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.
Let us see the movies which deserved the “Claps” & those which received the “Boos”. Also I’ve tried to analyse why they got “Claps ” & ”Boos” respectively.
“ Claps “ :
“Vaagai Sooda vaa” is in my opinion the best movie of the year . “Vaagai Sooda Vaa” deals with a heavy subject but presented in a very subtle manner yet makes a powerful impact on the viewers , therein lies the brilliance of the writer-director Sargunam. Marxist ideals & views are the basic thread of the story but it is more covertly depicted rather than being on your face jingoism of the same. We have seen a lot of movies which deals with societal issues being loud , opinionated & preachy . This is the first time as far as i can remember a maker has presented such an issue based movie in such a pleasant manner. Sargunam with this movie proved that his success was not flash in the pan rather here is a creator who is sure will make Tamil Cinema proud in the times to come. “Vaagai Sooda Vaa ” is a movie that satiates the movie buff in you.
“Aranya Kandam” gave Tamil cinema one of the most talented creator in Thiagarajan Kumararaja. Touted to be the first neo-noir genre of movie in Tamil , “Aranya Kandam ” is a blast for movie lovers. Thiagarajan Kumararaja did an excellent job in his debut feature . Both the writing & execution were flawless. It’s been a way long time since one had come out of the theatre with a feeling of “Wow..!” in Tamil. The seamless lucidity of the screenplay make one wonder at the hard work & acumen of the writer. Seamless confluence of thrill , action , comedy , treachery as it happens in real life is well captured in the screenplay. Though movie is full of action ,gore ,blood & violence one doesn’t get repulsed by it instead left marvelling at the poetic portrayal of the same. “Aranya Kandam” is a must watch irrespective of whether one knows the language or not for this movie is racy yet arty, gory yet classy.
“Mouna Guru” will easily qualify as the most well scripted movie of the year . It has been a very long time since one has seen such a engrossing thriller which keeps one in the edge of the seat for almost more than 2 hours of the running time. There is no lag in the screenplay anywhere which is lucid & gripping all the same. “Mouna Guru” is a well written & executed thriller and Shanthakumar is a precious talent who will surely make Tamil cinema proud in the future.
“Engeyum Eppodhum” is a simple, neat & engaging movie with a hard-hitting message. M. Saravanan shows a lot of promise in his first movie. He has amazingly illustrated that for a movie to be a thriller it doesn’t always need to be on crime , underworld , heist , so on. He has also remarkably managed to swell the viewer’s eyes almost throughout the movie at the most pleasant of sequences too. Movie is not bereft of clichés but they fade into the background in comparison with the freshness of the concept & the characterization of the cast especially that of both the lead ladies.
“ Yudham Sei “ is yet another thriller from Myshkin presented in a lyrical manner. Myshkin seems to have mastered the act of presenting an action-thriller in a poetic style. “Yutham Sei” keeps one at the edge of the seat right from the scene one to the last. Though the screenplay is slow paced , Myshkin succeeds in weaving a storyline which engages the viewer glued to the screen all through. The clarity of purpose that the director has shown coupled with courage shown by the producers in supporting that purpose has culminated into such a thoroughly enjoyable movie for the movie buffs.
K.V.Anand’s
“Ko” is an interesting political thriller which like his previous flick “Ayan” has loads of logical pothole submerged under a racy screenplay. The pace is so fast & riveting that its hard for anyone to even think about those flaws. Thus K.V.Anand has once again reiterated the fact that he is one of the best when it comes to handling a commercial plot.
“Deiva Thirumagal” is an adaptation of “I am Sam” presented in a palatable manner for the Tamil audience. With judicious mixture of melodrama , feel-goodedness , mindless comedy , comic-book song sequence & excellent acting , “Deiva Thrirumagal” was an enjoyable movie. Though the movie is “filmy” to the core Vijay has managed to present a tale which intrinsically has the danger of getting boring in an interesting manner. Vikram was excellent in his portrayal of the protagonist with subnormal intelligence. The body language , dialogue delivery & demeanour clinically depicts the joy , agony , anger & sorrow of the character of Krishna , a grown up child with the mental age of 5.
“Aadukalam” was one of the best movie of the year especially considering that it was showered with honours at the National Awards. Dhansuh as Karupu did an excellent job & neat execution of an interesting story by Vetrimaran made this movie special. Dhanush started the year with the first hit of the year with “Athe athe” & ended the year with humungous hit “Why this kolaveri di”.
“Kavalan ” was a reminiscence of those golden days of Vijay in the mid & late 90’s with many such romantic movies of his which made him the most popular up & coming hero of those days. Seeing Vijay trying to change his track of sorts is in itself quite refreshing for Tamil Cinema needs heroes of his stature & charisma to be around to bring in the variety .“Kavalan ” as a movie is not a path-breaking , artistic movie which can be classified as a classic. It has its share of downers like the patchy screenplay , poor editing with poor song placement , very average making , gimmickry in the form of stunts. Yet it is a refreshing simple romantic tale with the last 30 minutes of the movie having one of the best twists we have seen in the last few years. “Kavalan” was a perfect decent family entertainer sans any violence or gore or vulgarity. As a fan of vintage romantic Vijay of the yore , I “Kavalan” a lot.
“Mankatha” was entertaining in parts , which ends up with a bang with adrenaline rush & had power packed performance from Ajithkumar in his 50th movie. There are only few men like Rajnikanth , Vijay or Ajithkumar who can carry a movie with an ordinary script on their shoulder . “Mankatha” is one such where the versatile actor in Ajithkumar tried his level best to keep the boat from sinking for the “captain of the ship” Venkat Prabhu floundered. USP of the movie is Ajithkumar & he lived up to the hype & expectations. In a role with loads of greyness in it , Ajithkumar rocked the screen.
Raghava Lawrence hit the bulls eye with his second directorial venture
“Kanchana”. The movie kept the viewers engaged with the occurrence on screen . Though it had certain shortcomings & crassness here & there with a valuable message driven home it was one of the enjoyable Horror-comedy movie (genre that Raghava Lawrence has mastered) of the year.
“Velayutham ” was one of the thoroughly enjoyable commercial entertainer of the year . As a fan of Vijay I am happy that both the movies he did this year met up with success especially considering the hard time he was going through over the past couple of years. M.Raja has once again proved that he is a producer’s delight when it comes to churning out hits & getting money back. Who cares if he is doing so with help of a original hit or an inspired one as long as everyone is happy. “Velayutham” was a perfect family entertainer for the festive season & satisfied one’s craving for entertainment.
When one enters theatre to watch Selvaragavan’s movie one does so with lots of expectations. May be that expectation might lead to the undoing of
“Mayakkam Enna” as is it was nowhere near to any of his previous ones. Though Selvaragavan manages to salvage some pride in the second half seeing the movie as a whole one was not satisfied with it . But when one consider the below average fare that we are getting treated to in the last couple of years , “Mayakkam Enna ” is way above all those ones.
There are two under-rated movies which came & went without much noise but I thoroughly enjoyed them ,
“Potta Potti” &
“Doo” . Potta Potti 50/50” was a simple yet enjoyable movie . The movie was humorous with no logic what so ever. Story though inspired by “Lagaan” it had south Indian flavour sprinkled generously throughout. Screenplay was lucid, linear & easy on your cognition while dialogues are darn funny & witty at the same time.
Debutant director Sriram’s “Doo” was a simple movie with a uncomplicated story presented in a straightforward narration with adequate support from the technical team. Barring the lead actors who tend to overact a bit, the cast fit in nicely to provide a neat movie that can be enjoyed. Sriram showed his potential as a neat story-teller without losing his focus on what he intended to convey.
“Boos “:
The manner in which
“7am Arivu” was hyped & advertised that the movie will make Tamils around the world proud led to its own undoing. Movie was entertaining in parts but what made it not work was the sluggish screenplay especially the first half which was a drag. With such a powerful story the impact on the viewers ought to have been humongous. But sadly due to the listless direction by Murugadoss movie failed to create any emotional impact on the viewers. “7 am Arivu” was undone by the makers’ myopic vision & poor execution.
“Nadunissi Naaygal” was technically brilliant but thematically appalling. By taking recourse in to the old sadistic thrillers of the yore & joining the bandwagon of portraying the mentally ill persons as dangerous & psychopathic, Gautham did no good for those who are working tirelessly for to alleviate the stigma associated with mentally ill & mental illness. The problem with the movie was the content & it failed miserably in box-office because it right away shoed away family audience as well as female audience.
“Vaanam ” was yet another example how in one language the movie can be interesting but in another not. Since I had already seen the original it struck me that the soul & spirit of the original was missing in Tamil version. The screenplay played truant here with many scenes ending abruptly which gave the feeling as to whether the movie was done in haste. The climax which packed a punch & left one moved in the original , left the viewers apathetic in this remade version.
Samuthrakani after his successful
“Nadodigal” slipped this time with his “Porali”. His noble intentions were undone by poor execution . And there was an overdose of sermonizing which got unbearable after a point when each & every character gave their share of moralistic one-liners. There were few instances of brilliance but they were few & far in-between getting submerged in the gargantuan mediocrity.
Bala’s
“Avan-Ivan” touted to be the maverick director’s first full-length comedy drama was a huge let down. Movie was boring , comical scenes made you frown while the last 15 minutes of the movie was anything but pathetic to say the least. Screenplay of the movie was very loose. Many scenes were disjointed with lots of loose ends left untied with a wealth of unnecessary & pointless scenes spewed all over. It was a shocker from the director of the calibre of Bala.
Jiiva’s
“Rowthiram” had a poor storyline & bad casting while
“Vandaen Vendran” was a case of good story undone by a poor screenplay.
“Payanam” had artificiality writ large all over it & in some places the happenings borders on a stage drama like. Also the recourse to melodrama , contrived nationalistic jingoism & comedy in the most unwarranted of sequences made “Payanam” a very average travel.
“180” had splendid visuals , youthful cast , technically brilliant yet lacked soul . Part of the reason was bad writing & part of the blame should go to bad direction.
”Vengai” was a routine village action fare with bloodshed-sentiment-romance on the lines of “Thamirabarani” which tested one’s patience to an large extent.
“Osthi” was a bad remake with bad casting while
“Rajapattai” was a movie done in haste ending the year in a sombre note.
As we close the year 2011 , we can look forward to 2012 with great expectation with movies like “Viswaroopam ” , “Kochadaiyan” , “Nanban” , “Thuppaki” , “Billa 2” , “Maatran”, “3” , “Irandam Ulagam” , “Karikalan” , “Vettai Mannan” , “Mugamoodi” & “Neethane En Ponvasantham” expected to hit the screens.
Sri
