Balaji's Thots

With the Pongal releases and a business trip out of the way, its time to wrap up the 2011 recaps. The first Top 10 list, as always, is the list of my favorite song sequences of last year. Needless to say, the selection process is completely subjective and totally unscientific as the deciding factor [...]

I’m in Japan now for a short business trip. I used to travel to Japan 3-4 times a year in my first job but my last 2 jobs have not had any travel and so I am back in Japan after more than 10 years. One of the things I remembered distinctly from my previous [...]

Though Lingusamy started with a family drama in Aanandham, he made a successful switch to masala with the fabulous Run and hasn’t looked back since. His films since then, including 2010’s Paiyaa have been disappointing but in his latest film Vettai, he seems to have rediscovered the touch that made Run such a wonderful entertainer. [...]

The best remakes allow us to see the director’s own vision while retaining the spirit of the original. At the other end of the spectrum are the remakes(Seenu, the atrocious remake of Malayalam classic Bharatham comes to mind) which mutilate the original with a mix of bad casting and a poor screenplay. Nanban, a remake [...]

In the days leading up to Kaavalan’s release and the subsequent assembly elections, Vijay and DMK appeared to be the greatest of enemies. Vijay publicly accused the then in-power DMK of sabotaging his film’s release(I don’t remember the exact reason though I think it had to do with Sun Pictures not being able to buy [...]

Looking ahead, 2012 looks to be a star-studded year in Tamil cinema with films from top actors and leading directors slated to hit screens this year. Pongal, which typically kicks of the movie year, seems to be a sign of things to come with two big movies, Nanban and Vettai, both of which feature [...]

2010 was a spectacular year for Tamil cinema with movies from all top actors, acclaimed directors and new and exciting genres. Naturally, 2011 was a step down in all those aspects. We didn’t have movies from Rajni or Kamal and directors like Manirathnam and Shankar and not as many new genres were explored in the [...]

Reviews for Thoonga Nagaram, Poraali, Osthe, Mouna Guru, Mambattiyan and Rajapattai are now available @ the reviews site.
This update wraps up 2011 at the reviews site after 47 reviews. That is a considerably fewer number of reviews compared to the previous years. There were also a few high-profile movies(Avan Ivan, Singam Puli to name a [...]

With our villains typically serving as little more than punching bags for our heroes, we rarely get crime thrillers in Tamil cinema since the genre requires smart, purposeful bad guys who are equal to the good guys and almost get away with their plans. Mouna Guru gives us such bad guys and a hero in [...]

After a string of disappointing masala movies, Vikram appeared in different, more complex characters in his last 2 movies Raavanan and Deiva Thirumagal. Director Suseendran’s last 2 movies have also been vastly different with a star-driven revenge thriller (Naan Mahaan Alla) and more offbeat mystery (Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai). So there was the hope that the two [...]