Best Movies of 2010 - Tamil

Here's me trying to compile a list of the best films of 2010. And as always, the list is out of the films I've seen and a combination of mass hits, critical favourites and my own personal favourites. And yes, I've missed out of quite a few great films which came out in 2010, but sadly didnt release in Kerala and Pune like Mynaa, Vamsam, Naanayam, Porkkalam, Nandalala & Easan. So those movies wouldnt feature in this list. Please forgive me for that. I shall re-edit the list as soon as I see them. 

10. Thamizh Padam & Goa

Directors - CS Amudhan (TP) & Venkat Prabhu (Goa)

Producers - Dhayanidhi Alagiri (TP) & Soundarya Rajnikanth (Goa)

Cast - Shiva, Disha Pandey, Paravai Muniyamma, Manobala, MS Bhaskar, Vinniradai Moorthy (TP) 
& Jai, Vaibhav, Premgi, Arvindh, Sampath, Sneha, Piaa, Melanie Mary (Goa)

Writers - CS Amudhan, Chandru (TP) & Venkat Prabhu (Goa)

Both these rip-roaringly hilarious movies released on the same day. While Thamizh Padam was an out and out spoof, a first in Tamil Cinema, Goa mixed spoof with fun and madness in Venkat Prabhu style. Thamizh Padam mocked every single stereotype and cliche existing in Tamil films and also some of Tamil Cinema's biggest hits and superstars. But it was all done in good humour and hence, it didnt face any sort of trouble from fans of any actor. It was perhaps for the first time that an out and out spoof movie was attempted in Indian Cinema. Ad filmmaker CS Amudhan did a fab job by constructing a film around scenes and situations from various other films. To say Shiva was hilarious, is an understatement. The rest of the cast were also first rate, including Disha Pandey who represented the dumb North Indian imports in Tamil films. Goa, on the other hand was pure, awesome fun. There was nothing even remotely close to a story, but as long as we are having fun, nobody has complaints. A guy movie in every sense of the word, Goa is considered the desi alternative for the hilarious 'The Hangover'. Jai, Vaibhav, Sneha, Arvindh , Piaa and Melani were great, but it was Premgi and Sampath who stole the show. Sampath who's known only for his villain roles was a complete revelation in a gay character. Yuvan's background score, Shakti Saravanan's camera also added colour to the fun. Thamizh Padam did well but Goa didnt do as well as expected. But still they both equally deserve a spot among the best films of 2010 with their entertainment quotient alone. 

9. Kalavani

Director - A Sarkunam

Producer - Nazir

Cast - Vimal, Oviya, Saranya, Ganja Karuppu, Ilavarasu

Writer - A Sarkunam

A film which came from nowhere and won everyone's hearts, Kalavani was a delightful village romantic comedy with its heart in the right place. The performances were wonderful, especially that of the arrogant and clever Vimal (who earlier impressed us in Pasanga) and the newcomer Oviya. Saranya reprised her caring mom role, but with much more fun this time around and Ilavarasu played a helpless father. The simple story, told effectively through a lot of humour worked very well making the movie a great success. It got released right after the biggie, and yet managed to stand up against it with its entertaining content. 

8. Naan Mahaan Alla

Director - Suseenthiran

Producers - KE Gnanavel Raja, SR Prakash Babu, SR Prabhu

Cast - Karthi, Kajal Agarwal, Jayaprakash, Soori, Vinoth

Writer - Suseenthiran, Bhaskar Sakthi

Karthi is slowly and steadily growing into a superstar. He's becoming so big that even his elder brother Suriya, who is much much senior than him, is considering him a threat now. He started the year with the disappointing Aayirathil Oruvan, but had a blockbuster called Paiyaa after that, and he cemented his position with Naan Mahaan Alla. Directed by Suseenthiran who impressed everyone with his debut Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu, this movie starts out as a cute and lovely romantic comedy and progresses into a grim revenge story. Tamil Cinema got a new and revamped Kajal Agarwal who is adorable. Jayaprakash as the father was great and the 4 young villains were terrifying. (One of them was my junior from college - Vinoth.) Great music from Yuvan, fantastic camerawork from Madhi and some great stunts made this movie technically perfect. 

(Click here for review)

7. Raavanan

Director - Mani Ratnam

Producers - Mani Ratnam, Sharda Trilok

Cast - Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prithviraj, Prabhu, Karthik, Priyamani, Munna, John Vijay

Writers - Mani Ratnam, Suhasini Mani Ratnam

Okay, it didnt live up to expectations, but still Raavanan was a great watch. A modern day adaptation of the mythological epic Ramayana, Raavanan had a faulty screenplay from India's most respected director Mani Ratnam who is expected to be flawless in each film of his. BUT, Vikram saves the film from being a complete disappointment with an extraordinary performance that can be delivered only by him. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan looked old in some parts and beautiful in some parts. Prithviraj remained under control and impressed in his role with negative shades. The rest of the supporting cast like Prabhu, Karthik, Priyamani and John Vijay also gave great performances. The film had great, experimental music by AR Rahman. But the movie belonged to its cinematographers Santosh Sivan and V Manikandan. It was visual ecstasy to say the least. Each frame looked stunning in the film, and the effort and pain that went into every single shot was visible in the movie. The climax fight sequence by Sham Kaushal was one of the best we've seen in Indian Cinema. But still, the faulty screenplay and the great expectations did much damage to the film and it couldnt create magic at the box office.  But it was much better than the disastrous Hindi version of the movie with an embarassingly bad performance by Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role. 

(Click here for review)

6. Madharasappattinam

Director - AL Vijay

Producer - Kalpathi S Agoram

Cast - Arya, Amy Jackson, Cochin Haneefa, Nasser, MS Bhaskar, Alex O Nell

Writer - AL Vijay

Period films are a rarity in Tamil, and period love stories are even rarer. Madharasappattinam narrated a love story set in the Madras of 1940s between a poor dhobi and a rich Englishwoman. In spite of being heavily inspired by Titanic, Lagaan & Kisna, Madharasappattinam had a very interesting and believable narrative. Arya gave one of his best performances and the ethereally beautiful Amy Jackson was absolutely brilliant. GV Prakash's wonderful music complemented the romance very well. The cinematography by Nirav Shah and art direction by Selvakumar were stunning to say the least. The audiences enjoyed the trip back to the yesteryear Madras where even the koovam was spotlessly clean. The film also had a great performance from Malayalam actor Cochin Haneefa who passed away earlier this year. The movie had a long run and turned into a hit making Arya a bankable star. 

(Click here for review)

5. Boss Engira Bhaskaran

Director - M Rajesh

Producer - KS Sreenivasan

Cast - Arya, Santhanam, Nayanthara, Monisha, Panchu Subbu, Rajendran, Vijayalakshmi & Jeeva

Writer - M Rajesh

The second biggest hit of 2010, Boss Engira Bhaskaran was an irresistibly funny comedy with the comedian Santhanam playing a role as important as its leading man Arya. The unbelievable camaraderie between the two resulted in rip-roaringly hilarious scenes throughout the movie. The director treated the entire movie with certain tongue-in-cheek attitude, till the very end of the movie which involved a great cameo by Jeeva. Nayanthara looked beautiful and did her part well. The rest of the supporting cast was also very effective. It released 2 weeks before the Enthiran phenonmenon and stood up against it strongly as well. Rajesh has become a director in demand after this movie. Yuvan's music also added value to the proceedings. And there wont be a single soul who wouldnt have used the phrase - 'Nanbenda!' after seeing the movie. ;)

4. Man Madan Ambu

Director - KS Ravikumar

Producer - Udhayanidhi Stalin

Cast - Kamal Haasan, Trisha, R Madhavan, Sangeetha, Mohan Das, Manju Kurup, Ramesh Arvind, Urvashi, Usha Uthup, Caroline, Oviya & Suriya

Writer - Kamal Haasan

Man Madan Ambu released at the fag end of 2010 and proved to be one wholesome entertainer. An unusual offering from the Kamal Haasan - KS Ravikumar team, Man Madan Ambu had brilliant performances, a very good screenplay, great dialogues, catchy music, stunning visuals and beautiful locations. Madhavan's drunk act, Trisha's tamil dialogues, Sangeetha's comedy and Kamal's performance on the whole was brilliant. The visualization of the Neela Vaanam song was another highlight in the movie. Kamal Haasan's writing and KS Ravikumar's execution made sure that the movie was entertaining as well as intelligent. Devi Sri Prasad & Manush Nandan deserve special mention for their music and cinematography. The romantic comedy released just a week back and is running successfully all over right now. 

(Click here for review)

3. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya

Director - Gautham Vasudev Menon

Producers - Madhan, Ganesh, Elred Kumar, Jayaraman

Cast - Silambarasan, Trisha, Ganesh, Kitty, KS Ravikumar, Samantha, Babu Antony

Writer - Gautham Vasudev Menon

Very few people can tackle romance effectively in Tamil cinema. One is Mani Ratnam & the other is Gautham Vasudev Menon. In this Tamil Hindu boy meets Malayali Christian girl love story, Menon decided to follow the characters and the dynamics in their relationships, which gave us very interesting conflicts between two people who are madly in love. Each stage of the romance was portrayed beautifully and the ending came as a shocker to us who are used to fairy tale endings for all mushy love stories. The most important thing VTV did was to rejuvenate Simbu. The guy had talent, but was clueless on how to use it and ended up making a fool out of himself in film after film until he came to Gautham Menon's hands. As Karthik in VTV, Simbu gives a subtle, yet powerful performance, which is certainly one of the year's best. Trisha also showed us that she can act, if used well. She looked gorgeous in those cotton saris and Chinmayi's dubbing for her was perfect. Her Jessie will remain forever in our hearts. AR Rahman gave one of his best soundtracks in recent times and Aaromale became some sort of an anthem. Manoj Paramahamsa's cinematography & Anthony's editing too the movie to new heights. Very rarely do such great romantic movies get made. 

2. Angadi Theru

Director - Vasanthabalan

Producers - K Karunamoorthy, C Arun Pandian

Cast - Mahesh, Anjali, A Venkatesh, Pandi

Writers - Vasanthabalan, Jeyamohan

In between all the biggies of 2010, one film which told the story of young boys and girls working in a huge shopping mall in the busy Ranganathan street in Chennai came and won both accolades and commercial success. Angadi Theru was the second film of Shankar's protege Vasanthabalan, after the highly acclaimed Veyil and he proved that he is certainly a director to look out for. The slice of life narrative, realistic writing, brilliant performances & soulful music made Angadi Theru one of the best movies to be made in the decade. Anjali came up with a bravura performance which made everyone sit up and take notice of the actress in her. Newcomer Mahesh also played his part very well. GV Prakash's 'Un Perai Sollumbothu' and Vijay Antony's 'Aval Appadi Ondrum Azhagillai' became huge hits. The movie won universal critical acclaim and had a 100 day run in most of the theaters it was screened in. 

1. Enthiran

Director - Shankar

Producer - Kalanithi Maran

Cast - Superstar Rajnikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam, Karunas, Kalabhavan Mani, Cochin Haneefa

Writers - Shankar, Sujatha, Madhan Karky

Well, there is nothing more to be said than what has already been said about this film. Shankar, Sun Pictures, Superstar Rajnikanth, AR Rahman, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Resul Pookutty, Vairamuthu, Sabu Cyril, Rathnavelu & Peter Hein created an iconic film which will be remembered not just as India's premium science fiction film, but as a sci-fi film which is also a supremely entertaining Rajnikanth film. The world watched the phenomenon called Superstar Rajnikanth in awe. The movie broke every record and is considered one of the highest grossers in the history of Indian Cinema. While Bollywood filmmakers still struggle with the idea of using special effects in their film, Enthiran went miles and leaps ahead and redefined the use of visual effects in Indian Cinema. The 180 Crore film deserves to be on the top of each and every year ending list, by just taking into account the mammoth effort that each and every member of the cast and crew put in for the movie. And while his movie is minting money across the globe, our man goes for a peaceful meditation at the Himalayas dressed in a simple vetti & sattai. Thats Thalaivar for you!! 

(Click here for the review)

As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I'm feeling sad that  I missed out on a whole lot of great movies including Mynaa and Nandalala. Hope I'll be able to catch them soon. 

Endhiran - The Robot

Movie - Endhiran - The Robot (Tamil) 

Director - Shankar

Producer - Kalanithi Maran

Cast - Superstar Rajnikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa

Music - AR Rahman

Cinematography - Rathnavelu

Production Design - Sabu Cyril

Editing - Anthony

Sound Design - Resul Pookutty

Action - Peter Hein

SFX - Stan Winston Studios

Story, Screenplay - Shankar

Dialogues - Sujatha, Shankar, Karky

Release Date - 1st October 2010

A Rajnikanth movie without his spectacular entry, without a self-celebratory introduction song, without punch dialogues and without any of the usual trappings of Rajnikanth movie. Such an instance has never happened for more than 25 years now. This is just one of the impossible things that Shankar achieves through his magnum opus called Endhiran – The Robot. Conceived by him around 10 years back, Shankar went through a lot of hurdles to get this man v/s machine dream project on floors. After the tremendous success of Sivaji – The Boss, Shankar decided to team up with Rajnikanth once again for his most ambitious project  and soon he had Kalanithi Maran and Sun Pictures backing him up with a budget of over Rs.160 crores. And after being in production for around 3 years, Endhiran has finally released sending the millions of fans of Rajnikanth into a frenzy. 

Dr.Vaseegaran (Rajnikanth), after 10 years of hard work, creates an android Chitti (Rajnikanth again - Speed 1 Terabyte, Memory 1 Zeta byte) whom he wishes to use as a replacement to soldiers in the Indian Army. But the committee headed by Dr.Bohra (Danny Denzongpa), Vasi's mentor denies approval to the robot stating that it does not have human emotions and feelings and thus it can be misused by anyone quite easily. Vasi feels dejected by this and sets upon an extremely difficult task of instilling human emotions in Chitti. But when he finally succeeds in that enormous task, things go out of control. Chitti falls in love with Sana (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), Vasi's long-time girlfriend, thus creating a love triangle between the three. Sana rejects Chitti's proposal and this develops into a grand man versus machine spectacle.

It requires a man of amazing vision and imagination to even think that such a script can be pulled off in our country. There are ample moments in Endhiran which makes you want to say hats off to the vision of its director Shankar and his amazing technical crew. And unlike any other sci-fi/superhero film made in India (particularly in Hindi), this film actually has a plot, a wonderful one at that. Even though the film is about advanced robotics and science, Shankar narrates it in such a way that each and every one watching the film would understand every bit of what is going on in the movie. The late writer Sujatha's contribution to the screenplay is very evident in the way such complex themes are brought out with utmost simplicity. Dialogues by Shankar, Sujatha and Karky are simple, yet powerful. It's a movie for the masses, the classes and for all age groups from 6 to 60 and above. Perhaps one of the most entertaining movies ever made in the country, Endhiran is sure to break all collection records (if it hasn't already) in the weeks to come. 

Superstar Rajnikanth is deadlier than ever, playing three different roles with equal flourish. He plays the non-violent Dr.Vasi with a certain sophisticated dignity, Chitti with an irresistibly lovable charm and Chitti- Upgraded Version 2.0 as the devil incarnate. Rajnikanth looks 20 years younger and it is hard to imagine any other actor playing any of the three roles in this movie. He plays hero, comedian, dancer, fighter, savior and evil, all in the same movie and is nothing short of a treat to watch. Devoid of any of his usual gimmicks and style statements, he still manages to mesmerize his fans. And the final 30 minutes of the movie reminds us of the Rajni of the early 80s, and these portions have to be seen to be believed. The acting caliber of Rajnikanth has been utilized after a long long time. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan looks stunning for most portions of the film. Even though she plays arm-candy for all the Rajnis, she has a striking presence throughout the movie. She looks absolutely gorgeous in the songs and gives a decent performance as well. Danny Denzongpa gives an elegant performance as the evil Dr.Bohra and is a welcome relief from the usual Tamil villains. (The only issue is the out-of-sync dubbing done for him). Santhanam and Karunas are merely there and are not able to match up to Rajnikanth's impeccable comic timing. Malayalam actors Kalabhavan Mani and the late Cochin Haneefa come in one-scene cameos.

Each and every technical aspect of this film is top-notch. Be it the cinematography, production design, make-up, costumes, action, editing or special effects - each department is handled by the bests of the Indian and International film industries. Rathnavelu captures the movie in all its magnanimity and his work really comes into its own during the song sequences like 'Kaadhal Anukkal' and 'Kilimanjaro'. Sabu Cyril deserves nothing short of a National Award for his highly imaginative and futuristic production design and art works. Anthony could have used his scissors a little more in the second half, but still has done a tremendous job. Resul Pookkutty's sound design proves that he is capable of winning more Academy Awards. Action by Yuen Voo Ping and Peter Hein is unbelievably good. The sequence in the local train and the whole climax portions were fantastic. Special effects by Stan Winston Studios (who have worked on Terminator, Iron Man and Avatar) are the best that Indian Cinema has ever seen. The SFX team and the action team have done some extraordinary work in the final 30 minutes of the film making it a visual spectacle, which you can watch only with bated breath.

AR Rahman's music was declared a chartbuster on its release day itself. Shot in true Shankar style, the songs alone are worth the money you spend on your ticket. 'Kaadhal Anukkal' and 'Kilimanjaro' shows never-before-seen stunning locations like Macchu Picchu, shot in all their glory. Whereas 'Arima Arima' and 'Irumbile' has been shot on futuristic sets with imaginative costumes. The mandatory SP Balasubramaniam title song comes in a toned down, yet appealing version and 'Boom Boom Robo Da' and 'Chitti Dance Showcase' are excuses for Chitti to entertain us shamelessly. Choreography by Prabhu Deva, Raju Sundaram and others is excellent and suits the style of Rajnikanth. Vairamuthu and his son Madhan Karky write lyrics that complement the theme of the movie very well. The background score did not come up to usual Rahman-Shankar standards, but was still very good. The 2.0 theme track was killer. 

You can be sure of one thing while watching Endhiran. Such a movie has never come before on the Indian screen and it will take a long time for another such movie to come out as well. It is a spectacle which you can miss only at your own risk. If Sivaji was a Rajni film directed by Shankar, Endhiran is a Shankar film, utilizing both Rajni - the actor and Rajni - the superstar. Shankar with his amazing vision has shown us that nothing is impossible if you dare to dream. Ably supported by the best producers this movie could have ever got, Sun Pictures, this movie is sure to be a milestone in Indian Cinema. Move over Superman, Batman and Spiderman, we have Chitti - The Robot!! Shankar, Rajnikanth, Kalanithi Maran and the entire team can be proud. DOT!!

Rating - 4.5/5


(Previously published on nowrunning.com - http://www.nowrunning.com/movie/5775/tamil/endhiran-the-robot/2750/review.htm)