It’s this inescapable unpredictability that fuels most conversations around cinema. The beauty of any art form is its ability to break all hypotheses, throw away all plans and set structures, and retain ultimate control over itself. Tamil audiences have come to expect the unexpected, and suspect the worst from anyone and everyone… but sometimes the makers take the cake too. Post the pandemic, 2022 was the first year that theaters in Tamil Nadu were open for an entire calendar year, and we had enough surprises and shockers both on streaming and on the big screen.
Rewatchable high-school/college drama after years
While most Darbukas knew Shiva as a musician anai noki payum thotain that the filmmaker gave a pleasant surprise with mudhal ni mudivam niA teen rom-com with a cast of newcomers, it captivated the young audience and served as a lovely throwback piece for 90s kids.
Also, did any of you expect Sibi Chakraborty’s leaderSo hilarious college drama to be made? After more than ten years, Sivakarthikeyan accepted the fact that he was the perfect star for a college entertainer, and he lived up to the reputation of his moniker ‘Prince’, despite the disappointing aftertaste Her film with Anudeep KV,
the unpredictability of the bow
Dhanush is one of the most unpredictable stars of Tamil cinema, and 2022 was another proof of the same. The year started on a terrible note; Her film with Karthik Naren, kill, was incredibly amateur. with citing a reference our review of the movieIt turned out to be a “horrible mish-mash of scenes stitched together in a terrible way”.
But Dhanush soon started doing Dhanush-like things and then the gray manThe star took all of us’s collective breath away with one of our favorite films of the year, Thiruchitrambalam, in The grounding story of one man dealing with trauma It doubles as a beloved rom-com. Unfortunately, their next release nane varuwen Didn’t quite hit the target.
Cracking the long-form crime-drama
Since before the streaming boom, Tamil content creators have been trying to crack the long-form crime thriller. 2022 brought more than half a dozen of these titles; like underwhelming tamil rockers (SonyLIV), could have been better irai (aha Tamil), a median Vadhandhi: The Fable of Veloni(Prime Video), A Excellent Sujal: Vortex (Prime Video), and more. SujalWhich is from Pushkar-Gayatri, is in fact one of India’s biggest successes on OTT in recent years.
But ZEE5’s Vilangu Takes the cake as the most surprising entry on this list. Prashanth Pandiyaraj’s series stars Vemal as a small-town police sub-inspector who is tasked with solving a series of crimes. When he finds a decomposed body, the story begins to take several twists and turns. The grounding treatment of a neat investigation helped the show tremendously, and it managed to pack in a number of surprises throughout its seven-episode run.
a vengeful beast
Yes, we are talking about Vijay animal, but the vengeful beast movie was not. It was the relentless internet troll. Nelson DilipkumarThe film was a disappointment, and even his signature elements couldn’t save the hope. Assault thriller with a half-baked screenplay, Online trolling was nothing new – filmmakers like N Lingusamy have fallen prey to the same – but it was just a reminder that, here, it doesn’t matter if you just hit doctor To prove your worth.
Ulaganayagan came back with a bang, and it was quicker than expected
Vikram It was highly publicized once it was announced that Lokesh Kanagaraj would be collaborating with Kamal Haasan, and that the film would also star Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi. Lokesh hasn’t given a bad film so far and delivered as expected All guns blazing for your favorite star To create one of the best crime dramas Tamil cinema has seen in recent years.
But even ardent cinema goers didn’t expect the film to touch such huge numbers; Udhayanidhi Stalin, who released the film, agrees. Even more surprising was how Vikram Shattered all notions about the post-OTT audience; Vikram remained in full swing in theaters even after its streaming premiere on Disney+ Hotstar.
today is love
love today There was surprise and shock in equal measure. Pradeep Ranganathan is a smart filmmaker who knows his audience very well. In his second as a director and first as an actor, he proves that you don’t need to be something to impress the average moviegoer. With a pleasant tale, he tackles something we’ve all wondered about: the privacy of our mobile phones. Here, he uses a rom-com treatment to explore the many complexities that plague trust between two individuals in a modern-day relationship.
However, the director fails in his attempts to create a balance sheet for the sins of his male protagonist and female lead and to justify some of these issues.
2022, when Ashok Selvan comes into his own
as in Vikram Prabhu tensionWemal Inn VilanguSai Pallavi Inn Gargior in Keerthy Suresh and Selvaraghavan Sani KayadhamActors leave us stunned with stellar performances every year. but was especially prolific for 2022 Ashok Selvan, In three of his five releases as the lead, he flexes his acting muscles. in Sila Nerangleel Sila ManidhargalIn , Ashoka delivers a compelling performance as a man wracked with guilt and grief; in Manmadha Leelai, he proved he could do comedy; and in nitham oru vaanamHe appears in four different roles: as a downtrodden man who finds solace in stories, as a college rowdy in love, as a frustrated villager from rural Tamil Nadu, as well as a in a surprising role.
‘Kuthiraval,’ a ray of hope
whatever Pa Ranjit Chhua in 2022 proved to be a surprise for the audience. his direction Natchathiram NagargiraadhuDespite being similar to his previous films in dialogue, it was very experimental in its form and quite introspective. Earlier in the year, Ranjith’s Neelam Productions released kuthiraival, directed by Manoj Lionel Jehson and Shyam Sundar, a psychological drama without a conventional story. While this in itself may come as a surprise to many, the amount of attention the film garnered during its release also proves that such efforts can still lead to lukewarm results for audiences. Traditional storytellers could learn a thing or two from this kuthiraivaland we just might get ours Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
a legend unlike any other
We still don’t know whether it was a surprise or a shock, but you don’t always get to see a packed cinema hall at 4 am watching the entrepreneur-turned-actor break down at heart. examples like 2007 have been veerasamyWhen a campy film gets trolled for its unintentional humor only to gain cult status, but the ‘Legend’ Saravanan-starrer Story Really kicked it up a notch. The film is unintentionally absurd, Everything it touches turns to comedy gold And it’s as colorful as Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
