#CelluloidCritic

Critic - No.169 Director:  Rajesh M Selva Casts:  Vikram, Abi Hassan, Akshara Hassan Language:  Tamil Genre:  Action / Thriller Music:  Ghibran SYNOPSIS: Vasu (Abi Hassan), a young medical trainee, after rescuing one of his patients from a murder attempt finds out that his pregnant wife, Aathirah (Akshara Hassan) is abducted, and the kidnappers demand the patient he saved in exchange for her release. REVIEW: It was an exciting news for Indian film buffs when two solid actors join hand for a project knowing that both of them guarantee quality projects with fine performance scope. Well,  Kadaram Kondan  does pay off a little with the trademark brand of Rajesh’s action set pieces married with Ghibran’s wall to wall background score. Similar to his debut film, Rajesh adapts yet another French thriller film,  À Bout Portant  (Point Black)  and gives more important to Vikram’s role that was minor in the original. As seen in the s...

Critic - No.168 Director: Kumaran Sundram, Abbas Akbar Writer: Jaya Rathakrishnan Casts: Puravalan, Ashwini, Guna, Indra, Arvind Naidu, Nisha Kumar, James Kumar, Malene, Thavanesan, Nishana, Sankari Language: Tamil Genre: Family Drama Episodes: 62 Music: Vicknesh Saravanan, Kala Charan SYNOPSIS: An ex-military officer father, a kind and supportive mother, three smart and capable daughters - Raagavan and his family seem to have it all - happiness, wealth and an unshakeable family bond. Secrets get revealed that threaten to break apart the family. REVIEW: You don’t see much TV series reviews in this blog but sometimes, some work you stumble upon will push you to talk or debate about it. One such work was ‘ Uyire ’ a 62 episode long form drama that reminded me of my favourite Singapore TV series, ‘ Nijangal 2 ’ that was aired 7 years ago. This spiritual similarities is not purely coincidental as both series were helmed by the same creative team. As suggested by the synopsi...

Critic - No.167 Director: Jordan Peele Casts: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker Language: English Genre: Horror / Thriller SYNOPSIS:  A family's holiday plan turns chaos when a group of doppelgängers begins to terrorize them. REVIEW: “We are Americans ” – the most terrifying line in the film that Jordan uses to reiterate his socio-political symbols in ' US' after an impressive debut with ‘ Get Out ’ that strikingly placed his argument on race and class. ‘ US ’ might not be as genre defying as ‘ Get Ou t’ but certainly throws more ideas on us. After the credits, the film opens up with young Adelaide enjoying the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with her parents in 1986. While her father is distracted, she wanders off and ends up in a house of mirrors. The power winks off, and she finds herself standing next to what looks like her own reflection or actually...that is the hook! The credit sequence that foll...

Critic - No.166 Director: Magizh Thirumeni Casts:  Arun Vijay, Vidya Pradeep, Tanya Hope, Yogi Babu, ‘FEFSI’ Vijayan Language: Tamil Genre: Crime / Thriller Music: Arun Raj SYNOPSIS: The murder of a young girl creates great confusion among the cops when they find out that the suspect found has a look-alike. REVIEW: Magizh Thirumeni has a good track record, be it his first breezy but low-key romantic flick, ‘ Mundhinam Paartheney ’, his breakthrough action flick, ‘ Thadayara Thaaka ’ or his latest thriller ‘ Megamaan’ . He has progressively established his strength for writing thrillers and ‘ Thadam’, for me is his best in structuring suspense. From the first romantic track with the lead, Magizh buys our attention with his unique staging of flirting. From early in the story, we are introduced about the look alike, Kavin and Ezhil. The suspense is then effectively built after a murder.  The investigation scenes are well crafted and I particularly liked...

Critic - No.165 Director: Karthik Subburaj Casts:  Rajinikanth, Vjay Sethupathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Simran, Trisha, Bobby Simha, Sanath, Mega Akash Language: Tamil Genre: Action / Drama Music: Anirudh SYNOPSIS: Kaali (Rajinikanth) joins a college as a hostel warden and sets things in order in his own playful way, from playing Cupid to a young couple (Megha Akash and Sanath), romancing the girl's mother (Simran) to putting the rowdy boys, headed by Michael (Bobby Simha) in their place. But there is more to him than meets the eye. REVIEW: Even though Rajini has been actively churning out movies in the past 2 to 3 years, one might miss the Superstar’s core style that is perceived to be his unique strength and the reason for dominating the industry for the past 40 years. But thanks to the die-hard fan turned director, Karthik Subburaj who fills the void by creating pure ‘mass’ film with Rajini’s style stamped over each frame. Karthik Subburaj, who is know...

Critic - No.164 Director:  Siva Casts:  Ajithkumar, Nayanthara, Anikha, Vivek, Jagupathi Language:  Tamil Genre:  Action / Drama Music:  D.Imman SYNOPSIS: Thookudurai (Ajith), a village ruffian, clashes with a big shot to protect his long separated family. REVIEW: After a dismal product like  Vivegam , many eyebrows were raised when director Siva signed Ajith for the fourth time. In my opinion, except, their first outing  Veeram  (2014), none of the others made a big emotional connection with the audience. However, after watching this film, we get a sense of how the team has applied all the lessons learned from their past fumbles. Siva is clearly more comfortable in rural subject and  Viswasam  oozes with that confidence right from the first frame where he opens with a series of Ariel shots of the village greenery. He takes a beaten to death story and has tried to treat it with energy from frame to frame. By focus sing...

In my opinion, 2018 was a healthier year than last year with increasing number of quality films that were delivered by young filmmakers who dared to explore with their content. We also saw experienced, proven filmmakers like Mani Ratnam, Shankar and A.R.Murgadoss churning out films from their hearts with the biggest actors of Kollywood. And here are my sincere thoughts on Kollywood 2018 as we wrap up the year. *Ranking are based on profits, critical acclaim and my overall opinions on the films 20) THAANA SERNTHA KOOTAM Consensus: Vignesh Sivan and Surya combo garnered lots of attention due to the former’s previous film, ‘Naanum Rowdy Thaan’ which elevated Vijay Sethupathi’s character. The film was entertaining and was a clear Pongal winner thrashing Sketch and Gulebagavali to emerge as a box office hit. The only problem I had with this film was the over use of commercial elements, especially the climax that diluted the original idea of Special 26. Nevertheless, ...