hits to their name this year. So in the end each of these top stars have atleast one hit which might leave their fans happy.

Coming to my tryst with Tamil cinema in 2011, out the 120 odd movies that got released this year I have seen 42 , reviewed 31 movies. Based on my reviews & the ratings I gave for these movies, the best movie of this year in my opinion is “ Vaagai Chooda Vaa “ which got the highest rating 4.5/5.

Four films got a rating of 4/5 - Yutham Sei ,Aranya Kanadam, Engeyum Eppodhum & Mouna Guru. Point to be noted is that out of these five highly rated movies by me only two went to make profits in the box-office which were Yutham Sei & Engeyum Eppodhum.





Next in line are the movies for which I gave 3.5 which were Kavalan , Ko , Deiva Thirumagal ,Velayutham & Mayakkam Enna , every one of these movies were hits and made profits in Box-office.

I gave 3/5 for Azhakarsamiyin Kuthirai, Kanchana , Potta Potti, Doo, Muran & Mankatha of which Kanchana & Mankatha were the top two profitable ventures of the year while other 4 were box-office turkeys.

Nadunissi Nayigal , Payanam , Vanam ,180,Avan Ivan, Rowthiram, 7 am Arivu, Vellore Mavattam & Porali got 2.5/5 which were all below average movies but surprisingly three of these movies made good business , Vanam , 7am Arivu & Porali.

Vengai, Vandan Vendran, Vedi & Osthi were rated 2/5 & as expected were flops in BO while Thambikottai , Yuvan Yuvathi & Vithagan were the three of the most terrible movies that I saw this year & were rated 1.5/5.

Of the movies that I saw but didn’t write review either because I was busy with academic work like Aadukalam , Thoonga Nagaram , Kullanari kootam and Maithanam , or because they didn’t inspire me to write a review like Kandaen , Ethan ,Udhayan and Mudhal Idam . Though I liked “Sathurangam ” very much I didn’t write a review because it won’t be fair to write a review for a movie that was made some 6 – 7 years back.

The “big” movies that I have missed out this year are “Siruthai” , “Seedan” , “Singam Puli” , “Maapilai” , “Ponnar Sankar” , “Engeyum Kadhal” , and “Mambatiyan”.


In the subsequent article I would like to discuss about the movies that impressed me & those which didn’t.......

[My ratings : 5 – Outstanding , 4.5 – Excellent , 4- Good , 3.5 – Above Average , 3- Average , 2.5- Below Average , 2- poor , 1.5- Pathetic , 1- Moronic ]

Sri