Topic: Tamil Movie

In Idli Kadai, its director and lead actor Dhanush attempts to fuse two contrasting narrative styles. One is a meditative exploration where the protagonist seeks connection with his true inner self. The other is a mindless masala entertainer, reliant on simplistic crowd-pleasing techniques.

Still, Athiyan Athirai’s willingness to centre the struggles of Adivasi communities and take aim at the State’s oppressive machinery is commendable. If nothing else, Thandakaaranyam sparks a conversation about voices too often left unheard in Tamil cinema.

In 'Coolie', he takes a generic story of friendship and revenge - and adds two dozen unnecessary detours to make the narrative look more complex and clever than it actually is. However, these detours make the film extremely directionless and even pointless.

From invoking the Madurai Veeran song to crafting a role that allows Vikram to unleash his full potential, evoking shades of his most celebrated performances, S.U. Arun Kumar’s Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2 understands the fine line between being loud and being truly impactful.

Watching Joshua Sethuraman's Gentlewoman, it is difficult to not notice that it runs like a contemporary retelling of a K Balachander's film. And if we think about it, Balachander’s films themselves had an inherent Hitchcock-ian quality.

Ashwath Marimuthu's 'Dragon' is an unabashed crowd pleaser. The film blends the expectations of mainstream commercial cinema with a middle class morality tale on what true success is - to deliver a narrative that is thoroughly entertaining. And it was absolute fun watching it.