Pudhupettai

Story of how a scrawny man, Kokki Kumar (Dhanush) becomes an underworld don and a pawn in the hands of politicians. Charting his rise from a young boy to a Scarface like figure, the film throws in dollops of violence and dappan koothu. The noise level rises to a crescendo and stays there and as body count goes up, all you want to do is escape to a quiet bar and meditate over a beer.

Rating: * +

Naan Kadavul

Abandoned by his father in Varanasi when in his teens on the sayings of astrologers, Rudra now roams the Earth as an Aghori. Fueled by guilt, the father brings his reticent and brutal son back to his town in Tamil Nadu. The same town has a “thriving” beggar community that haunt the foothills of a temple. Their suffering is shown in excruciating detail that leaves very little to the imagination. The film is sandwiched between the lives of beggars and the way of the Aghoras. The spread between the two is blood that gushes with brute force. Bala has played his usual hand, questioning God, justice, life and death. However the manner of posing the question does leave you worn out in spite of the “uplifting” ending.

Rating: * *

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa

Pitbull of "I know you want me" fame is coming to town and strangely enough Gautham Menon's latest film seemed like a preview to the show. It starts with a tamil boy falling in love with his neighbour who happens to be a christian mallu girl - he knows he wants her and makes it clear that he knows she wants him. She knows she wants him, but cannot have him. The boy cannot understand such complications. Phew, used "4x" fwd button judiciously and got rid of Pitbull.

Rating: *

                              

Anjathe

Satya is the colony rowdy while his neighbor and friend, Kiruba is the studious one sure to crack the IPS exam. But the Indian bribery service finds Satya donning the police uniform and Kiruba wandering the streets of crime. As the friends find themselves on either side of the law. As they careen towards a confrontation, a very run of the mill and predictable story unfolds...

Rating: * +

Kanchivaram

The colors that occupy the screen are muted except for the colors of the Kanchivaram silk saris being woven. The lives of the weavers too reflect this. The only bright spot in their poverty filled existence are the strings of silk that they transform in to a phantasmagoria of art called the pattu pudavai. At the mercy of dastardly overlords, the coming of communism to India gives them a semblance of hope. Set during the brink of Indian independence, weaver Vengadam (Prakash Raj) and his family is the vehicle that Priyadarshan uses to show the plight of this now diminishing tribe of artisans. Cinematography that reminded me of Chris Doyle and the direction of a Priyadarshan of old makes this a rare film in the arena of Tamil cinema.

Rating: * * *

Subramaniapuram

If you ever wanted a look at mafia in small town India, this movie will provide you with that window. Set in Madurai during the early 80s, the film centers around Azaghar (Jai), Paraman (Sasikumar), Kaasi (Ganja Karuppu), Dopa and Dumka. They hang around street corners, drinking, picking random fights and usually landing up in jail. But what was just a bit of fun turns dark as the friends are used for nefarious purposes by local politicians. Enacted by new comers, the film is presented very naturally without the nauseating Tamil melodrama. The end result is savage but with a tendril of humanity running through it.

Rating: * * *

Pokkiri

Tamizh (Vijay) is a small time rowdy who does anything for anyone as long as the price is right. Shruthi (Asin) is an innocent girl who falls for him in spite of all his "bad" qualities. Throw in a few "item" numbers and some horrible comedy from Vadivelu and you should have a down right unwatchable flick. But if watched in a mob with those chosen bits fast forwarded, Vijay a.k.a Chinna Dalapathi (small Rajini) converts it in to a time pass movie. BTW, this was directed by our Indian MJ, Prabhu Deva!

Rating: * +

Unnaipol Oruvan

A film is almost a scene by scene remake of A Wednesday, except for Kamal Hassan playing Naseeruddin Shah's role with loads of over acting. But Mohan Lal reprising Anupam Kher's part makes the film emminetly watchable. Lal ettan has shown that he still has it in him!

Rating: * * +

Kandasamy

Kandasamy (Vikram) is a CBI officer who moonlights as a "superhero" who dresses up like a cock. The film seems to be result of the influence of The Dark Knight on Susi Ganesan who has no business making movies.

Rating: +

Thavamai Thavamirundhu

A family oriented film that paints with a broad brush the life of a simple man, Muthaiah (Raj Kiran), who supports his family by running a small printing press. All he cares for is that his children, Ramanathan (Senthil) and Ramalingam (Cheran), gets the opportunities he never even sniffed. But like all families go the happiness is interspersed with fall outs and misery. A film by Cheran that focuses on the importance of family in an almost throwback Visu like fashion but with a tad more class. But he needs to take a page out of Yasujiro Ozu and understand that family dramas can be understated by yet powerful. It needn't be overly long, saturated with melodrama and gut wrenching misery.

Rating: * *

Paruthiveeran

Paruthiveeran's (Karthik Sivakumar) only ambition in life is to visit the Madras jail after a lifetime of wandering around village prisons with his doting uncle, Chevvazhai (Saravanan). His childhood sweetheart Muththazhagu (Priyamani) has other plans for him as she doggedly pursues him. A simple village tale set in the outskirts of Madurai, that shines as a love story hiding behind a well written script. Excellent acting by the debutants all around and it sure looks like Karthik has come a long way from Crescent Engineering College.

Rating: * * +

Bheema

Small time crook Chinna (Prakash Raj) finds his fortunes rising against his arch rival, Periyavar (Raghuvaran) when Shekar (Vikram) magically joins his gang. Sprinkled with many sightings of the very hot Trisha, who inexplicably falls in love with Chinna , this gangster flick too tries to show that violence only begets more violence.

Rating: * +

Oram Po

After being jostled about in autos in almost every metro in India it is evident that the driving skills of the auto-drivers in Madras are a touch about the rest. This film proceeds to highlight that very fact. Chandru (Arya) is a footloose and fancy auto-wallah with some serious skillz. His heart soon starts to beat in rhythm with that of Rani (Pooja - Warning: sultry and dusky hotness ahead). Throw in a money thirsty Seth, some missing precious stones, couple of feuding auto mechanics, a few crazy races and you have a flick that will leave you in splits.

Filled with Madras Tamil slang, the folks who grew up in Madras will enjoy it a tad bit more. The highlight of the film though is "evil" mechanic Son of Gun played with great aplomb by John Vijay. But even more sweeter is the fact that the film is directed by "our own" Pushkar and Gayatri with a panache that is missing from Tollywood.

Rating: * * +

Unnale Unnale

What a waste.. despite being a 'realistic' love movie.

Rating: *

Thiruvilayadal Arambam

As expected, lots of histronics, over 90 mins of it, before the story begins. After you have mentally erased all of it, one can attempt to enjoy this rather fun movie. Or should I say, larger-than-life, wholesome-entertainment of a movie. Realised that the lead star is the son-in-law of Sir Rajni. Hmm.. there is potential there. Nonetheless, the bugger reminds me of an old friend.

Rating : * *

Veyyil

Murugesan (Pasupathy) is not an evil man but life dealt him a bad hand. As a teenager he runs away from home forsaking his younger brother (Bharath) and family. He tries to live his life but life chips away at him slowly.

Rating: * *

Mozhi

Karthik (Prithviraj) falls in love with the deaf and dumb Archana (Jyothika). What unfolds is a 2 and half hours of cloyingly sweet melodrama. This apparently was Jyothika's last chance to act thanks to her upcoming marriage and she fails miserably. It would have been a total wash out if not for the wit and timing of Prakash Raj.

Rating: * +

Vettaiyadu Vellaiyadu

Decided to watch a tamizh movie in a theatre after a long time - primarily because of the hype. The movie was quite sober compared to other Indian mainstream cinema, which ensured I stayed till the end. However, the doyen of Tamil movie is looking as heavy and bloated as his ageing contemporaries in Malayalam/ Hindi cinema.

Its a murder mystery; and well made. Over an hour of the movie is shot in New York - and for once, the white men in the movie, speak english as they normally would.

The best was certainly reserved for the climax. For better part of the movie the Hero DCP Raghavan has been trying in vain to nab the serial killers, despite the whole nation being on alert. And just when he is about to give up, he discovers the "breaking point" of the villans. He thunders on the phone, "I KNOW, YOU are HOMOSEXUALSSSS......". The villan collapes and breaks down.

Another 3.25 hours long movie.

Rating: * *

Boys

Thought it would be an orey funny movie, but it was - FUCKALL. Go watch it.

Rating: *