Beaten-to-death Bairavaa, Bogus Bogan, Sonorous Singam 3, Cocky Kavan – The less said about the big films of 2017’s first quarter, the better. There have been quarters when our team has had a tough time in deciding which film to leave while making the Quarter’s ‘Top Picks’. This one too was difficult but for the exact opposite reason! Of the 43 releases in the quarter, 4 off 5 films that made it to our list are small films from inexperienced film makers that endeared us with their charm and intent. So biggies in pipeline, beware. We see a shift in pattern coming along. Heading to our Five (yes, we were forced to cut down from ‘Six’ to ‘Five’) picks now:
Adhe Kangal (January 26, 2017)
120 min
- U Rated
- Directed by Rohin Venkatesan
- Music by Ghibran
- Shot by Ravivarman Neelamegam
- Edited by Leo John Paul
Full Review
Adhe Kangal
Con-based films are a dime-a-dozen in Tamizh cinema especially in the wake of the recent ’black comedy’ wave. Where 'Adhe Kangal’ differentiates itself is how it inverses the gender stereotype and puts a clever lady in the midst of a game that traverses multiple characters. The restrained nature of the film where it does not move away from the main core by focusing on comedy or needless songs needs to be lauded which is why Adhe Kangal makes it to our picks of this quarter.
Full ReviewYaman (February 24, 2017)
Full Review
Yaman
Vijay Antony proves once again shows how to pick a role for one’s acting meter. The role brimming with grey shades notwithstanding, the screenplay works in making the audience invest in an almost straightforward story when you think about it at the end. Following Naan & Amarakaaviyam, Jeeva Sankar makes another film that is worthy of our picks of this quarter.
Full Review153 min
- U Rated
- Directed by Jeeva Shankar
- Music by Vijay Antony
- Shot by Jeeva Shankar
- Edited by Veera Senthil Raj
Kuttram 23 (March 3, 2017)
134 min
- U/A Rated
- Directed by Arivazhagan
- Music by Vishal Chandrasekhar
- Shot by Bhaskaran K. M.
- Edited by Bhuvan Srinivasan
Full Review
Kuttram 23
The director Arivazhagan's praiseworthy creations in his short career and Arun Vijay's renewed lease of life in his recent films were good enough pointers to expect a fine translation of Rajesh Kumar's acclaimed thriller novel of the same name. Arun Vijay's electric performance was aided by an all round exhibition of talent on and behind the screen to accentuate the reach of this film with a story backdrop relevant to the current times - one of the rare movies to march its way into our picks of this relatively sluggish quarter.
Full ReviewMaanagaram (March 10, 2017)
Full Review
Maanagaram
With seasoned character artists like Charlie playing a pivotal role, the promising talents Sri and Sundeep gave that perfect balance with their contrasting styles and competitive acting while the director Lokesh Kanagaraj guides the film to remain non-judgemental and sticks to the narrative while providing subtle psychological conditioning to the society. This fresh offering infused with enjoyable humor from Ramdoss was a compelling choice in our picks for its sheer intent of putting content on top of everything else!
Full Review137 min
- U Rated
- Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj
- Music by Javed Riaz
- Shot by Selvakumar SK
- Edited by Philomin
Kavan (March 31, 2017)
159 min
- U/A Rated
- Directed by KV Anand
- Music by Hiphop Tamizha Adhi
- Shot by Abinandhan Ramanujam
- Edited by Anthony Gonsalves
Full Review
Kavan
When the pairing of KV Anand & Vijay Sethupathi got confirmed, it was a pleasant news as the first thought to strike was that VJS, (finally and deservingly so) would most likely have a solid commercial hit under his belt. He has done his job as the steadfast journalist. Kavan would have earned a solid spot among our picks instead of scraping through had KV Anand not let the distracting elements push the focal topics off centre-stage leading to a 'phoney' presentation of a topic with meat.
Full Review
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