Balaji's Thots

The line-up of big, event movies sees another anticipated entry tomorrow with Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa. With Gautham Menon returning to romance, Simbhu trying out a full-fledged romantic role and A.R.Rahman scoring his first Tamil film since he won the Oscars, the movie is coming with a lot expectations attached to it. The fact that it [...]

Vijay, who at one point was primarily known as a romantic hero, took the masala route when he encountered a string of flops with his romantic movies. Vishal appears to be taking the opposite route as the actor who was shaping up as an action hero, tries his hand at romance after two big flops [...]

Long-due, big update to the reviews site. Reviews for Pugaippadam, Aayirathil Oruvan, Naanayam, Porkkalam, Kutty, Goa, Thamizh Padam and Asal are now online @ the reviews site.

When an actor-director team hits upon a winning formula in their first collaboration, it is pretty unlikely they will mess with it when they get back together again. So its no surprise that Dhanush and Mithran Jawahar, who previously gave us the hit Yaaradi Nee Mohini, are back with another light romance that is a [...]

Long-time readers know that cooking definitely doesn’t figure in my list of favorite activities. But so far, it doesn’t look like Karthik has inherited my cooking genes(or lack thereof!). He is an avid watcher whenever mom’s cooking and has apparently learned a lot just by observation since he is always the one to educate me [...]

While bank robberies and other crimes have happened in many Tamil films(a recent one being Sindhanai Sei), they played only a small part in the story and the narratives focused more on what happened before or after the heist. We’ve never had a real heist movie – one where the crime itself was the biggest [...]

While Tamil cinema has stepped foot into several new and/or rare genres in the last few years, the spoof was still an untouched genre for understandable reasons. We’ve had take-offs on other movies and actors but these were restricted to stand-alone scenes which were usually part of the comedy track. So Thamizh Padam boldly goes [...]

It wasn’t too long ago that style and visual appeal seemed to be non-existent in Tamil cinema. That is no longer the case and filmmakers today are paying a lot of attention to the technical aspects of their films. While a few films like Eeram have managed to contain both substance and style, many films [...]

Hobbies, by definition, are things that we do in our free time. We like doing them and for at least a while, they help us take our mind off the more important issues. Most of my hobbies – movies and books are probably the top 2 – involve enjoying the fruits of others’ labor and [...]

Just a month into 2010, we’ve already had 2 biggies, Aayirathil Oruvan and Goa, hit the screens in quick succession. While those 2 movies earned their hype mainly because of the directors helming them, this Friday will see the first star-driven film of the year in Ajith’s Asal. While fans of the actor will be [...]