Mister Madras

Director: Chezhiyan Cast: Santhosh Sreeram, Sheela Rajkumar, Dharun  In a scene from Chezhiyan’s award-winning To Let, Ilango (Santhosh Sreeram) and Amudha (Sheela Rajkumar), break their heads and savings to make ends meet. As Amudha brings out her last ounce of savings that she had stored between the pages of her bible, their son, Siddharth (Dharun), brings out his hundi and places it between his parents. A regular film would’ve made that kid as an unnecessarily mature character who has probably understood the grave situation and is willing to let go of what he has saved for the betterment of the family. But To Let , unexpectedly, does what you’d expect a kid to do. Seeing his mother holding a handful of notes, he had brought the hundi and Amudha too plays along by inserting a hundred rupee note at its mouth, only for Ilango and Siddharth to push it down. That’s one of the many times To Let’s realism would remind you of Balu Mahendra’s cult classi...

Director: Sundar C Cast: Silambarasan, Megha Akash, Catherine Tresa, Prabhu, Ramya Krishnan  Though I’m not comfortable with the usage of the term ‘comeback’ in Tamil cinema, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam was termed as one for Silambarasan a.k.a Simbu a.k.a STR. You know how much the Mani Ratnam film means to the actor’s career when his next film is titled after a a line from  CCV . But it’s rather sad when you see Sundar C’s  Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven and realise that the title is as creative as film gets. And let’s not forget the fact that VRV is technically a remake of the Telugu film Attarintiki Daredi . VRV has the so-called essentials that you’d find in any Sundar C film from the last decade – a cast list that’s as long as the population of a small town, an expensive set of a house, a host of comedians who’re given more screen space than the actual female lead and of course, intolerable songs. What’s different ...

Director: Rajiv Menon Cast: GV Prakash, Nedumudi Venu, Vineeth, Aparna Balamurali A film on underdogs is anything but new in Tamil cinema. In fact, the heroes are written as so, so that when he rises from the ashes a la a phoenix bird, the transformation is ought to give a high to the audience. But Rajiv Menon’s comeback film Sarvam Thaala Mayam can’t be brushed under the carpet as yet another such film. For starters, we aren’t given a conventional ‘hero’ but just a happy-go-lucky-guy named Peter (a role that seems to be custom-made for GV Prakash) who loves being a die-hard fan of a hero. While it’s Thalapathy Vijay, in the beginning, his hero-worshipping soon changes focuses to veteran percussionist Vembu Iyer (Nedumudi Venu) after seeing the latter perform. What follows is a series of insults and tribulations that hit Peter like how he wants to hit the mridangam, for which he even goes against the words of his mridangam making father Johnson (a br...

Cast: Rajinikanth, Vijay Sethupathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Simran, Trisha, Sasikumar, Bobby Simha, Sanath Reddy Director: Karthik Subbaraj There are directors such as Pa Ranjith and Shankar who had translated their visions into films starring Rajini and there are also directors like Karthik Subbaraj who ‘make’ a Rajini film. Though I liked Kabali, Kaala and 2.0 from the former category, I must say, I enjoyed the latter’s Petta more thanks to a phenomenon the film’s team is referring to as Rajinism. If the reviewer and science lover in me can define the film together, Petta’s plot is similar to that of a Hyperloop carriage while this Rajinism is the vacuum that makes this carriage travel at breakneck speed. It’s pretty obvious that Petta’s story and screenplay will remind the audience of Rajini’s previous cult classics and from the looks of it, it sounds like a conscious decision. For starters, Pettavelan’s (Rajinikanth) pseudony...

Cast: Ajith, Nayanthara, Jagabathi Babu, Robo Shankar, Thambi Ramaiah, Vivekh Director: Siva Film lovers whose fatigue level hit rock-bottom when they got to know about Ajith and Siva’s fourth collaboration, after the rather underwhelming Vivegam , can now heave a sigh of relief. Viswasam is exactly what the promotional material lead you into believing and boy, it would be an understatement to call the film one of the director’s best. For his fans, an Ajith film releasing is nothing short of a festival, but Viswasam is actually made to feel like a festival. Be it the backdrop, songs or even Ajith’s clothes, there’s no dearth of colours and the film shifting from village to the city is more of a move from a festival to a carnival. Viswasam has everything you’d expect in a Siva film — a happy family, some beautiful moments, decent humour, raw action and a nonessential villain. But what makes the film stand apart is the fact that Siva seems to have co...

  Director: Jagadeesan Subu Cast: Kathir, Raj Bharath, Meera Nair, Riythvika, Mayilsamy  After a run in the festival circuits, the long-delayed  Sigai  became the second Tamil film to get a release in an OTT platform (Zee5). I wonder if the message that the film preaches was the reason for it not getting a theatrical release. If so, it would be rather disheartening.  Sigai  has everything you’d expect in a template thriller — a plot that happens in one day, a missing person, a couple of mysterious deaths and a man who goes looking for an answer. But director Jagadeesan Subu seems to have not wanted  Sigai  to get brushed off as yet another whodunit. Which probably explains why his screenplay shifts course post intermission and goes on to become a completely different story. The first half tracks the trials and tribulations of Prasad (Raj Bharath), a pimp who feels guilty for the disappearance of the in-demand prostitute Nimmi (Meera Nair) and more than the actors, it...

A month back, I decided to do regular year-ender listicle and I had already published My Favourite Tamil Songs of 2018 as well as The Most Disappointing Tamil Films of 2018 . But I’ve seen a lot of ‘best film’ posts and this year, the number of good films was way too many that the people themselves know which films these are. If you still insist on a list, here are my quick 10 favourites (in the order they released) Irumbu Thirai Kaala Kadaikutty Singam Pyaar Prema Kaadhal  Merku Thodarchi Malai  Chekka Chivantha Vaanam Pariyerum Perumal 96 Ratsasan Vada Chennai Any regular film lover would’ve seen most of these films so I didn’t really want to stick to the regular year-ender post on my picks for ‘the best Tamil films of 2018’. There were a few gems which also made its way to the big screens this year but didn’t get the recognition it deserved, so here’s a post for the most underrated Tamil films of 2018. PS:  Kindly note that these...