In January, Goli Soda came as a whiff of fresh air after Pongal’s star-backed films Jilla & Veeram. The film had almost nothing going for it pre-release but word-of-mouth and smart marketing made sure it reached the masses & pleased the critics.
The Vijay Sethupathi storm which was unleashed on us in 2013 generated a tremendous expectation on his first release of 2014, Rummy, whose dated content made it a huge disappointment. Debutant Arun Kumar’s Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum, which released the following week at the start of February, bore the brunt of the negative Vijay Sethupathi wave, but not before it delighted so many through its heart-warming content & fantastic performances from Jayaprakash, Thulasi & Vijay Sethupathi himself. It joined the list of films which people talk about as a Pride of Tamizh cinema but failed at the box-office. The month ended with Kingmaker C.V.Kumar pulling another rabbit out of the bag with the refreshing investigative thriller Thegidi. This film made on a minimal budget delighted the audience & critics alike bringing in a profit for the makers.
March had some innovative films like Inam & Nedunchaalai which made heads turn but as you would have seen, only one film made it to our Top ten list and it was Raju Murugan’s Cuckoo. The film portraying the love between two visually handicapped youngsters had ‘Attakathi’ Dinesh deliver a virtuoso performance along with Malavika under Santosh Narayan’s soul-stirring music.
As we stepped into Q2 with tonnes of expectations on Siva Karthikeyan’s Maan Karate, we were utterly disappointed with its bland forgettable content. However, the film, regrettably, swallowed the innovative Oru Kanniyum Moonu Kalavaanikalum which released in parallel. Naan Sigappu Manithan gave the audience something new with the protagonist suffering from a queer sleeping disorder called Narcolepsy. But its disturbing/suggestive/explicit subplot did not allow it to succeed at the box office. April had more notable out-of-the-usual releases like Damaal Dumeel, Vaayai Moodi Pesavum and films like Ennamo Nadakkudhu which had potential but failed due to misguided casting and indifferent acting.
May opened with the almost unknown Yaamirukka Bayamey taking everyone by surprise by going on to become a blockbuster paving the way for many films of the horror genre to release this year. The fact that it could not make it to our Top ten is indicative of the wonderful films that have come out this year. Soundarya R. Ashwin‘s path-breaking venture Kochadaiyaan starring Rajinikanth has remarkably pioneered the animation wave in the industry but the film failed to find favor with the masses. In the aftermath of the huge hullaballoo, came a lovely little film, Poovarasam Peepee which was a refreshing suspense thriller featuring young adolescent boys who assume social responsibility and perform feats that belie their age.
Un Samayal Arayil & Manjapai did not excite much but the latter did perform unexpectedly well at the box office at the start of June. Then came C.V.Kumar’s Mundaasupatti which struck gold yet again with this amusing retro ride set in the Coimbatore slang bringing us two very inconspicuous talents in Kaali Venkat and Ram Doss. While debutant Saravana Rajan’s Vadacurry felt like it was half-baked being neither a rip-roaring comedy nor an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride, A.L.Vijay’s Saivam was a heartwarming family drama featuring the splendid Nasser & the little beauty Sara with subtle ideologies conveyed through well-written dialogues.
The second half of the year saw some big scorers as well. The film to kick off the half was Vikram Prabhu‘s action-packed thrill-a-minute ride Arima Nambi. Ramanujan, the biopic of the great mathematician that came soon after was an earnest work with nice performances and Ramesh Vinayagam‘s soulful music. Sathuranga Vettai, pitted against the much anticipated Dhanush starrer Velai Illaa Pattadhaari, surprisingly did well thanks to its novel plotline and good word-of-mouth. Jai‘s Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah was a dampener and Ghibran‘s wonderful music in the film was undone by a weak plot.
August kicked of with Karthik Subburaj‘s Jigarthanda which blew the critics and movie-loving audiences alike with its unpredictable genre twist. The rustic portrayal of Sethu by Bobby Simhaa is still talk of the town! Sarabham, the other release from that week, was good too but the fact that it was ripped off a Korean film made it look a lot less credible. The biggest star film disaster came in the form of Suriya‘s Anjaan which surrendered meekly to Parthiepan‘s much fresher KTVI which was a meta film of sorts & was well received by the audience. The next month or so was a brief lull and noteworthy efforts during this time came in the form of Vijay Antony‘s engaging thriller Salim, the realistic Amarakaaviyam which didn’t click with the crowd & the quirky, out-of-the-box Burma. Vikram Prabhu continued his success streak with Sigaram Thodu, which was interestingly themed on ATM & Credit card frauds.
Sundar.C & his happy gang raked in the moolah with the comical ghost gala Aranmanai which was followed by another week of two solid releases in the form of Suseenthiran‘s Jeeva and Ranjith‘s Madras. While the former dealt with politics in Cricket at the grass-roots level, the latter dissected the Dalit dominated North Madras and the way politics and power games are played in that part of the town. Madras received a reception comparable to Jigarthanda. Incidentally, both films had a good platform in the form of Santhosh Narayanan‘s songs and background score.
The last quarter of the year started off with ace cinematographer Ravi K Chandran‘s directorial debut Yaan which did not take off at the box office. Adding to the embarrassment was the news that it was a ripoff off an English film Midnight Express. The next few weeks were quiet understandably as the industry was gearing up for the Diwali biggies – Vijay‘s Murugadoss film Kaththi and Hari‘s festive offering Poojai. Kaththi had enough content and commercial elements in it to make it the year’s biggest grosser. Action King Arjun‘s Jaihind-2 was dated and was no match to its prequel from the 90s. The small films that made heads turn were Lakshmy Ramakrishnan‘s Nerungi Vaa Muthamidaadhe, which had a Babel type presentation of interlaced stories, Vi Anand‘s fascinating village fiction Appuchi Graamam & Caarthick Raju‘s comic caper Thirudan Police.
Vijay Sethupathy looked more like a waning star in Vanmam but the parallel releases from that week – Naaigal Jaakiradhai & Kaadu were noble attempts which got Sibiraj & Samuthirakani deserved appreciations. Vasantha Balan‘s Kaaviya Thalaivan was a marvel which was rich in content and canvas but unfortunately didn’t do well at the box office showing it could still take some time for our audiences to completely accept content-rich experimental films. In what could be termed as a season of ghosts, there were three horror films in Aaaah, Ra & Pissasu, each of which had some positive reviews but Pissasu, from Mysskin, was much more than a typical horror flick. The film, fortunately, clicked with the viewers and went on to become a hit. The year was capped off by Rajinikanth‘s Lingaa which ended up with mixed reviews & its climax was under the radar for all wrong reasons. The last week, with 4 releases (Kappal, Kayal, Meaghamann and Vellaikaara Durai), summed up the year which had a record 215 releases in Tamil! The trend is worrisome as movies don’t get enough screen space & run time and more than 50% of the films released in the year got washed away without a trace. UTV’s Dhananjayan aptly called the present situation as ‘The Survival of the Best’ and not the usual, ‘The Survival of the Fittest’.
Hope the industry learns from this in 2015 and devises for itself, a control mechanism, to ensure films get released at an optimal frequency. That definitely is the need of the hour. Having said that, 2014 was a positive upturn as many movies in our top 10 have been from the lesser known teams which have backed themselves on captivating stories and interesting presentations. Here is to more of that in 2015.
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