The Tamil New Year’s Day happens to be the birthday of the fearless contrarian of Tamil films and theater – M R Radha. Called Nadigavel by Periyar, Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, M R Radha. (April 14, 1907 to September 17, 1979), dazzled Tamils with his unique acting, voice modulation,...
Beast started with V. As soon as the letter of the English alphabet flashed on screen, there was ruckus in the cinema hall. Then the words Thalapathy Vijay splashed on the screen and the theatre seemed to physically rock with Vijay fans’ exuberance. There was an expectation that the next scene...
Over 50 years ago, a man in his 80s, named Rangaswamy Nataraja Mudaliar, approached the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce for some financial help to make a film. But his old age and anonymity made the people there look at him skeptically. A brief background study on the man startled them...
We are often encouraged to dream. Well, not just to dream but realize our dreams so we can celebrate our life. But those kinds of dreams are conscious wishing. Dreams that come unconsciously or spontaneously are complex. They stay in memory in bits and pieces and raise questions. They link past...
The Nadigar Sangam elections could beat the drama in any movie. If the Sangam wants to make a film to fund the construction of its building, it doesn't have to look far for a story. Its own elections would make riveting screenplay. Tamils love actors and elections. The Nadigar Sangam election...
Ranjan, the star of the Tamil cinema of 1940s, was a multi-faceted personality that dwarfed all other hero wannabes. Kollywood was going to be under his thumb in the years to come, prophesied his growing ranks of fans and movie buffs. But fate had thought otherwise. The lesser mortals of his...
Maaran is a journalist movie. In Indian cinema, there is a good cop movie. There is a bad cop movie. There is a thief movie. There is a village movie. Like these there is a journalist movie. Just as cop movies portray policemen as ridiculously corrupt and horribly brutal or super efficient and...
Many Tamil movies, even acclaimed ones, are now outdated due to their uncritical portrayal of patriarchy and casteism in society of the time
Bappi Lahiri made disco a rage in India, forcing regional films to adapt too. Even Ilayaraja here discoed a bit but it was not his forte.
To bring Tamil cinema back to its pre-pandemic glory days, filmmakers need to bring audiences back to theatres with big ticket releases
