A honest reply to the question of which Tamil film had an extra-ordinary run at the box-office, raking in huge collections, in the just-conc...
A honest reply to the question of which Tamil film had an extra-ordinary run at the box-office, raking in huge collections, in the just-concluded year would be NOTHING. Surprising it might sound to many, but that’s the bitter truth! Except for the K.V. Anand-directed Suriya-Tamannaah starrer ‘Ayan’, no other film comes close to being labeled as a ‘superhit’ film.
The films declared hits and moderate hits include ‘Padikkadhavan’, ‘Yaavarum Nalam’, ‘Kandein Kadhalai’, ‘Aadhavan’, ‘Siva Manasula Sakthi’, ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’, ‘Pasanga’, ‘Nadodigal’, ‘Eeram’, ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ and ‘Renigunda’. The stark reality is that there wasn’t a single blockbuster movie that ran to packed houses for more than 100 days in the halls.
If one bothers to look beyond the realm of commercial success for films that made quite an impact in the minds of the viewers, then films like ‘Pasanga’ (directed by first-timer Pandiraj), ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’ (another first-timer Suseendhiran directed it), Priyadarshan’s award-winning ‘Kanjivaram’, director Bala’s ‘Naan Kadavul’ (a failure), ‘Achamundu Achamundu’ (moderate hit), ‘Eeram’ and ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ come to the mind. All these films had something ‘special’ in them other than the routine and cliched aspects we had seen in plenty of films for the past many years.
Ameer’s much-awaited and much-spoken-about ‘Yogi’, directed by ‘Thiruda Thirudi’ fame Subramania Siva, finally turned out to be an unabashed copy of South African film ‘Tsotsi’ and hence it can’t be taken into reckoning. It’s an altogether different issue that even the adaptation had many holes in it and contributed to the film’s failure.
Films like ‘Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru’, ‘Azhagarmalai’ and ‘Vedigundu Murugesan’ enjoyed a decent run at the box-office mainly due to the comedy factor in them.
‘Vannuthupoochi’, Aarya-Trisha’s ‘Sarvam’, ‘Kunguma Poovum Konju Puraavyum’, ‘Ananda Thandavam’, ‘Pattalam’, ‘Taxi No.4777’ and ‘Vaalmeeki’ are films which had lot of pre-release hype and expectations attached to them but failed to make any inroads at the cash-counters at the theatres.
A casual look at the list of films reveals the fact that profit-wise, 2009 was not one of the best years that Kollywood has had in recent times. The reason for the sadly-missing blockbuster movie is simple if one chooses to look deep into the matter. It’s not that people have grown wary of films or averse to going to halls, Only recently did the Hindi version of ‘Ghajini’ and the Telugu version of ‘Arundhati’ and ‘Avataar’ (English) raked in lots and lots of money, reinforcing the fact that audience won’t mind paying if the film is enjoyable. The logic can’t get simpler!
Vijay’s both the films in ‘Villu’ and ‘Vettaikkaran’ failed to create any waves at the box-office, putting a huge question mark over his reported claims that he is the ‘next super-star’ of Tamil films and .
Vishal’s downward march continued with the failure of his home production ‘Thoranai’, which comes close on the heels of last year’s debacle ‘Satyam’. Bharath was saved from the non-starter in ‘Arumugam’ by the good show of ‘Kandein Kaadhalai’.
The same audience, who had made Vijay and Vishal rise to their present status, had ‘rejected’ the last few films of these two stars. This could mean only one thing: the fans can’t be taken for granted. They expect some real and serious stuff from their stars, failing which they won’t hesitate to withdraw their patronage of the films of their favourite stars.
How can the audience digest in film after film the same old theme of the hero bashing up the baddies single handedly and taking the law into his hands to save the law itself ? How long would our filmmakers keep on showing the single punch from the fist of our hero making the gaint-sized villain perform several somersaults before hitting the ground at least fifty feet fromthe hero ? Ditto with the romantic sequences in many films. Haven’t we seen umpteen number of times cases where the heroine, full of beauty minus a semblance of brain, falling all overthe hero almost begging to get his attention?
The string of failures sends a clear message across that the public doesn’t like to see their heroes becoming super-heroes a la Spiderman or a Batman. It’s high time the directors thought of something different other than the usual run-of-the-mill stuff of hero challenging the villain in the latter’s den, bashing up scores of baddies and delivering ‘punch dialogues’ at odd places!
These filmmakers generally take refuge under the aegis of ‘public demand’ and ‘success at B & C centres’ to make films the way they had been making for many years now. If that’s the case, how did ‘Sankarabharanam’ (a musical story), ‘Moondraam Pirai’, ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Kadhal’, ‘Veyil’ and English films such as ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ have turned out to be money-grosses at all centres?
That the audience want a better treatment from the directors and script-writers is as clear as the Sun in the sky. Take a look at the hits of the year so far: ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’, ‘Pasanga’, ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ and ‘Nadodigal’, apart from their inherent flaws, didn’t depict any super-heroism on the part of the lead actors. These films dared to come out of the set formula and tried to depict the story as it is sans silly cinematic cliches.
Realism appears to have become the new trend on which Tamil films might have to travel in future. Such a trend would only be welcomed by movie-lovers and cine-goers for, the bottom-line of their rejection of many films, is their quest to seek realistic cinema. Even a commercial hero can be as casual as Suriya was depicted in ‘Ayan’ and also like Bharath’s character in ‘Kandein Kaadhalai’.
We earnestly hope the filmmakers recognize and respect the views of the audience, as they only make and break stars and directors!
The films declared hits and moderate hits include ‘Padikkadhavan’, ‘Yaavarum Nalam’, ‘Kandein Kadhalai’, ‘Aadhavan’, ‘Siva Manasula Sakthi’, ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’, ‘Pasanga’, ‘Nadodigal’, ‘Eeram’, ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ and ‘Renigunda’. The stark reality is that there wasn’t a single blockbuster movie that ran to packed houses for more than 100 days in the halls.
If one bothers to look beyond the realm of commercial success for films that made quite an impact in the minds of the viewers, then films like ‘Pasanga’ (directed by first-timer Pandiraj), ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’ (another first-timer Suseendhiran directed it), Priyadarshan’s award-winning ‘Kanjivaram’, director Bala’s ‘Naan Kadavul’ (a failure), ‘Achamundu Achamundu’ (moderate hit), ‘Eeram’ and ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ come to the mind. All these films had something ‘special’ in them other than the routine and cliched aspects we had seen in plenty of films for the past many years.
Ameer’s much-awaited and much-spoken-about ‘Yogi’, directed by ‘Thiruda Thirudi’ fame Subramania Siva, finally turned out to be an unabashed copy of South African film ‘Tsotsi’ and hence it can’t be taken into reckoning. It’s an altogether different issue that even the adaptation had many holes in it and contributed to the film’s failure.
Films like ‘Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru’, ‘Azhagarmalai’ and ‘Vedigundu Murugesan’ enjoyed a decent run at the box-office mainly due to the comedy factor in them.
‘Vannuthupoochi’, Aarya-Trisha’s ‘Sarvam’, ‘Kunguma Poovum Konju Puraavyum’, ‘Ananda Thandavam’, ‘Pattalam’, ‘Taxi No.4777’ and ‘Vaalmeeki’ are films which had lot of pre-release hype and expectations attached to them but failed to make any inroads at the cash-counters at the theatres.
A casual look at the list of films reveals the fact that profit-wise, 2009 was not one of the best years that Kollywood has had in recent times. The reason for the sadly-missing blockbuster movie is simple if one chooses to look deep into the matter. It’s not that people have grown wary of films or averse to going to halls, Only recently did the Hindi version of ‘Ghajini’ and the Telugu version of ‘Arundhati’ and ‘Avataar’ (English) raked in lots and lots of money, reinforcing the fact that audience won’t mind paying if the film is enjoyable. The logic can’t get simpler!
Vijay’s both the films in ‘Villu’ and ‘Vettaikkaran’ failed to create any waves at the box-office, putting a huge question mark over his reported claims that he is the ‘next super-star’ of Tamil films and .
Vishal’s downward march continued with the failure of his home production ‘Thoranai’, which comes close on the heels of last year’s debacle ‘Satyam’. Bharath was saved from the non-starter in ‘Arumugam’ by the good show of ‘Kandein Kaadhalai’.
The same audience, who had made Vijay and Vishal rise to their present status, had ‘rejected’ the last few films of these two stars. This could mean only one thing: the fans can’t be taken for granted. They expect some real and serious stuff from their stars, failing which they won’t hesitate to withdraw their patronage of the films of their favourite stars.
How can the audience digest in film after film the same old theme of the hero bashing up the baddies single handedly and taking the law into his hands to save the law itself ? How long would our filmmakers keep on showing the single punch from the fist of our hero making the gaint-sized villain perform several somersaults before hitting the ground at least fifty feet fromthe hero ? Ditto with the romantic sequences in many films. Haven’t we seen umpteen number of times cases where the heroine, full of beauty minus a semblance of brain, falling all overthe hero almost begging to get his attention?
The string of failures sends a clear message across that the public doesn’t like to see their heroes becoming super-heroes a la Spiderman or a Batman. It’s high time the directors thought of something different other than the usual run-of-the-mill stuff of hero challenging the villain in the latter’s den, bashing up scores of baddies and delivering ‘punch dialogues’ at odd places!
These filmmakers generally take refuge under the aegis of ‘public demand’ and ‘success at B & C centres’ to make films the way they had been making for many years now. If that’s the case, how did ‘Sankarabharanam’ (a musical story), ‘Moondraam Pirai’, ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Kadhal’, ‘Veyil’ and English films such as ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ have turned out to be money-grosses at all centres?
That the audience want a better treatment from the directors and script-writers is as clear as the Sun in the sky. Take a look at the hits of the year so far: ‘Vennila Kabadikuzhu’, ‘Pasanga’, ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’ and ‘Nadodigal’, apart from their inherent flaws, didn’t depict any super-heroism on the part of the lead actors. These films dared to come out of the set formula and tried to depict the story as it is sans silly cinematic cliches.
Realism appears to have become the new trend on which Tamil films might have to travel in future. Such a trend would only be welcomed by movie-lovers and cine-goers for, the bottom-line of their rejection of many films, is their quest to seek realistic cinema. Even a commercial hero can be as casual as Suriya was depicted in ‘Ayan’ and also like Bharath’s character in ‘Kandein Kaadhalai’.
We earnestly hope the filmmakers recognize and respect the views of the audience, as they only make and break stars and directors!
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