Well Tamil Cinema or Kollywood is having a dream run this year with several blockbusters both satisfying box office as well as General audience in terms of Good cinema. Language barrier is soon becoming a distant thing and movies are made for audience in general and not bound anymore with boundaries. Big Thanks to Bahubali franchise for opening the doors and followed by RRR, Pushpa, Poniyin selvan, Vikram the list just goes on and is a healthy trend. I am going to do a deep dive into three movies out of which two movies have already been released and Leo will be releasing in few hours from now.
Jailer
First thing first, when the trailer released I was very disappointed and that brought down my expectation. Sun TV telecasted the audio launch of the movie just few days before its release and for the first time Thalaivar spoke for nearly 35 minutes and trust me I was getting little restless because it was a very long speech. Big shock to me was Kalanidhi Maran was furious in his speech and he was fully charged up and I was definitely taken by surprise by his attitude because by nature he is very soft spoken person. These things were very 'Unusual' for me and my thought was both Thalaivar and Maran was doing their best marketing the movie from their end because audio launches are basically meant for promoting one's movie. US premiers opened and got few reviews from hardcore Thalaivar fans saying movie is pretty average. I just had to wait for my turn to see in few days but my expectation was lower than ground floor. I saw and thoroughly enjoyed the movie and felt this one was the best one in his recent past surpassing Petta. So what worked for the movie ? Why did people like ? I think director made a character overlapping with his age - Jailer who had a grandson, beard with salt and pepper look, no intro song, thank god no romantic scenes and finally Thalaivar who had a daughter in law. These things are unheard of in Thalaivar movie and Director Nelson has to be applauded for coming up with this avatar for Thalaivar. Bringing in a new villain in the form of Varman gave a new flavor as villain is not always one with Tata sumo, long hair, aruval etc., rather Varman & co danced to the tune of Taal was so refreshing. Varman was neither vulnerable nor menacing and he just proved to be a good villain for Thalaivar. Two mass scenes - Thalaivar in slow motion with all men walking beside him and Thalaivar catching hold of a cigar in slow motion made fans go mad in Theatres and this is exactly what Thalaivar fans expect from his directors. Director Nelson made a film typically like how he makes it at the same time made sure Thalaivar fans had something in it - he striked the balance pretty well. Shivanna passing Origami paper to Ramya Krishnan, Kingsley's towel act tease to Tamannah's boy friend and clever characterization for people like Sunil and Yogi babu were all master strokes.
2023 belongs to Anirudh and if he can pass his Jathagam many would like to take photo copy of it. He is having ball of a time ....Vikram followed by Jailer ..followed by Jawan and now Leo .....I don't think he will get another 2023 in his life ......His music is loud no doubt but it did elevate the scenes in Jailer. His BGM score for Shivaanna and Lal was absolutely brilliant ...Hukum song will go along with Van thenda palkaaran, Baasha paaru, Oruvan oruvan mudhalali.
Kalanidhi maran is a king maker when it comes to Entrepreneurship. The movie not just did excellent collection but also did wonders for Sun TV network shares as there was a 11% jump on its share prices reflecting the success of the movie. Maran on Sept 1 (Friday) presented BMW X7 to Thalaivar and on same day Sept 1 (Friday) presented a Porsche car to Director Nelson and finally on Sept 4th (Monday) presented Porsche car to Anirudh. All three occasions it was weekday and news was out in all medias flashing with Photographs. Earlier in the week on August 30th SEBI imposed F&O ban on SUN TV network and Maran the clever business man turned the challenge into good vibes by gifting three cars. Three cars costed him peanuts but all the buzz surrounding the news created interest amongst investors and he made merry and he cleverly gifted during weekdays when stock market was open.
Finally Thalaivar ...not sure what to say about this 73 year old man ....What amazes me more is his nature to go away from limelight during the release time. In a world where people post pic after buying a Lacoste T shirt here lives a man who runs off to Himalayas to worship away from all the shutterbugs. This is absolutely fantasic.
Jawan
No matter how many dishes come there is still audience for the universal dish "Idly". Idly along with arachuvita sambar gives a unique taste, Idly with Mutton bone kulambu is an experience, Idly with fish kolambu with small onions is a delight, Idly with the same old coconut chutney is still a dream for many, and last but not the least Idly with podi as a small mountain and gingelly oil at the centre is sorgam. Same way no matter how many content driven movies come there is still audience for mass masala movies and one such example is Jawan. Masala in Jawan can beat ingredients in aachi masala. South audience are used to this masala but for North this masala must have been unique and hence they lapped up and movie did wonders at the box office.
Best thing about Jawan which I personally liked was women centric characters - Priyamani, Deepika and Nayantara all had meaty roles and director has to be applauded for that. In fact most of Atlee's movies one thing that is common is there is no vulgarity as well as women characters are strong. People keep complaining about Atlee that he is a copy cat but this guy gives a damn and just focuses on his work. If Atlee's previous flick had influence of some of old tamil movies this movie has exact replica of Indian, Anniyan etc., But looks like Atlee didnt care and wanted to show Shah rukh in a new avatar. His intro scene, train scene where he hijacks passengers and his cool attitude to dance for a old song, Bike chase sequence, Father son duo fighting all were catered for masses and it wonders. Personally I was disappointed at the dialogues which made VJS role not very impactful though he did his best in terms of acting. Deepika's flashback was good though it sounded common. Atlee through his work has opened flood gates for other directors from South. People like Nelson, Lokesh, Sukumar, Rajamouli need corporates to fund their projects as they can come up with scripts catering to this generation.
During 2000 if someone must have said IT wull rule the world in terms of everything we do in life we would have laughed at the person but see where we are now. AI, CHATGPT all rule the world and Shah rukh khan spotted Atlee's potential before many did. Shah rukh who is a national superstar would have got any director to do his next movie but he trusting Atlee was a master stroke and Atlee repaid the faith by delivering one of India's biggest blockbusters.
Leo
In another eight hours FDFS for Leo .....By far one of the most anticipated movies I have seen in recent times is Leo ...I have seen similar craze during Shivaji release (first time combo of Shankar and Thalaivar) and during Kabali release (Producer Thanu's sky level promotions) and it is to be noted on both the occasions producers decided not to have Audio launch due to the hype around the movie. Audio launches are basically meant for marketing and when there is so much hype why conduct a function on top of that ? Similarly for Leo there is sky level expectations amongst his fans and not sure whether world cup fever is on but in Tamil Nadu Leo is the hot topic.
Vijay fans are particular on one thing - "We need to beat Jailer's collections" since Thalaivar's speech during Jailer audio launch didnt go well with VJ fans. Their target is Thalaivar and they badly want Leo to do well and will go all guns blazing starting from October 19 to make Leo a blockbuster movie. Maris cinemas (now called as LA cinemas) is one of the pioneers in Theatres as they were one of the very few theatres which had multiplex concept even during 80's and they have five screens and all of them are screening Leo. Most of the shows (5 screens into 30 shows on Thursday and 26 shows for Friday to Sunday) are getting filled up in no time. Unprecedented demand for Tickets from every quarter is gonna make Theatre owners sleep at theatres for the next few days. This has pushed me till Sunday and that is when I got tickets.
Personally I didn't like Master which was the previous outing for Lokesh and VJ and this time Lokesh after mega success of Vikram has mentioned it will be a Lokesh movie. Teaser and trailer both were pretty decent and am personally looking forward to see Mansoor ali khan's role since I like his attitude. In fact Lokesh's first choice for Kaidhi was Mansoor ali khan and not Karthi shows how much respect he has for Mansoor. Anirudh is having fantabulous time ...his squares are picture perfect and when he is at terrific form I guess music should be awesome too.
Whether Leo beats Jailer collection is secondary ..according to be Vijay already has a winner in the form of Leo ...when a 47 year old is able to compete with 73 years old person that itself is victory. More than that my boys are excited to watch Leo ...This is something similar to 90's where we used to get excited before watching Muthu or Padayappa ....Vijay has captured Kids for sure ....TN government may not give permission to screen early morning shows, police may not support production house for organizing events, there could be political pressure to stop VJ from hogging the limelight but all should remember one thing, only ripe mangoes are pelted with stones and looks like VJ is all set to storm the box office.
P.S: On the downside it looks like excessive violence in the form of guns, bullets, blood is the recipe to success seeing the recent trend of Vikram, Jailer, Jawan and now Leo. This has pushed movies like Irugapatru and Shot boot three which didn't even release in Trichy as everything wants to pave way for Leo.
