Looking back at tamil cinema in 2000, the quality of movies takes on the form of a
perfect, inverted bell curve, with peaks near the ends and a long dip in the middle.
The movies I saw during the first few months conveyed the impression that this was
going to be one of the best years for movie lovers. Then came a depressing fall
that continued for quite some time, with movies that almost made me give up writing
reviews just so I could escape watching other, similar movies. There were some bright
spots towards the end that reminded how much fun watching movies could be and left us
hoping for more of them in 2001. So, here is a brief recap of tamil cinema in 2000.
While the 1999 recap was chronological, the lookback this
time around is slightly different. The movies have been grouped together based on
similarities.
Note: This article will cover movies that were available for my viewing between Jan 1, 2000 and Dec 31, 2000. Since I live in the United States and the availability of a movie (either on the big screen or on video) varies anywhere from 1 day to more than a month, the list may contain leftovers from 1999 which I managed to see only in 2000. For the same reason, I have left out movies that were released in 2000 but which I saw in 2001 or still have not seen.
Hype
Three movies, initially slated in for a 1999 release, finally hit the screens in 2000. The
big names associated with the movies and the frequent postponements of the release dates
led to a lot of hype for these movies and fortunately, none of them
were disappointing(though their box-office returns were markedly different).
Kamalhassan's magnum opus Hey Ram dealt with a brave and unique
theme by giving us a protagonist who wants to kill Gandhi. Manirathnam went back to his
roots, giving us a charming love story in Alaipayuthey, where
we got to see what happens to a couple after they get married too. Madhavan easily captured
the hearts of Tamil girls with this movie. Rajiv Menon's
Kandukonden Kandukonden had the most impressive star cast of the
three and was carried by some good performances, eye-catching visuals and catchy songs.
The rest of the year had no big guns though Thenali was
accompanied by the normal hype associated
with any Kamal movie and Kamal, K.S.Ravikumar and 'Crazy' Mohan delivered what was expected
of them to drive the movie to box-office success.
Crime Time
Successful crime thrillers are rare to come by in Tamil cinema and 2000 was not any different.
Director Subaash made a mess of the potentially interesting idea of a man setting up his
best friend in Sabaash by introducing misplaced
comedy and being confused about the tone to adopt. The smaller
Chinna Chinna Kannile had a less interesting story
but handled it slightly better by sticking to the task at hand. Prem did not see much
success with his sequel Krodham 2, which contained
some ingenious ideas in the first half before becoming mired in sentiments. Sundar C
did his part for the genre by letting a wedding setting go waste in
Unnai Kann Theduthey with his poor choice of villain,
routine flashback and inescapable sentiments.
Comeback Men
While 2000 was not anything to be thrilled about, as far as the fare was concerned, it did
prove to be a lucky year for three actors who came back into reckoning after long, bad
patches of box-office drought. Vijayakanth, who finally tasted success with 1999's
Kannu Padappogudhaiyaa, continued his streak with Vaanathai Pola,
the first silver jubilee hit of 2000. Vikaraman's hit portrayed a loving, lovable family
and was a feel-good movie. Vallarasu truly trumpeted Vijayakanth's
return to box-office reckoning as the routine cop-after-villains movie(which admittedly
contained some fresh ideas) set the cash registers ringing. But
Simmaasanam, a movie with an ancient story and where he
played three roles, bombed.
January also brought good tidings for Prabhu whose Tirunelveli was a surprise hit inspite of its age-old caste story. Tirupati Ezhumalai Venkatesa, Rama.Narayanan's 100th movie, was another shot in the arm for him. He came up with another good performance in Thai Porandhaachu, where he was reteamed with Karthik. But the year has ended with him on another low as Vannathamizh Paattu, an immediately recognisable film by his Chinna Thambi director P.Vasu, was lost amidst the Diwali releases.
Satyaraj seemed to be heading for another bad year as both Veera Nadai, where he was the object of his sister's daughter's affections, and Azhagarsaami, which had some of the wierdest concepts of the year, flopped. But Ennammaa Kannu, where he played a womanising, drinking, good-for-nothing man before turning over a new leaf, revived his career. The movie, which had some good dialogs, single-handedly put him back on the fast track and he is now a busy man with a handful of movies in his kitty.
Across the border
As always, there were imports from other languages, both in the form of remakes and dubbings.
Just to prove that language is no barrier when it comes to copying, the remakes were from
three different languages. Sudhandhiram, a remake of Aamir Khan's
Ghulam, seemed unsuited for the tamil setting and expectedly flopped.
Seenu was nothing short of a crime as P.Vasu massacred Mohanlal's
Bharatham, a classic tale of an elder brother becoming jealous of his brother's success
over his own. Priyamaanavale's cinematic story of a husband
and wife entering into an 'agreement' marriage, had its origins
in Telugu(though it was remade in Hindi too) but the movie was rescued by good performances
by Vijay and Simran. Among the dubbed releases,
Shanmuga Paandian and Kaadhal Vennilaa,
two dubbed movies from Telugu, were radically different. The former relied on violence and
the glamour of its three heroines to entertain while the latter was a much gentler love
story. Relax, a rare dubbing from Kannada, was there for solely
one reason - Madhavan. This pre-Alaipayuthey movie saw him overacting and hamming
his scenes but luckily, few people saw the movie!
Second time (un)lucky
With the last couple of years introducing several bright talents to Tamil cinema,
2000 proved to be the acid test for some of these directors, who presented their
second movies. The results were mixed. Suryah, the man behind last year's
blockbuster Vaali, gave us Kushi, this time with
Vijay. Though the movie, which introduced fate into love between a pair of lovers,
was unremarkable, it found box-office success and gave Vijay a much-needed break after a
string of flops. But Ravindran, whose Kannedhire Thondrinaal was a success,
could not taste success with Sandhitha Velai. In
the middle was Ezhil(Thullaadha Manamum Thullum) whose
Pennin Manadhai Thottu was a medium hit.
There were also directors who tried repeating previous hit formulae but bit the
dust. Fazil, Vijay, Shalini and Ilaiyaraja came together in
Kannukkul Nilavu, a slow-moving suspense/romance thriller,
but could not repeat the success of Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai.
Rama. Narayanan, buoyed with the success of
Tirupati Ezhumalai Venkatesa, quicky cobbled together
Kandha Kadamba Kathir-vela, a completely
similar disaster.
What were they thinking?
Sure there were bad movies scattered throughout the year but only some movies raised
doubts as to whether the men behind them were thinking at all.
Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven had arguably the
most idiotic and distasteful logic of the year as women in the movie went about
giving themselves up to men so they could give birth to future soldiers! Chinni Jayanth
directed and starred in Unakkaaga Mattum, a college
romance with a ridiculous climax that had the heroine asking the hero to realise the
error in his ways while Chinni Jayanth lay dying on the floor. Babu Ganesh got
everything wrong in Nagalingam, a complete mess
of a movie which was so bad it was entertaining. The affection of parents and other
relatives brought upon us two of the worst heroes of the year. Ravichandran introduced
his son Hamsavirdhan in Maanaseega Kaadhal. But even he
seemed hero material once we saw Satyan, Satyaraj's nephew, in
Ilayavan. People also tried to take advantage of
Rajnikanth fans who hadn't seen their hero for more than a year by dubbing an old
Hindi movies his into Aandavan. But in order to
emphasise his scenes, they rendered the movie completely incomprehensible.
Surprise Endings
Some trends have been popular in Tamil cinema over the years but the flavor of the year
in 2000 was definitely the surprise ending. Sethu set the
benchmark early in the year with an in-your-face, completely surprising climax that capped off an
exquisite film. Mugavari, which dealt beautifully and
realistically with a man's struggle to become a music director, had an uncommon ending
that was in keeping with the rest of the film. Ezhaiyin Sirippil
put Prabhu Deva in the middle of affections from three women before resolving it
surprisingly. Aasaiyil Or Kadidham explored a nice
relationship between Prashanth and Kousalya and had a pleasant, feel-good ending. Ofcourse,
there were also the miscalculated endings that did not have the effect the director
probably intended. Kannaal Pesavaa's different ending was
the culmination of a lacklustre screenplay while Kannan Varuvaan's
tragic ending was unnecessary and obvious as the director's attempt to gain mileage from
tears. As a result, it put us off.
Woman Power
Woman Power reigned quite high 2000 with quite a few offerings aimed at the fairer sex
and making money too. While not exactly aimed at the ladies, Priyadarshan's
Snehithiye, a warm tale of friendship mixed
together with a slick crime thriller, was a unique venture in that it was comprised of
only women. Paarthen Rasithen had Prashanth caught
between two women, Simran and Laila, with Simran shining as the jealous friend-turned-lover.
Annai had Banupriya grow attached to a girl she
'borrows' from an orphanage while Magalirkkaaga,
which revolved around an all-woman police station, stooped lower than sequences that
are set in police station, to garner laughs. V.Sekhar's
Koodi Vaazhndhaal Kodi Nanmai found women brining
feuding brothers together. Rama.Narayanan had his usual devotional offerings with both
his versions of Amman, Rajakaali Amman, with Ramya Krishnan
as the deity, and Paalayathu Amman, with Meena as
Amman, sending the godfearing women viewers into throes of devotion and raking in the
money.
Doubles!
Several directors had two offerings and found mixed success. Pandiyarajan's
Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Naanum, though low on
laughs and offering nothing new, was much better than his
Doubles, a movie about Prabhu Deva letting his
eyes rove even after his marriage. It was loaded with vulgarity and double entendre dialogs
and was distasteful. Vasanth looked to Hindi for inspiration for his
Appu, which gave Prabhu a new look with a moustache and
stubble. But the story about Prashanth rescuing Devayani from Prakash Raj, a eununch in
the red-light area of Bombay, was neither hard-hitting nor engrossing. On the other
hand, shades of his old touch could be seen in Rhythm,
which portrayed a mature love story between Arjun and Meena. Chelvaa, who has a
successful 1999 had a pair of Parthiban starrers to his credit this year.
Unnaruge Naanirundhaal's wafer-thin story line was
rescued by some nice dialogs and Parthiban's delivery but even this was missing in
James Paandu, where he was joined by Prabhu Deva.
Standing Alone
There were the usual clutch of movies that treaded a separate path, though few were
successful. P.Vasu's Kaakkai Chiraginile, a gentle
treatment of the caste issue, had a nice twist and portrayed an unusually good
relationship between Parthiban and his master, who were from different castes.
Cheran continued his tradition of making socially conscious movies with
Vetrikkodi Kattu, which dealt with the obsession of
people to go to a foreign land. But understandably, considering the debacle of his
previous Desiya Geetham, the negativity and tragedy usually associated with his
movies were considerably toned down. Adhey Manidhan
was a forgettable entry in the horror genre. Bhaarathi
was a well-made movie that focussed on the great poet's life.
Puratchikkaaran, which could be considered the antidote to
Rama.Narayanan's devotional movies, proclaimed that there was no God but turned us off
with its extremity in the other direction.
All things considered, 2000 was another average year for tamil movies with an equal share of bright spots and dark blemishes. Here's looking forward to another year of good movies in 2001...
© 2000 Balaji Balasubramaniam