Balaji's Thots

While romance is a staple in almost all Tamil films, romantic comedies don’t come along that often since things usually get atleast a little bit serious once the lovers start facing obstacles to their love. But Boss Engira Baskaran can claim to be a true-blue romantic comedy. The comedy gets a lot more weightage than [...]

Considering that Sivaji brought together Rajnikanth, Shankar, A.R.Rahman and AVM Productions, it seemed quite impossible at that time that any other movie could top it. By adding Aishwarya Rai to the mix, selecting a unique genre and having a budget that makes it the most expensive Indian film to date, Enthiran has topped it with [...]

The Secret in Their Eyes won the Best Foreign Film award at the 2010 Oscars. It starts off looking like a murder mystery as a retired lawyer(Ricardo Darin)  starts penning a novel about a rape and murder case he and his superior(Soledad Villamil) worked on over 20 years ago. But as we learn more about [...]

Bagyaraj and Pandiarajan had their own, unique, instantly identifiable style of film-making that saw them give us films with familiar elements like romance, sentiments and stunts packaged with a strong undercurrent of humor. But since their retirement, we haven’t had any other directors come along to take their place. Sarkunam lays a strong claim to [...]

Apart from the hype – both natural(because of the people involved) and manufactured(because of the functions like the expensive audio release function and the unprecedented trailer release event) – surrounding the movie, the main reason I really looked forward to the Enthiran trailer was that Sivaji, the previous Rajni-Shankar collaboration, had a fantastic trailer. Although [...]

Of late, Jeffery Deaver seems to be turning into Arthur Hailey, considering his efforts to set his novels in a new arena and delve into the subject in considerable detail each time. In The Burning Wire, he tackles electricity as Lincoln Rhyme pursues a criminal who employs it to cause havoc. The nature of the [...]

Reviews for Ambasamudram Ambani, Aananthapurathu Veedu, Madharasapattinam, Thillaalangadi, Baanaa, Naan Mahaan Alla and Bale Pandiya are now online @ the reviews site.

Korean filmmakers seem to be able to take a tired genre and inject freshness into it by tackling the story differently. The Chaser, which starts of as a serial killer film but tackles everything from politics to sentiments before it ends, is another example of this.
The Chaser is a serial killer film where the bad [...]

Suseendran’s debut film Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu was a refreshingly original and funny sports film with interesting characters and an engrossing screenplay. With a star – even if only a rising one – as hero, Suseendran refrains from attempting anything original in the story in his follow-up Naan Mahaan Alla. But the strong characters and fast [...]

Actor Murali passed away yesterday at the rather young age of 46. While his career had its share of ups and downs, he has left behind a good legacy in Tamil cinema and will be missed.
I didn’t welcome Murali to Tamil cinema with open arms when he was introduced in Poovilangu. While most reviews mentioned [...]