Top 10: Tamil Movies 2012

I did my Top 10 Tamil Movies 2011 last year. So I thought might as well make it an annual review. In 2011, I saw around 30 movies and my Top 10 was derived from that list. 2012 saw one of the largest releases of movies in Kollywood history. Altogether there were a total of 162 movies but unfortunately I only managed to watch 35 of them. Even though I only watched 22% of the movies, I would like to believe that I have managed to watch most of the good ones.

Last year my task of choosing the Top 10 was rather smooth as there was not much competition and the few good movies stood out from the others quite prominently. But 2012 not only saw a lot of movies but it saw a raise in the quality of the movies too. There were lot of good movies to choose from and it was rather difficult choosing the Top 10. But as usual, first we look at the list of 35 movies that I have watched and later we will go on to list the Top 10 and the reason why they were chosen.

Let’s kick start with the 35 watched movies of 2012 (in alphabetical order):

1. 3
2. Aarohanam
3. Ammavin Kai Pesi
4. Aravaan
5. Attakathi
6. Billa 2
7. Dhoni
8. Ishtam
9. Kadhalil Sodaphavathu Yeppadi
10. Kalakalappu
11. Kazhugu
12. Kollaikaran
13. Kumki
14. Leelai
15. Maattrraan
16. Manam Kothi Paravai
17. Marina
18. Mayilu
19. Murattu Kaalai
20. Murpoluthum Un Karpanaigal
21. Naan
22. Naan Ee
23. Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom
24. Nanban
25. Oru Kal Oru Kannadi
26. Pizza
27. Saattai
28. Saguni
29. Sundarapandian
30. Thadaiyaara Thaakka
31. Thandavam
32. Thuppakki
33. Vavval Pasanga
34. Vettai
35. Yaarukku Theriyum

And here are the Top 10 Movies of 2012 (also in alphabetical order):

3

Aishwarya Dhanush’s first venture as a director proved to be a successful one. Audiences of Tamil cinema are used to disorders like multiple personality, short term memory loss and retrograde amnesia. In this film Aishwarya introduces audiences to Bipolar Disorder. Many are not familiar with this disease but around 4% of the world population suffers from Bipolar Disorder. One out of three patients would attempt suicide at least once in their life.

Aishwarya came up with a fresh screenplay. The movie was showed as three stages of Ram’s (Dhanush) life so that teenage romance and comedy can be incorporated into the movie. This made the movie sail smoothly without being too tensed and too focused on the disease itself. The strong point that carried the movie was the performances by the cast especially Dhanush and Shruti Hassan who portrayed their characters very well. Dhanush gave an amazing performance as a school student, teenager in immense love and most importantly as a Bipolar Disorder patient. It’s a very difficult character to portray as the character has to show prominent difference while presenting symptoms like depression and mania. Dhanush is certainly expected to bag an award for his performance.

Sivakarthikeyan made a good impression and showed signs that he would be a star to watch out for in the future. The second strong point was of course the music by debutant music director Anirudh Ravichander. He already made waves with his “Why This Kolaveri Di” song track from the same movie and garnered 20 million views within 28 days making it an international sensation.

Overall the movie packs a good story highlighting the pains and sufferings of a lesser known disease with strong performances by the cast. Though at times the screen play gets a bit dragging, 3 is not a movie to be missed.

Aaravan

Set in the 18^th century Tamil Nadu, Aravaan is story of a man played by Aadhi destined to be sacrificed for a murder he did not commit. Aravaan draws its essence from the customs in the Legend of Mahabharatha, where Arjunan’s son is sacrificed to win the Kurukshetra War. Vasanthabalan tries to tackle a different genre for each of his new release. In Aravaan the forgotten customs of 18^th century Tamil Nadu was presented to the audiences.

Though Aravan carried mixed emotions throughout the film and loses pace at certain points, the technical effort in the movie has to be well praised. Art direction and costumes were designed in such an intricate manner that the 18^th century Tamil Nadu village and lifestyle was literally brought to life on the silver screen. A slow pace story lined with mystery and sacrifice with a backdrop of great technical work, Aravan will be the start of more periodic films to come.

Kadhalil Sodaphavathu Yeppadi

Cinema is always filled with emotional movies, chaotic masala movies; full fledge comedy movies and depressing heart wrecking movies. Every emotion goes to the extreme in these type of movies. So for those who do not want any extremism and just looking for a relaxing heartwarming movie, Kadhalil Sodaphavathu Yeppadi is the movie for you. A story about love in all walks of life mainly focusing on the relationship between Siddarth and Amala Paul surrounded by the love life of their colleagues and Amala Paul’s parents. It’s a relaxing heartwarming movie about love life during college days. Screenplay is well crafted so that the story is not too rushed and avoids hitting a plateau. Cast gave good simple performance in line with the plot. Sit back, relax and enjoy the lovely stroll with Kadhalil Sodaphavathu Yeppadi.

Kumki

With the success of Myna, Prabhu Solomon’s next venture, Kumki was highly expected. The announcement that actor Prabhu’s son will be making his debut in Kumki, made the expectations go higher. Well, the audience wasn’t disappointed. Kumki turned out to be one of the top movies of the year. Kumki is a story of a young man, Bomman and his pet elephant Manickam whom he treats as his brother. Bomman gets entangled in a love relationship with Alli, a village girl and puts his friends and Manickam in danger as Manickam is used as a “Kumki” elephant to ward off the crop-menacing wild elephant Komban.

A heart gripping story about a man and his elephant, being blinded by love and carrying the hope and trust of an entire village. Cinematography, story, screenplay and music were the stars of the movie. The camera works around Manickam and nature were amazing. Fresh story was coupled with smooth screenplay. D.Imaan’s music brings to live every small emotion portrayed in the movie. Vikram Prabhu proved in his debut that he is here to stay. Lakshmi Menon again proved herself as a good actress after her debut in Sundarapandian. Thambi Ramaiah’s performance deserves applause. The biggest star of the show is of course Manickam, literally too.

Naan

Another debutant actor with a well crafted movie was Vijay Anthony in Naan. Vijay Anthony plays a man who is both intelligent and gifted in impersonating others. But being scarred at childhood with his mother cheating on his father leading to his suicide, Vijay Anthony grows without guidance in a juvenile home. He is keen to continue studying after being released but does not garner any support from his relatives. An unfortunate event brings an unexpected opportunity for Vijay Anthony to pursue his studies.

Getting admission into a medical college through impersonation, Vijay Anthony’s supposed good fortune brings him more peril. Trying to lead a peaceful life and get on with his studies, Vijay Anthony is tested through many ways and the harder he tries to stay away from trouble the more his past comes chasing after him. One by one his mistakes turn into violent ends. Well acted, well scripted and well directed.

Naan Ee

You know Tamil cinema has come a long way when a CGI character takes the lead role in a movie. As you would have guessed from the title, this movie is led by a CGI generated housefly. Though the movie lightly plays with the long time used reincarnation genre, it takes a favorable twist when the main character in reincarnated as a housefly.

Even though the formula is something that we had seen before, Naan Ee is fresh with its use of CGI and also a screenplay that doesn’t give you a dull moment. Both Nani and Samantha have played their roles well even though Nani only features for a short while in the movie. Sudeep gave an outstanding performance especially his manic response when hunted by the housefly. And our favorite character in the movie is of course the loveable housefly “Nani”. Never did I expect that we will be cheering of a CGI generated fly while watching a Tamil movie.

Nanban

Well there is nothing much that needs to be said about Nanban. It is a remake of the critically and commercially acclaimed Bollywood movie, Three Idiots. Not wanting to spoil or tarnish the movie, Shankar chose to stay close to the original version and not making any major changes. The movie is exactly the same with the Hindi version with only minute changes and an addition of a song especially crafted for fans of Vijay and Ileana.

Surprisingly Vijay carried his character well as many expected him to give a dull or unworthy performance. Not only he carried his character well, but there was a certain sense of freshness and youthfulness that wasn’t seen in Aamir Khan’s character. The others did the character well. Jeeva was on par with Sharman Joshi. Sri Kanth falls a little short in comparison with Madhavan’s performance. Sathyaraj was equal to Boman Irani meanwhile Ileana had a certain cuteness that wasn’t possessed by Kereena Kapoor.

Overall, Three Idiots was a great movie and getting the chance to see it in Tamil just made it even better. It was a good opening for the year and was followed by good movies throughout the year.

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom was a low budget movie made by debutant director, Balaji Tharaneetharan with no big names in his small team. Nothing much was expected form this movie but once the preview screenings for critics were done, the movie garnered highly positive reviews. And the critics were not wrong; the movie opened to audiences and became an instant hit. Not only it was a hit, it became a comedy cult with huge following and has become a movie which will be talked about for many years to come.

The movie was based on a true incident which happened to the film’s cinematographer, Prem Kumar while he was working as an assistant cameraman in Vaaranam Aayiram. Prem Kumar had a small accident while he was playing cricket with his friends two days before his wedding which led him to suffer from short term memory loss where he forgot almost one year of his memory from the incidence. His three friends, including Balaji Tharaneetharan go through series of events to make sure his wedding goes as planned even though he is not even aware about the girl he is marrying. This incidence was the basis for Balaji to come up with this laughter filled movie.

Watch Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom and you will be laughing your hearts out. Watch it again and again; you will still be laughing your hearts out. Watch it after a few years, and trust me, you will still be laughing your hearts out.

Pizza

No one would have ever imagined that a horror movie would be in my top ten lists especially a movie with ghosts in it. Well those who know me would know that only certain ghost movie interests me. Movies like The Sixth Sense, The Others, Yaavarum Nalaam and few others had a different approach from normal main stream ghost movies which attracts me. Pizza was a movie like that.

Pizza is another movie from a debutant director, Karthik Subbaraj. 2012 was a great year for debutants and also for Vijay Sethupathi who has another film in this list. Pizza was a mixture which had everything right; story, screenplay, acting, cinematography, background score, sound effects and direction. Pizza is a thrilling story which keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie and is finished with an equally intelligent twist. Anyone who loves a horror movie will definitely love Pizza.

Thuppakki

The commercial movie of the year was definitely Thuppakki. AR Murugadoss was back after the success of 7aum Arivu. Thuppakki was the hit of the year and the most commercially successful film of the year. This time AR Murugadoss visited the life of military officers combined with the concept of “sleeper cells” which was new to some of the audiences. AR Murugadoss played the movie on a fine line, not making it too serious and realistic or making it into an out and out commercial movie. This proved to be the strength of Thuppakki.

Vijay once again delivered a good performance making it a great year for him as it was coupled with the success of Nanban too. The movie was fast paced and every scene made us anticipate Vijay’s next encounter with the terrorists even more. The minus point of the movie was Jeyaram’s unnecessary comedic role and the romance between Vijay and Kajal which was stretched too long bordering on boredom. Nevertheless these minus points were needed to make Thuppakki a complete commercial movie. If entertainment was what you are looking for, then Thuppakki is the movie for you.

Special mention needs to go to a few movies that did not make the list. Aarohanam was a movie about a woman with bipolar disorder who suffers because of her disease, her domestic problems and also the burden of raising her children. It was a different approach from “3” but carried a good story on its own and wonderful performance from the casts. Dhoni, Saattai and Marina all concentrated on our education system and children. They were three movies with different approaches outlining the importance of education and also the flaw in the system that runs it. Children and the education system have garnered increased attention in last year’s movies.

Sundara Pandian was a village story depicting romance and also the violence that follows in certain cases. It was a wholesome entertainment not going very much into the violence keeping it just nice for viewing. Thadayara Thaakka was the opposite of Sundarapandian. Not focusing too much on romance, this movie was a total action thriller movie but it kept to its realism and not going too out of hand. The action sequences were a big strength for the movie.

Vazhukku En 18/9 needs the most special mention as it received the National Award for the Best Feature Film Tamil and Best Make Up. Not to mention two Vijay Awards for Best Movie and Best Director. Balaji Sakthivel of Kaadhal fame received high critical acclaims for this movie. Why didn’t it make my Top Ten? The answer is simple. If you go through the watched movies list above, you can clearly see that I have not watched this movie yet and if I have, it is a high possibility that it would have made the Top Ten lists.

Well last year in overall I mentioned that the Tamil movie industry is going on the right path. The judgment still remains and I feel that the Tamil movie industry is growing towards greater heights. Hope that the industry stays on its course and gets better and better by the year.

Why No One Should Marry Me

A few months back, a good friend of mine called with a marriage proposition. It seems that he had a friend whose family is looking for a bridegroom. He suggested I get to know this girl and if everything works out fine, then we can proceed to marriage. In short he was fixing me up with a marriage alliance. I told him that my current plans do not include marriage for the next three years.

The phone call got me thinking, if I want to get married, what type of girl would I go for, what are the requirements? But these are not the questions that got me writing. All these questions brought me to another question. It’s quite a weird question but it popped into my mind never the less. “If I was a girl, would I marry me?”

I know the question sounds really out of place. But isn’t this the best way to determine whether I was fit for marriage. Well the answer wasn’t that shocking at all. It took me less than a minute to answer the question. The answer was “no”. But that was a relatively quick answer. So I took the time to weigh my good and bad qualities. After a few hours, the answer was still the same.

Maybe my approach was wrong. Maybe I’m not thinking correctly. Or maybe my mind was just at a blur. So I decided to write. No better way to come up with a judgment than putting it in words. So I’m going to make my argument here in writing and let’s see by the end of it whether the answer will change.

Of course I should begin with the good qualities before I move into the bad ones. It has been half an hour I’m still stuck here. It looks like writing something good about me is not that easy after all. For starters, I can argue that I am quite intelligent. I did get good results when I was in school and I was one of the students from an elite group who scored straight A1s during our SPM exams. I also went on to secure a JPA scholarship and finished my Medical Degree in Moscow. It sounds like an impressive resume. But the reality is far from it.

Even though my academic achievement seems amazing, I have nothing to show for it. I left my job as a doctor 2 months into practice and am now working as a Study Coordinator earning less than half from what I would have earned if I had continued. It’s not exactly a job that a wife would be proud to mention when she is introducing her husband. So careers wise, there is nothing good to say but the bad things are so many that I would still be writing until tomorrow.

An important aspect for marriage is finance. From getting into a relationship, the engagement, the wedding, managing the household till having children, the most important thing needed is money. Do I have any of it? I would not lie by saying I don’t have money. I do have money. Even though it is not much but it is more than what a lot of others have. But is it sufficient for everything that I listed above. No not at all. Whatever money I have now and will be earning later has been called for. With my house in desperate need of renovations, my sister still studying and also the future prospect of her getting married, I can’t even think of buying a car at the moment, let alone get married.

What about abilities? I am sure I have certain abilities that girls would find impressive and likeable. Starting from the basics, I can’t sing and I can’t dance. Nor can I swim or play any musical instruments. I am not good in any sports. I also fear heights, closed space and also the water making me unable to do almost 80% of the interesting activities out there. I am not street smart and I also don’t drive. My creativity and artistic ability is zero. I am also physically unfit; jogging, climbing the stairs or hiking, two minutes of it and I am panting. Physical attributes? I don’t want to even get started on my physical attributes. To put in easy words if I was rating my face and body on the scale of 100, then I would be a single digit.

I thought I was supposed to write good things. But the two major points that I have put forth so far has done the total opposite. Let’s just put career and finance aside at the moment. These are materialistic components. I should be looking at the essential component of a marriage institution, love. Personality is the most important aspect in relationship, not what the person does or how much he earns. Two person should love each other for who they are in the inside not the job or earnings they carry on the outside. So let’s take a look at my personality; the quality within me that would make me loveable and also worthy of marriage.

Once again I have hit a brick wall. I do not have any such qualities. I have no good qualities in me what so ever. I am very arrogant and egoistic person. I easily hurt others as I never consider their feelings when I talk. The worst part is I do not do it unknowingly. I would be aware of how hurtful I am being, yet I would not stop, nor would I feel bad about it; no remorse at all. I have very bad temper, especially towards people who are close to me. I lash out at them with no mercy; worse than a barking dog.

I am impossible to understand.  I expect people to act in a certain way and when they do, for some reason I would resent it making them do the exact opposite. Then I would spend the day hating them for not doing what I wanted. It sounds crazy but it’s the way I am. Even though I know it’s crazy I have no intention of changing at all. I never let out my feelings to anyone. I keep everything bottled inside and I am always on the verge of exploding any second making me easily irritable.

I also suffer from two serious disorders, inferiority complex and anxiety. Both disorders have kept me away from the society in general. I don’t go to any gatherings or celebrations. I do not keep in touch with friends. I do not have a social life at all. Each time I would think of breaking the boundaries, my disorders will engulf me and put me in my rightful place; all alone at the bottom of the pack. Who would want a husband that you would have to look down to? The very thought of me would probably make any girl disgusted.

Sometimes by means of miracle one or two people might start getting close to me. But it would not last long. As soon as happy moments start to blossom, my disorders would kick in. I would start noticing how far away we are in our social classes, how a less of a person I am and how I do not deserve this friendship at all. A man from the bottom of the pit should never dream of climbing out and smelling the roses above. That’s what my mind would to tell me and that’s what I would believe. So straight away I would push this new found friendship away and turn it into mere acquaintances. How would anyone be able to have a relationship with me when I am going to push them away each time they come close.

What about being religious? Well, religion and I are very far off. I respect everyone’s right of following a religion. But I myself don’t follow any religion. I argue a lot with everyone about unnecessary culture and tradition. I argue without stop and I wouldn’t stop until everyone admits I’m right. This type of stubborn attitude doesn’t only apply to religious argument. But I do this when I argue about almost anything. I still do it even when I know I am wrong. What an arrogant stubborn person. Well that’s me. Even though I know all this, do I consider changing? No.

Looks like hours of thinking and writing has concluded only one thing. Whether it’s the personality inside of me or the materialistic values outside of me, I am not a person who is worthy of marriage. To make it worse I don’t think I’m even a person worthy of love. Some people are destined to find their so called “soul mate” and live happily ever after. Meanwhile a small few are destined to have a lonely life. It seems I’m one of the later.

If I keep on pondering some more, I will end up writing a novel about how bad I am. So, time to assess. Yes, the answer remains unchanged. I wouldn’t marry me and I don’t think anyone else would too.