Balaji's Thots

2013 has been pretty lukewarm when it comes to films from our big-league stars with only 2 releases – Vishwaroopam and David – so far and no further releases planned for the summer. But the year has been packed with smaller films, most of which fall somewhere between an event film and one that arrives [...]

With both Rajnikanth and Kamalhassan drastically cutting down on their film assignments, seeing movies from both of them in the same year is turning out to be a cause for celebration. In that sense, 2010 was a truly star-studded year in which we had movies from both of them(Endhiran, Manmadhan Ambu). Initially 2012 looked like [...]

As always, Pongal kicks off the movie year this year too. After an exciting run-up that pitted Kamalhassan against the theater owners and seemed poised for a showdown as thrilling as the climax in one of the actor’s movies, Vishwaroopam has been taken off the Pongal roster. While the film’s no-show has considerably weakened the [...]

Along with new clothes, sweets and fireworks, new movies are an integral part of Diwali. This Diwali too we have a couple of high-profile movies – and a few smaller movies – hitting screens. And though the number of movies seems to be small, there is something for everyone. There’s Vijay-Murugadoss’ Thuppaakki for action [...]

Though Vijay kicked off the year with Nanban, the first three-quarters of 2012 was pretty light when it came to movies by our big stars, with the next big one, Billa 2, releasing only in July. That has led to what appears to be a busy last quarter of the year with many movies from [...]

While there have been films like Naan Ee and Attakathi that entertained us and tasted success without the presence of any big stars, the release of a biggie is still an exciting occasion for movie buffs. And Thaandavam, which is releasing this Friday, definitely qualifies as a biggie. While Vikram, Anushka, director Vijay and G.V.Prakash [...]

2012 has seen Tamil cinema give us movies in many different genres with romcoms, psychological thrillers and period films all having been released so far this year. This Friday sees a film in an exciting genre that has seen very few entries – a superhero film. While the uniqueness of the genre alone would make [...]

After a slow start where not many big movies hit the screens, Tamil movie buffs have much to look forward to for the rest of the year with a number of important movies lined up for release. First out of the gate is Saguni which gets a solo release this Friday after a tense week [...]

While popular actor-director combinations can raise a movie’s expectations, the coming together of a debutant director and a relatively new actress will barely make news. But when the director is Rajnikanth’s daughter Aishwarya and the actress is Kamalhassan’s daughter Shruti Hassan, things are different. That’s why 3, the film that sees Aishwarya direct her husband [...]

Tamil cinema has had a good start in 2012. Just 2 months into the year, we’ve already had films in different genres like masala, romcom, thriller and drama. Aravaan, which releases on Friday, continues the trend since its a period film. Coming from a director who is new to the genre, starring a relatively new [...]