Here, in reverse order (best of the worst to worst of the worst) are the 10 least watchable tamil films of 1999.
10
Kaadhalar Dhinam
After some interesting moments when the hero and heroine meet in a chatroom, the movie
turned into an exercise in bad filmmaking with cinematic situations, horrendous comedy and
serious sequences that stood out jarringly from the light tone pervading the rest of the
movie. Debutante hero was miscast. Pretty Sonali Bendre and a couple of nice tunes from
A.R.Rehman were the only bright spots.
9
En Swaasa Kaatre
While any bad movie is a mistake, a bad movie that wastes some nice talent is just plain
unforgivable. With performers like Arvind Swamy, Isha Gopikar and Raghuvaran and
A.R.Rehman's immensely popular music, ESK went on to create an empty, hollow movie.
Copying liberally from Hollywood movies, the movie failed to handle competently, either the
crime or the romance portions of the movie.
8
Unakkaaga Ellaam Unakkaaga
Sundar C has made a career out of fashioning comedies that require our brains to be turned
off every minute of the movie. That is fine but for the suspension of disbelief, the movie
has to be atleast partially successful with its comedy. But this movie was not even
remotely funny and that made for a rather painful viewing experience.
7
Nenjinile
A violent, badly-directed tale of a young man pushed into violence against his wishes.
The risks Vijay took in the fight sequences were wasted in the aid of a generic story
and situations. The movie progressively turned from bad to worse, ending in a painfully
long anti-violence discourse by Vijay and a convenient, cinematic closing scene.
6
Malabaar Police
Suspense was virtually non-existent in this detective tale which had Satyaraj travelling
from Kerala to TamilNadu to investigate a murder. But he ends up solving it solely through
a series of improbable coincidences. Sentimental divertions and the untimely romance
between Abbas and Mumtaj only made matters worse. Koundamani's comedy track contained a few
laughs though.
5
Viralukketha Veekkam
The trouble families get into by not sticking to their budget and the need for women to
work to save the families was told in an obvious manner through four different married
couples. The comedy was rarely funny and Vadivelu was loud and obnoxious. Most of the
action taking place indoors gave the feeling we were watching a drama.
4
Time
A confusing screenplay and amateurish direction made a complete
mess of what was a rather silly story to begin with. The
melodious soundtrack and beautiful photography were wasted
by the disjointed storytelling and a screenplay that made it
hard to figure out most of what was happening.
3
Anbulla Kaadhalukku
Mohan attempted to warn against blindly believing astrologers in his comeback attempt.
The romance was out-of-place and idiotic, the screenplay was incoherent and Mohan gets the
award for the most ridiculous climax of the year.
2
Mugam
Nasser appears with a deformed face in this sorry excuse for an art movie. He wears a mask
(or rather, he seems burns it on with whatever source of fire is nearby!) and turns into this
handsome man with whom the whole of TamilNadu falls in love with. The premise was
completely illogical and so the movie seemed slow and boring instead of realistic.
1
Monisha En Monalisa
This is one of those rare gems - a movie that is so bad that it is actually entertaining.
It is impossible not to laugh while watching the performers' pathetic attempt at acting or
T.Rajendhar's one-tone delivery of inane but rhyming dialogs. On top of too many songs, the
song sequences were loud and garish and the entire movie was steeped in vulgarity from the
womens' costumes to the dance movements. This movie is so bad it has to be seen to be
believed but it is unwatchable.