Note: This article will cover movies that were available for my viewing between Jan 1, 2003 and Dec 31, 2003. 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 contains leftovers from 2002 which I managed to see only in 2003. For the same reason, I have left out movies that were released in 2003 but which I saw in 2004 or still have not seen.
Copland
While 2002 saw the rowdy or the dada as the most common role in Tamil cinema, our heroes moved en masse
to the other side of the law in 2003 with khaki being the most common color. Just as Vikram's Gemini turned out to be
most successful rowdy of 2002, his Saamy once again took top honors among the policemen.
Inspite of not having a terribly effective villain, the character's mix of brain and brawn and a strong climax made the movie very
entertaining. Surya's Kaakka Kaakka was the other big winner. The violent and hardhitting
movie had a classy feel and a golden soundtrack. Ranjith switched over to direction with Bheeshmar
where he ended up fighting his own department more than the villains while Arjun's Parashuram
added the usual dose of patriotism by having his policeman character go up against terrorists. Ajith's
Aanjaneya and Satyaraj's Ramachandra wouldn't have made any
policemen proud of their job. While the former seemed stupid and ineffective with his actions, the latter, after starting quite tolerably,
collapsed in a mix of stupidity, loudness and violence. Only Dhum went against the trend as it painted
a really poor picture of the police. Simbhu's romance was opposed by the heroine's father, who was the Commissioner of police,
but the way Simbu's character was portrayed, the viewers were more likely to sympathise with the girl's father!
The Good Guys
Ofcourse, cops were not the only good guys populating Tamil movies. Arjun's Ottran was a RAW
agent fighting against terrorists in a variety of disguises. Vijayakanth played a crusading Chief Election Commissioner in
Thennavan but his bombastic style and image made the role a laughing stock as he
fought with rowdies, threatened the Chief Minister and investigated a bomb blast! Alaaudin
was a Robinhood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor but the movie had several nice touches related to the character.
Arasu was Sarathkumar's Baasha as he played a soft, violence-hating man before
revealing his true colors to avenge his parents' killings. His Diwaan though, was a chore to
sit through with its haphazard screenplay. The 'goodest' guy was Vijay's character in Pudhiya Geethai,
who was the embodiment of perfection but the same factor made the movie rather boring. His Thirumalai
and Vaseegaraa were thankfully more down-to-earth with simpler ambitions like getting
the girls of their dreams. The former was more entertaining with some nice characterization and sharp dialogs. Bharathiraja's
Eera Nilam dealt with families whose men work in the army but was meandering and rarely
earned our interest. Sarathkumar played a hardhearted lorry driver who eventually proved that he was soft inside in
Paarai while Satyaraj played a rowdy, a role that lost favor this year, in the violence-soaked
Sena.
Woman Power
The fairer sex was not left out of the action though the quality of movies with female protagonists usually left a lot to be desired.
Charlie's Angels wannabe 3 Roses had no idea of the direction to take and its
incoherent screenplay ended up lurching in several different directions before settling down in helping a runaway couple unite.
Ramya Krishnan, who inexplicably seems unable to find good roles, had two stinkers. Jaya had
her taking revenge on three powerful men who had killed her friend Sherin while in the devotional
Annai Kaaligaambaal she had to share screen space and time with an elephant
endowed with super powers. Ennai Thaalaatta Varuvaalaa had a strong heroine but went
overboard with her characterization and also had the most ridiculous climax of the year. Priyamaana Thozhi
had the Vikraman stamp written all over it as it handled friendship and love with Madhavan in the center while
Pavalakodi found herself in the center of three men in the take-off on There's something about
Mary - without the outrageous parts which are what made the original funny. Prabhu played his now familiar role of
a man caught between two women in Yes Madam.
Thrills and Chills
Romance and masala are usually the two broad categories tamil movies fall into. There is little variety and thrillers and
horror movies are usually at a premium. But 2003 had a fair share of movies that dealt with those themes. The psychotic
protagonist was usually a common fixture in such movies. Dhanush brilliantly portrayed a youngster who was physically
and mentally abused as a child and as a young man, becomes obsessed with the woman who displays affection for him in
Kaadhal Konden. The movie had a terrific screenplay and deservedly made a star out of him.
Veteran director Balu Mahendra returned to the big screen after a long hiatus with Julie Ganapathy,
a remake of Stephen King's book Misery. Sarita had a star turn as a woman obsessed with the writer of a tamil serial
while Jayaram earned our sympathy as the target of her obsession. Mutham had a serial
killer story but was loaded with glamour and vulgarity rather than thrills while Whistle faithfully
reproduced the Hollywood film Urban Legend. Naam was wonderfully original as it
dealt with a terrorist and four unemployed youth and had the best twist of the year. Arun Pandiyan's second effort behind the
camera, Vikatan, had a good, even if plagiarised, story while
Unnai Saranadainthan, which started out as a regular romance, took a surprising turn by
adding some thriller overtones as a friend tries to derail his friend's romance.
Looking for Love
Lovers looking for each other after falling in love was a theme that suddenly regained popularity after laying low for awhile
after Kaadhal Koattai. Jay Jay was the most high profile of such movies with Madhavan
as hero and Saran behind the camera. The movie was based on the Hollywood movie Serendipity with a 100-rupee
note with the lead pair's addresses written on it taking part in the action. Ice
had the hero and heroine look for each other after meeting(under completely contrived and cinematic conditions) in a foreign
country while the couple in Indru Mudhal were childhood friends who constantly fought with
each other without realising that they were also looking for each other. Ragasiyamaai
was a cliched love story between a rich girl and poor boy but the few scenes which had Prasanna look for his lover among
some ruins in Gujarat provided a few moments of suspense.
Young Love
The fact that a new generation had begun in Tamil cinema was further proved in 2003 with the arrival of several new heroes and
heroines. But the sad part was that most of the movies they arrived in were cliched love stories that failed to display any freshness
or novelty. The biggest and most disappointing of the lot was Shankar's Boys. While the initial
portions were unimaginably vulgar, the second half was a retread of the usual forming-a-band-and-succeeding story that has been
seen several times before. Both Ravi and Sada made a good mark in Jayam, which proved that
good screenplay and direction can elevate even a regular love story to an entertaining movie. Kaalaatpadai
too fell in the same category since it had a regular intercaste love story but made it entertaining with a wonderful script. R.B.Chaudhary's
son Jeeva starred in Aasai Aasaiyaai, which inexplicably relied on some vulgarity in its otherwise
sweet love story while Anbu didn't do much wrong as its hero refused to let go of his lover even after
her marriage. Punnagai Poove had a nice twist though it resolved it predictably. Satyaraj's son
Sibi entered the field with Student Number One, a Telugu remake, while Sivaji's grandson
Dushyant understandably failed to create the kind of ripples his grandfather did with his debut. But his movie
Success succeeded in surprising us with the direction the story proceeded
in after a familiar first half. Shalini's brother Richard was the hero in Kathir's Kaadhal Virus, which
had Kathir's trademark of style over story. Well Done relied on the climax to save the movie
but the rest of the movie made sure we were not interested in what happened in the climax!
Friends and Family
Friendship and familial ties are always in the background of Tamil movies.
Vikram played the wonderfully realised character of a cremator while Surya provided him support as a talkative
petty thief in Bala's Pithamagan, which portrayed the friendship between the two mismatched
characters. Military found Satyaraj as the tough, no-nonsense brother taking care of his
five sisters while while Winner had Sundar. C's trademark of a huge family and lots of characters
but was rescued by a funny comedy track. Family means sacrifice in Tamil cinema and last year was no different.
Sokka Thangam supposedly meant Vijayakanth who was ready to sacrifice his life for his family
but Prakashraj's character was what made the movie watchable. Manoj tried to sacrifice his love for his brother in
Pallavan while both Simbu and Trisha in Alai and Srikanth
and Trisha in Manasellaam were ready to forget their romance to ensure their families'
happiness. Shaam took his turn sacrificing his love for the good of his family in the terrible Anbe Anbe.
Married couples did not have a good year as Aalukkoru Aasai found Satyaraj and Meena fighting
most of the time while Mohanlal and Simran played an estranged couple who were brought together by an unrealistic, cinematic
music competition in Popcarn. Srikanth played a husband who erroneously thought he was marrying
the woman of his dreams in the wonderful Parthiban Kanavu but the scene-stealer was Sneha, who
played two contrasting characters. Kaadhal Sadugudu found Vikram unintentionally getting into
fights with his lover's father
On the Road
Anbe Sivam was a road movie - a rare genre - as Kamal and Madhavan travelled together
from Orissa to TamilNadu. The movie had great performances from both of them, with Kamal ofcourse excelling, and a nice message
hidden in it. Vikram travelled to Chennai and was forced to take on a powerful minister in the entertaining Dhool,
the first bonafide hit of the year. Nala Damayanthi placed Madhavan, a naieve Brahmin cook,
in Australia and mined quite a few laughs out of the "fish out of water" scenario while Kaadhal Kisukisu,
for no apparent reason, took place entirely in Malaysia.
As always, its time to cross our fingers and hope that 2004 will bring more good movies to our theaters..
. © 2003 Balaji Balasubramaniam