Best Tamil Actors - 2022
1. Kamal Haasan: A comeback in the true sense this year was actor Kamal Haasan's, who delivered a phenomenal hit with Vikram, which was his first film in the last 4 years and first blockbuster in the last 7. With little to almost no dialogues in the first half of the movie, Haasan, 68 is still pushing acting envelopes.
2. Vikram: An actor who made a silent but solid impact in 2022 is 'Chiyaan' Vikram. While the OTT release Mahaan was a full Vikram show, the actor generously let younglings like Dhruv Vikram and Sananth shine alongside him in the Karthik Subbaraj movie. Vikram's showcase of talent as the scorned lover in Ponniyin Selvan: I and his dual roles of a schizophrenic genius-assassin/computer hacker in Cobra were their usual excellent.
3. Silambarasan TR: With Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Silambarasan TR delivered an immersive performance taking us into the world of Muthu, created by director Gautham Menon. By the director's own admission the role would have best suited a new-face and STR was risking a bet with it; Nevertheless the actor came out with flying colours. The actor's short sting in the Hansika starrer Maha was also the most talked about aspect about that movie.
4. Dhanush: 2022 was quite a packed year for Dhanush and the actor first and foremost made a huge chunk of the Tamil audience watch an English movie on Netflix, just for his few-minute performance. The Gray Man also made up for Maaran's lukewarm OTT reception. Theatrical release-wise, Dhanush, 39, flawlessly passed for a youngster going through life in Thiruchitrambalam and made viewers sit up with his grey-shaded stint in Naane Varuvean. Truly some of his best performances overall.
5. Karthi: 2022 a high year for Karthi. In an ensemble movie like Ponniyin Selvan: Part I, Karthi ended up being the most liked by viewers. He was also the one who kept a commercial outing like Viruman afloat while his double stint in Sardar was quite enjoyable.
Best Tamil Entertainers - 2022
The scope of entertaining extends beyond just acting and In Tamil movies this year, these were the top 5 names, whose mere presence on screen warranted attention.
1. Vijay: Vijay is one actor who not only held but also upped his onscreen ground this year despite his movie's mixed outcome. His stylish avatar in Beast was a welcome change from Vijay's last few movies, and he played to the gallery by adding the cool factor to his action-hero character. He makes it to No: 1 on this list purely for his charisma that acted as a crowd-puller for Beast.
2. Pradeep Ranganathan: A surprise entry in this list this year is director Pradeep Ranganathan, who impressed the Tamil cine audience with his acting debut in Love Today. Relatability with the current generation audience was a major factor in Pradeep's writing, whereas his more than decent acting chops added to the appeal factor.
3. Dhanush: Not only did Dhanush took the step of writing his own film with Naane Varuvean, he also showcased a side many mainstream heroes would hesitate to even while playing a villainous role. Also for making a whole regional language audience tune into catch an all English movie, with a complete Hollywood cast, on a streaming platform - Dhanush is the glass-shattering entertainer of 2022!
4. Sivakarthikeyan: Its not news that the actor's presence in a movie appeals to viewers of all ages, and he used this to his favour as the relatable college student in Don. Even his character in Prince reflected the everyday struggle of a youngster, who wishes to settle in this ever divisive society.
5. SJ Suryah: Actor SJ Suryah played villain alongside Sivakarthikeyan's campus entertainer DON, and emerged as the most talked about actor next to the hero. His performance as the disciplinarian professor who is at loggerheads with the hero served as one of the main takeaways of the film.