Balaji's Thots

With films like Nanban, Thuppaakki and Puli, Vijay has recently made a sincere effort to move away from the formulaic, mass masala films he was known for. But he still falls back on those mass masala films occasionally (Velayudham was the last one I think). Since Theri is directed by Atlee, whose previous film was Raja Rani, a […]

A few years ago, a wave of new, young directors armed with new ideas and fresh story telling styles heralded the arrival of  the next generation of Tamil cinema. Nalan Kumarasamy, with his fantastic dark comedy Soodhu Kavvum, was one of the leaders of that wave. The director  surprises us with his sophomore effort Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum, a much […]

Tamil films about high-level politics tend to become quite cartoonish with our heroes going up against overtly corrupt politicians and cops. But when it comes to politics at a more grassroots level, our films seem to be portraying it well. Pugazh has a masala film-worthy plot of a politician, the Minister of Health, coveting a piece of […]

In Pokkiri Raja(the title has absolutely no relevance), Hansika plays Sunitha, a software engineer who is also part of a ‘Clean Country’ organization that goes around spraying water on and shaming people who pee in public. Her part in the organization paves the way for both romance (Sanjeevi(Jiiva) initially misunderstands her after seeing the contents of her handbag but […]

Aviyal is an anthology of short films by five different directors. I do enjoy short films for their ability to tell interesting stories in a short timeframe but let me say at the outset that I don’t see the point in presenting a random collection of short films as a feature film. I understand if […]

Dilwale‘s promos focused almost entirely on the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol pairing, making us wonder if the film would be a mature love story recalling their most famous film DDLJ. But its Rohit Shetty, the director behind Chennai Express, at the helm and so Dilwale actually feels a lot like Baasha as it kicks off with Raj Bhai(Shah Rukh […]