Jul 01 2010
Half Yearly Report – Tamil Cinema 2010
Hollywood annually follows a calendar for its movie releases with the weaker entries reserved for the first quarter, the blockbusters scheduled for the summer months and the award probables penciled in towards the end of the year. Looking back at Tamil cinema in the first half of 2010, it looks like we might have hit upon our own calendar too.
Tamil cinema opened the year with movies in a variety of genres in the first quarter. But masala was the keyword as we entered the 2nd quarter with things being kicked off in earnest by Lingusamy’s Paiyaa. Well-packaged and well-marketed with a happening hero and heroine and good music, it became a superhit inspite of the light plot and weak action. Next up was Suraa, Vijay’s 50th film. Made without a shred of originality, style or flair, it wound up as one of the actor’s biggest flops. But Suriya, certainly Tamil cinema’s golden boy today, restored our faith in masala films with the fast-paced Singam, that thankfully saw Hari display flashes of the talent he showed in his first 2 films.
While those 3 were the biggies, other masala films hit the screens quite regularly. Kacheri Aarambam tried to relieve the tedium with some self-deprecating humor but failed after some time while Guru Sishyan kept up Sundar. C’s unenviable track record of starring in the worst movies of the year. Maanja Velu’s masala overload wasn’t surprising considering Arun Vijay tasted success in the masala genre(with 2009’s Malai Malai) after several years of trying but was unremarkable barring an energetic comeback by Karthik while it was Karan’s turn to play social crusader in the familiar and uninteresting Kanagavel Kaakka.
But it wasn’t like Tamil cinema completely gave up on the other genres since there were still a few releases taking the road less traveled. Leading the pack was Irumbu Koattai Murattu Singam, a very unique entry in the comedy-western genre. While its comedy was a bit uneven, the uniqueness of the genre carried it through. The ever-reliable Mani Rathnam gave us his take on the Ramayana with Raavanan, that had some interesting characterization but a romance without much depth. Mundhinam Paarthene was a nice little urban romance with real characters set in Chennai’s IT world while Kola Kolayaa Mundhirikka was a full-fledged comedy that had Crazy Mohan in fine form, tackling con men, hidden diamonds, sloppy gangsters and a bumbling cop. Rettachuzhi was a rare stumble from Shankar’s S Pictures as the film offered nothing beyond the casting gimmick of bringing together K.Balachander and Bharathiraja in front of the camera.
Ofcourse, post-Subramanyapuram, not a quarter passes by without a few raw and gritty movies about young men pulled into violence and in this quarter, the entries were Maathi Yosi and Goripaalayam. Veerasekharan, while having only a single hero, also followed the same path by pushing him unwillingly into a life of violence.
As we step into the 2nd half of the year, masala might once again be taking a backseat as the films lined up(Madhrasapattinam, Anandhapurathu Veedu, etc.) fall into very different genres. And for those who like big, event movies, there’s Endhiran, which Shankar has promised will release this year(recent reports have said that it might hit screens as early as August). So here’s looking forward to a strong 2nd half…
14 responses so far
Hi Balaji
I am surprised that this time again you missed to mention ‘Angaadi Theru’. This is one of the rare movies that have both critical acclaim and box office success.
You have missed out the biggest hit of the year , VTV
Balaji, I’m a little surprised that you haven’t mentioned Angadi Theru in this writeup. It qualifies a mention, don’t you think?
Bhaskaran/Vidhya/Sandya, I guess I should’ve called this the 2nd Quarterly Report
Since I did a 1st quarterly report post, this post was about the 2nd quarter only. I unwittingly missed Angaadi Theru in the 1st quarter post but its omission here was not a mistake since it was released in March. Same goes for VTV, which I mentioned in the 1st quarter recap.
The movies this year have been a good mix. Even though movies like Sura try to take us backwards, movies like Angadi Theru restores our faith in Tamil movies. I guess in the last couple of years we have seen great variety in Tamil cinema which I have not seen for a long, long time. Eagerly looking forward to Madrasapattinam and Anthapurathu Veedu and ofcourse thalaivar’s Enthiran
I dint see any movies in ‘Bhakthi’ genre for a long period and once upon a time there were high list of movies in this
Thiruvilaiyadal
Kanthan Karunai
Sarawathi Sabatham..
Expecting and imaginig how it would be, if come..
Pls ignore Rama Narayanan movies which wont come near to above list
Vimal, deleted ur comment by mistake. reposting it…
let’s just hope Enthiran comes out on time!…Something tells me this will be Shankar’s best since Mudhalvan (Shankar’s best and my fave masala flick)…..but yes…this has been a great year for Tamil movies….Raavanan, Tamizh Padam, VTV, Angadi Theru, Aayirathil Oruvan….haven’t seen Paiyya or Singam but am sure they are above average….
Balaji, u havent seen “paiyaa” and “singam”, than how did u review these movies? i’m confused here…
casino,
Please see the first line in his message “Vimal, deleted ur comment by mistake. reposting it…”
nice recap, bb…paiyya, singam and maanja velu were all masala movies that were lifted by screenplay and execution…the one i enjoyed the most in the 2nd quarter was mundhinam paartheney…it had a really nice script…i only wish they’d spent more time on rehearsals so that the acting would’ve been better…i think the movie was hurt quite a bit by the actors who couldn’t quite carry off the fine script…
Giri, I agree. With the different genres Tamil cinema’s stepping into, the last couple of years have been great. hope the trend continues…
Karthik, yeah, devotional movies and also historicals. those are a couple of genres that haven’t been touched yet recently.
Vimal, yep, Shankar’s track record is bad when it comes to releasing movies on time. but Sun Pictures taking it up gives us some hope.
casino, as karthik mentioned, I was just reposting Vimal’s comment verbatim since I deleted it by mistake. Its he who hasn’t seen Singam and Paiya.
ram, yes, I quite enjoyed it too. I didn’t feel the actors were that bad though. but the supporting cast did score handsomely over the lead actors.
Balaji,
been hearing good things about this movie called Kalavani…have u seen/reviewed it yet?…if not, anytime soon?
Vimal, yes Kalavaani’s been getting a lotta good talk. Haven’t seen it yet.
A surprise omission in the forthcoming (or should that read as forth-promised?) Kamal & KSR combo due for deepavali. This biggie should be just as much anticipated … though not expecting a DASAVATHARAM.
Manmadhan Ambu should be in trajectory and hitting the target in Oct / Nov 2010….