Is 'Crime Thriller' the go-to genre in Tamil Cinema right now?

From mid 1990s to late 2000s, comedy entertainers were considered as safe bets in Tamil Cinema and even leading heroes followed the trend and churned out many blockbusters. Likewise, this decade has seen more films in the horror comedy genre than in any other genre so far. Until last year, many filmmakers wanted to take the horror comedy route since that genre was tasting success at the box office more often than not.

While Raghava Lawrence and Sundar C were largely successful with their Muni and Aranmanai franchises, the genre did not give the desired results for A-list actors like Suriya and Karthi. As the filmmakers continue to realize that a genre alone can't guarantee success, the number of horror comedy films releasing have come down.

Similarly, we could also see the recently raved-about movies -- Metro, Uriyadi, Dhuruvangal 16, Kuttram 23 and Maanagaram all fall under the genre of crime thriller. However, the movies might have been in production simultaneously since all of them released only a few months apart. Interestingly, most of these films were directed by debutants. Particularly, Karthick Naren's Dhuruvangal 16 is considered as a neo-noir classic, a genre which is quite famous in Hollywood. With debutants boldly making such intense and focused crime thrillers without any commercial compromises, will mainstream directors and actors also go for this genre?

While speaking with us, National award-winning writer, Producer and Founder of BOFTA, Dhananjayan said

"Yes, the thriller genre is working of late especially with the success of films like Dhuruvangal 16, Kuttram 23 and Maanagaram. But, it is a coincidence that they released one after another. Actually, Kuttram 23 was to release prior to Dhuruvangal 16 and Maanagaram was ready long ago. Dhuruvangal 16 was ready in July 2016 itself and could get the release only in December 2016."

 

Irrespective of when they released, well-made thrillers have always been successful, both critically as well as commercially. Echoing on our thoughts, Dhananjayan added

"One cannot take away the fact that Thriller as a genre always creates good curiosity among audience if made well, especially edge of the seat thrillers. Let us hope the films listed coming in future, match up to these films' quality as if their success depends purely on the quality of the film."

 

Nayanthara's Kolaiyudhirkalam, Trisha's Garjanai (Remake of NH10) and Vijay Sethupathy's Puriyatha Puthir are some of the upcoming thrillers which we can look forward to this year.