TAMIL CINEMA QUARTERLY REPORT 2012  - User Analysis

ASHWIN SUBRAMANIAM 

The first 3 months have seen some bright spots for Tamil film industry. Many films spoke about the importance of education, a few took a fresh look at romance, one documented slice of Tamil people's life and a 3-D film! So many different genres were explored during the first 3 months and the result was most of them worked, somewhat.

Films - Hits and Misses

Nanban which released on Pongal began the year on an upbeat note about choosing your dream and tirelessly working towards it. This remake of the cult classic 3 Idiots, was well-made and struck the right chord and is now coasting towards its 100th day. The other commercial film that partially impressed was Vettai which provided some good fun despite a not-so-good-plot!

Following Nanban, 2 other films Marina and Dhoni stressed the importance of education. While Marina spoke about the role of education in the lives of the boys who work in Marina beach, Dhoni had a deeper look into education. Surprisingly, all these 3 films worked with the audience with various levels of success at the box office.

Muppozhudum Un Karpanaigal, Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (KSY) and 3 focused on love and romance of which only KSY delivered displaying the 'Sodhappals in Love' at its best. The other two were just about okay with MUK losing out on its basic plot despite having good songs and cinematography. 3 released during the last weekend of the first quarter displayed adolescent love brilliantly, failed miserably in the second half with laborious scenes. Aravaan coming from the director Vasanthabalan failed to capitalize on its strengths even though the cast came up with stellar performances. Kazhugu was another film which had a good premise and disappointed with its screenplay in the second half.

Overall Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi has emerged out as a clean winner so far this year both from box office and critic perspective.

Hero

Vijay's Nanban was the only big hero film that released during the first quarter of the year. Jiiva and Srikanth  along with Vijay sparkled with their performances. Madhavan was not the usal charming Maddy we used to see in Vettai, but was still the star performer of the film. And Arya the other hero of the film acted in his usual style.

Siva Karthikeyan came up with a worthy debut in Marina, and was impressive with his one-liners despite having limited time to perform. Prakash Raj the actor-cum-director of Dhoni came up with yet another endearing performance and proved why he is a veteran.

Dhanush continued from where he left-off in Mayakkam Enna and 3 was just another feather in his crown. But the audience judgment was loud and clear that it is time he stops playing Psycho characters!

Siddharth made a terrific comeback as actor and producer through KSY and managed to win despite hands down both hearts and wallets even with competition around!

Aadhi, Krishna and Atharva who have been looking for the right break will have to wait some more time even though their commitments to the movies were evident. The weak storyline in Aravaan, Kazhugu and Muppozhudum Un Karpanaigal did not help them much. Among the three, Krishna appears to have established himself better.

Heroines

After many years of Tamil industry trying to woo the Telugu star, a lot was expected from Ileana in Nanban. However, she lacked the charisma Kareena Kapoor had in the original version. Ileana's performance was just about okay. Nevertheless, her belly song won rave reviews.

Amala Paul started strong with 3 films - Vettai, MUK, KSY of which KSY earned her a spot in Tamil Industry. Only complaint was if only she could've changed her weird hairdo in KSY!

Shruti Hassan's her cute expressions and shy smiles were worth a mention in 3. She needs some training in emotional scenes and also with her dubbing. Sameera Reddy had limited screen time to prove her acting skills in Vettai. She did her job well even though her voice sounds annoyingly screachy at places!

Oviya, Bindu Madhavi and Dhansika were given plum roles but of which only Oviya and Bindu came out with notable performances. Shika and Anuja Iyer had brilliant roles in Vinmeengal and both actresses made use of the opportunity. If there was one actress who thoroughly impressed despite given a cliched role and limited screen space, it would be Radhika Apte. Her great screen presence in Dhoni helped capture the audience attention.

Music

Even though Nanban songs reminds you of other compositions of Harris Jayaraj, it was still worth a listen. Ilayaraja made a comeback through Dhoni where his re-recording was the back-bone of the film. Yuvan did not impress much in Vettai which despite the much promoted Papparappa track had nothing to boast about. Yuvan's signature so far this year has been Kazhugu, which had a few good numbers. Debutants Girish and Jubin were brilliant with their awesome re-recording and songs in Marina and Vinmeengal, respectively!

Anirudh is the biggest find of 2012 who proved that he is not a one-hit wonder with the entire album becoming a chart buster and further impressed with his excellent re-recording. 

BEST FILM: Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi

BEST DIRECTOR: Balaji Mohan (KSY)

BEST ACTOR: Vijay (Nanban)

BEST ACTRESS: Radhika Apte (Dhoni)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jiiva (Nanban)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shika (Vinmeengal)

BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR: Harris (Nanban)/Anirudh(3) and Ilayaraja (Dhoni)(Background Score)

BEST LYRICIST: Karky (Aska Laska - Nanban)

BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER: Mohit Chauhan (Po Nee Po - 3)

BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER: Shreya Ghoshal (Vilayatta Padagotty - Dhoni)

BEST DEBUT: Siva Karthikeyan (Marina)

BEST COMEDIAN: Arjun and Vignesh (KSY)

BEST VILLAIN: Murali Sharma (Dhoni)

We will see how the 2nd quarter of this year unfolds with Billa-2 taking the spotlight already...