1. Kottukkaali ( the adamant girl) - the 'international' Tamil film by P.S Vinothraj , the director who debuted with Koolankal. In his second movie kottukkaali, Vinod proves that he is no 'one movie wonder'. I greatly admire Vinod's story telling style that is minimalistic yet punchy in presentation. The symbolisms and visual metaphors are spot on. This is artistry at its best and true mastery in film making.
Again like his earlier film, this too is a road movie. Vinod's use of long shots, camera point of views, pauses, ariel shots, etc make the watch enjoyable. He has weaved caste, cultural and social issues,superstitions, gender inequalities, patriarchy, etc into a story and thrown the climax as a question into the hands of his audience. Thats brilliance! Also Vinod's bold decision to avoid music has worked well.
Soori and Anna Ben have given outstanding performances as leads. All the supporting crew have given natural performances. Camera work by Shakthivel is exemplary. Easily the best film of the year for me.
2. Meiyazhagan (roughly translates to 'man with truth as inner beauty') the 2nd movie by director writer C. Prem Kumar of movie 96 fame. Prem has weaved yet another poetry stringed on human emotions, nostalgia and deft social messaging. The making is slow with long dialogue portions that are gripping and engaging at every level. The chemistry between Arvind Swamy and Karthi is adorable. Every character is well chiseled especially all the female supports. Govind Vasantha has proved again his calibre with some heartwrenching background score. Truly a feel good movie that fills you with lots of positivity and hope on humanity. Keep it going Prem Kumar!
Other notable movies that I saw and admired in 2024 were Mari selvaraj's Vaazhai , Suresh Mari's J Baby & Nithilan's Maharaja
Jama was another note worthy effort by debut director Pari Elavazhagan who has also superbly played the lead role of a street play artist. If not for the comparitively weaker storyline, it would have won the award this year.
Best song of the year goes to manasula from Viduthalai 2.
Ilayaraja has created a composition that literally does something to our heart..just as the words in the song...Goosebumps to hear it in Sanjay Subramanian's peculiar voice. Female voice of Ananya Bhatt compliments him with sweetness. A crisp guitar opening from Ilayaraja after many years too..
Pebbles ( Koozhankal in Tamil) is a Tamil movie which I recently saw on OTT. I was greatly impressed by the raw aesthetics in presentation by debutant director PS Vinothraj. It's no surprise that the film has won several international awards and is India's official nomination for the Oscars.
The film takes out a day in the life of a troubled family in a drought stricken village in the outskirts of Madurai. There is no start or end in the story. But the director has managed to organically take us through the harsh days journey of the characters in a rustic setting. The camera work is exemplary. Every frame is thoughtful and mature in composition for a debutant team. The wide angle shots and the single long shots are outstanding. The narration is subtle yet poetic. The father and kid, the main characters, give us grounded performances. Yuvan has done well to leave the background score in silence.
My choice for the best Tamil movie of 2022 goes to Kadaisi Vivasayi (The Last Farmer)...a film by Director M.Manikandan. The down to earth story of a simple 80 year old farmer has been told with metaphorical layers of surrealism and spiritualism yet staying within grounded realism. Every character is believable. Manikandan does a superlative job in conveying the messages on social issues without being preachy. Nallandi as the farmer impresses you from his first shot till the finish. Its hard to believe that this is his first movie! Sad to know he passed away before the movie hit the screen. Vijay Sethupathi does a lovely cameo role. Manikandan's camera work was a treat to watch. I would love to see more of such grounded movies in Tamil... Thanks Manikandan.
[The movie is on Sony liv if you plan to watch on OTT]
Other praise worthy movies I saw in 2022 were Gargi and Taanakkaran.
The Covid lockdown years of 2020-2021 have not given me many good Tamil movies to watch. So my entire interest had shifted to Malayalam films. I was instantly sucked into Malayalam films with their variety of themes and honest story telling. Thanks to the lockdown and OTT platforms, I could discover some of the best of Malayalam movies of the past few years with extremely varied subjects like Kumbalangi nights, Trance, ayyapanum koshiyum, RIP, angamaly dairies, joji just to name a few.
So in short i couldn't select a Tamil movie for 2020 ...and for the year 2021 I could hardly find a competition for Pa.Ranjith's Sarpatta Parambarai.
After watching Pa.Ranjith's earlier two disappointing Rajini films, I did not have much expectation to start with. But this one brought the director of Attakathi and Madras back in the limelight. This is without doubt Ranjith's best and proves what he is really capable of if he is left to his own. Great story telling, carefully edited and presented tastefully with an amazing cast.... A boxing story set in the 1970s with layers of the social , cultural and political milieu of the day added deftly over the narration , makes for a long yet delightful and believable movie. Arya as the lead 'Kabilan' is perfect. Pasupathy as "Rangan master" has done what he does best! John Vijay as "daddy" and Shabbir as "dancing rose' are characters that will delightfully linger on your mind amidst the intensity of the movie. Santhosh Narayanan's background score has strengthened Ranjith as usual. This movie packs a punch !
Sillu Karupatti is an anthology romantic film written and
directed by Halitha Shameem. A feel good movie experiment, very new to Tamil
audience and hence had to be recognized here.
There are four different love/relationship stories of four
different age groups. Simple and crisp story telling with minimal and sometimes
witty dialogues make it an interesting watch. The cast is brilliant. BGM was
weak. But overall a very refreshing film.
The other praise worthy film of 2019 is KD aka Karupudurai. Good to see one more female director of substance in Tamil industry. Madhumita Sundararaman is a refreshing talent.
To let is a great effort, and if not for the drab ending could have been the winner.
Thiagarajan Kumararaja is a director to watch out for in the future. Hissuper delux is an out of the box attempt in Indian cinema. Its a movie you may or may not like, but you cannot ignore. Vijay Sethupathy has given the performance of his life.
96 -
When the whole kollywood film industry was running an impatient noisy race , out of no where comes a movie that stops the clock, winds it backwards by about 20 years and makes you linger in silence in that time capsule feeling like a school kid again. Director Prem kumar for me is the real hero of this movie. Every dialogue and every shot is carefully measured and delivered. For anyone who had done his schooling in the 90's , its a nostalgic trip where you can relate to every frame. Stellar 'under performances' by Vijay Sethupathy and Trisha carry the story like a breeze. The support cast of school friends - Devadarshini, aadukalam murugadoss, Bagavathy perumal and Rajkumar are brilliant. Adithya and Gouri who play the school kid version of vijay and Trisha are impressive. Govind Vasanth's music is mature and does the trick along with Prem's deft use of Ilayaraja numbers to take us back in time! A movie I can watch again...
I generally hate caste based love story movies as they are the usually stereotypical poor low caste boy meeting the rich upper caste girl resulting in a negative drama. But this one was a surprise. Mari Selvaraj's handling of the screenplay is very mature with a touch of abstract and subtle elements. Santhosh Narayanan's music takes the movie to another dimension. Yogi Babu offers the right douse of lighter moments. A clean well made movie that I thoroughly relished..
Ashokism award for the best Tamil movie 2017 goes to Vikram Vedha.
The husband wife duo of Pushkar and Gayathri have given to Tamil cinema an outstanding neo noir action thriller.
Inspired by the Indian folktale Baital Pachisi, where King Vikramaditya captures the demon Vedhalam... But the Vedhalam every time escapes after telling the king a story that ends with a question.
The film is the clash of an honest police officer Vikram played by Madhavan and a dreaded gangster Vedha played by Vijay Sethupathi.
The beauty of the film is the contrasting chemistry brought out by Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathy , with their own characteristic styles. This will go down for Vijay as one of his career best performances. His screen presence simply takes the movie to another level.
The film is a lesson in script writing. The story telling with lots of twists and turns keeps you on the edge and the cat and mouse game climaxes in the end where the jigsaw puzzle cleanly falls in place.Background score by Sam CS is brilliant.
This is the kind of movie you need to watch twice, once in suspense and once after knowing the plot just to relish how intelligently its made.
Arun Prabhu's impressive debut effort Aruvi is another thought provoking must watch of the year.
Visaranai (Interrogation) is not a movie for the light hearted. Vetrimaran has come up with an intense and heavy story based on the novel 'Lock up' by N.Chandrakumar. Dinesh has again impressed me with his acting skills.
Another master piece in Tamil !
Joker - An amazing political satire of a different class by director Raju Murugan. A mentally disturbed villager who declares himself as the President of India and takes on the corrupt system in his own ways...Actor Guru Somasundaram is a man to watch out for in the future. Sean Roldan's music needs special mention. He is going to be an important music composer for Indian cinema.
I had almost decided not to award any movie for the year 2014. But then I saw "Kaaka Muttai" (Crow's Egg) recently..a beautiful creation by M.Manikandan. I was greatly impressed by the way the subject revolving around two innocent slum kids is handled deftly and lightly with a touch of humor and satire. The use of fresh and little known faces has wonderfully worked for the film. Super cute movie!
It has to go to "Soodhu kavvum"..Black comedies are rare in Tamil films. Debutant director Nalan Kumarasamy had created a near perfect one in Soodhu kavvum. Nalan had given it the right amount of comedy, satire and thrill element to keep you on the seat edge and still laugh at the same time throughout the movie.The screenplay is brilliant and the story telling is something new for Tamil films. The Cast is again brilliant with Vijay Sethupathi taking the lead. With unconventional songs like 'kasu panam' and 'mama douser' and excellent background scores, Music director Santhosh Narayanan needs special mention.
Well done Nalan for giving us an unconventional entertainer.
"Moodar koodam" by debutant Naveen was another interesting attempt in black comedy.
Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom - easily my choice for the movie of the year. This is just brilliant ...in every aspect. Debutant director Balaji Tharanitharan has picked a bizarre real life incident and weaved it into a brilliant plot with a near perfect screen play. The movie kept me on the edge and maintained its distinct humour mixed tension throughout. The entire cast is brilliant. Vijay Sethupathi is perfect for the role. His dialogue "enna achhu..." never bores you even after its umpteenth repetition. Bagavathy aka Bugs needs special mention for his brilliant portrayal of himself.
On the whole- A thoroughly enjoyable entertainer. Well done Balaji.
The other interesting or impressive attempts of 2012 are Pizza and Vazakku enn 18/9.
Pa.Ranjith's Attakkathi is another out of the box movie I enjoyed.
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil movie of 2011 goes to Aadukalam.
Directed by Vetrimaran , this Dhanush starrer has no wonder bagged 6 national awards! Shot on the background of the Rooster fights in Madurai district, the screenplay was mature and it was good to see that the director had done his homework well. G.V.Prakash scored with his catchy songs . Dhanush is arguably the best actor of the Tamil film industry today...and he proved it amply here. Congrats Vetrimaran!
Special Mention:
Alagarsamiyin kuthirai by director Suseenthiran is a short and sweet story penned by writer Bhaskar Sakthi. The novel storytelling and the breath taking locales of the western ghats had made this film enjoyable. The highlight was Ilayaraja's background score. The title score is a class of its own.
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil movie of 2010 goes to Angadi theru. Few Tamil films in recent years have surprised me with some realistic screenplay and down to earth story telling.
Director Vasanthabalan deserves a standing ovation for his bold attempt. New and little known faces do ample justice to the script. Ofcourse, the movie is not for the light hearted...
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil film of 2009 goes to Pasanga. Debutant director Pandiraj amazed me with his down to earth story telling and screen play.
Some of the other exemplary films worth mentioning are: 1. Vennila kabadi Kuzhu 2.Nadodigal
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil film of 2008 goes to Subramaniapuram.
For a person like me who grew up in Madurai, the film is a nostalgic walk thro’ the 80s. Kudos to director Sasi Kumar .The cast is amazing and the camera work and art direction deserve special mention. James Vasanthan’s background score and songs add value to the movie.
The only thing I missed was Ilayaraja’s music. But the director cleverly overcomes this by the use of Ilayaraja’s 80’s numbers in the romantic scenes.
Well done SasiKumar.
The other 2 films that need a special mention are :
1.Poo
2.Anjathe
Ashokism awards 2005, 2006, 2007
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil film 2007 goes to Paruthiveeran.
Ameer Sultan has matured into a complete substance director and has given us an honest, no-nonsense movie. The climax is not for the faint hearted and will be the talk of the movie buffs for quite a while. Priyamani and New comer Karthi along with rest of the cast (almost forgotten Saravanan) are stunning in their roles. Yuvan’s music and Ramji’s camera work complement Ameer’s direction. Ameer has raised the bar of Tamil movie industry by a few notches.
The Ashokism award for the best Tamil film of 2006 goes to Veyil.
Armed with a simple story line with realistic portrayal of characters and some classy camera work , director Vasanthabalan gives us a masterful movie. Barath and Pasupathy are outstanding as usual. Iam not impressed with the cast of heroine though. Music by GV.Prakash is perfect for the plot.
Veyil deservedly is the first Tamil language film to be screened at Cannes.
Special mention
Imsai Arasan 23rd pulikesi is destined to be a cult comedy film in Tamil. No body else could have carried the role as Vadivelu has ,in his career best performance. A laughter riot must see movie from Chimbu Devan! This movie will be in my all time favorite list...
Thavamai thavamirundhu arguably is Cheran's best movie so far. The story takes on the love of a father as seen through the eyes of a son who evolves into a father himself. A clear simple screenplay with amazing performances make this into a thoroughly enjoyable watch.
Iam no Tamil film buff. Living in Kabul for most part of 2005 , I didn't even keep track of most of the movies released.…But out of the 2 Tamil films I saw , one is worth mentioning –Kathal.(the other was 'chandramuki' that can be watched for Jothika's climax dance performance and Vadivelu's lighter moments )Kathal- even though the same old love-story of a rich girl eloping with a poor boy, the screen play was a whiff of fresh air.
Balaji Sakthivel’s direction set against the picturesque locales of Madurai was refreshing. The realities of Madurai have not been better portrayed in any other movie I can recall. The typical Madurai lingo, the culture and the 'casteist' social life are beautifully captured.
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