Balaji's Thots

Director Siva’s films so far(Siruthai, Veeram and Vedhalam) have all been mass masala films. While his success rate tells us that he has learned the art of making a hero-centric masala film, he didn’t seem like the kind of director who would be suited to directing an action thriller. His films were loud, didn’t possess the style […]

It was a busy and exciting day for Tamil cinema today. While a number of films in various stages of production announced their presence with Vinayaka Chathurthip-based ads and wishes, the day was dominated by our two biggest stars. First of course was the first look of Kabali, Rajni’s next film. The film has obviously […]

Mohanlal’s Drishyam was a fantastic thriller. The film’s story was smart and original and the screenplay maintained suspense till the very end but there were other important aspects that led to it being such an engrossing and exciting thriller. The protagonist was a common man who used his brain rather than brawn to protect his […]

So far, marriage has meant the of end of an actress’ career as heroine in Tamil cinema. Post-marriage our actresses have been relegated to akka/anni roles to our always young heroes or have turned to television to headline megaserials and reality shows. All our popular heroines like Meena, Simran, Rambha, Roja, etc. have followed this […]

In Raavanan and Kadal, Mani Rathnam moved away from the style of film-making we’d associated with him based on his earlier movies. Topical stories were replaced with more universal themes, characters were painted with more shades of gray and the films themselves were less stylistic and darker. But he seems to be going back to […]

Once they reach a certain stature in cinema, our heroes start to cut down on their films and act in only one film at a time. And the time taken for said film to be completed has been increasing over the years. So its quite exciting that Kamalhassan has 3 films in various stages of […]

2014 was a good year for Dhanush as he had a huge blockbuster in his only release Velaiyilla Pattadhari. His performance came in for a lot of well-deserved praise and the film helped him bounce back from a middling 2013 that saw him appear in the average Maryaan and the much-derided Naiyaandi. The last couple […]

Along with new clothes, sweets and fireworks, new movies are an integral part of Diwali. As has been the case the last few years, this Diwali too sees two big movies hitting screens. First is the Vijay-Murugadoss film Kaththi. Bringing back memories of Thalaivaa, Kaththi has been facing problems from a political party because of […]

Shankar, the undisputed king of big-budget extravaganzas in Tamil, gave us a first look at his next film I with a teaser that was released along with the film’s audio today. I was blown away by everything in the 1 minute teaser – visuals, make-up, graphics, cinematography, locales. Almost every scene in the teaser had […]

After a strong start that saw films from both Ajith and Vijay arriving for Pongal, Tamil cinema hasn’t seen many ‘event’ movies – movies headlined by one of our top-rung stars or helmed by a big-name director – so far in 2014. Our ‘lesser’ stars(like Dhanush and Vishal) and an exciting new generation of directors […]