Balaji's Thots

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 [...]

Reviews for Nanban, Vettai, Marina, Dhoni, Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal, Kaadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi and Oru Nadigaiyin Vaakkumoolam are now available at the reviews site.

After last year’s attempt to make the show hipper and trendier with younger hosts backfired, the 2012 Oscars were once again hosted by Billy Crystal, easily their most popular host in recent times. Having seen very few of the nominees(I hadn’t watched even 1 of the 9 Best Picture nominees, for instance), Billy Crystal was [...]

The genre that Kaadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi belongs to – the romcom – may be rare in Tamil but it is a popular one in most other languages. The film diligently follows all the rules and conventions of the genre but its witty script and the naturalness in the dialogs helps it handle both humor and [...]

Considering that it has a debutant director, a hero who is just a film old and a heroine who is climbing the rungs of stardom, the poetically-named Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal arrived with a fair amount of hype, thanks to some smart marketing. Unfortunately, it is a letdown. The film falls in the romantic thriller category [...]

Recently we had Shankar’s Nanban, which highlighted a problem in our education system but presented it with lots of humor. Now Prakashraj tackles the same subject – the pressure the system places on the students and their inability to pursue their passions – but presents it in a markedly different manner. While the humor made [...]

When it comes to remakes, the finest films are those where the director allows us to see his vision while retaining the spirit of the original. In Players, the official remake of The Italian Job, director duo Abbas-Mustan achieve the former but not the latter. They add their characteristic twists and turns to the story [...]

After taking a break with Vamsam, Pandiraj, the director of the endearing Pasanga, is back with another film that has children as its central characters. For Marina, which he has also produced, he has trained his camera on the kids who live their lives on the titular beach. The film has an underlying sad story [...]

After listing the biggest disappointments of Tamil cinema last year, its time for a much more enjoyable activity – ranking my favorite films of the year. Along with being fun – since writing about a film invariably makes me recollect things I liked about it and in some cases, brings about a hankering to watch [...]

As in the last couple of years, the Bottom 10 list is made up of movies that were the biggest disappointments rather than the absolute worst of the year.
The good news is that compiling this list wasn’t an easy task. The films on this list are those that achieve the combination of high expectations [...]