big flicks for Christmas without holding them back
for New Year.
Over the last couple of years, December has given
the odd big release, but nothing big enough to buck
the trend of the month being slow for theatrical business.
Last year, we had Vettaikaran in December and before
that one can recall Billa, released in 2007, being
a major December release. But, that apart, there are
not many movies that have good enough recall value
which were released in December during the last decade
or so.
2010 is all set to change that trend. Just look at
the jostle for space in December. One can be forgiven
for thinking that Diwali is yet to arrive. Yes, this
Diwali had just one star offering (Uthamaputhiran).
But, December is all set to upstage even Diwali, with
a bevy of releases. Looks like the lack of star power
for Diwali will be more than compensated by the spate
in December. Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Suriya, Arya, Jeyam
Ravi etc. are all lined up and waiting. It looks like
Decemeber might end up having more than one big release
a week.
The biggest of them all is without doubt Manmadhan
Ambu (the title of the movie and the way it has been
shown in trailers implies that it is not about the
literal translation – ‘Cupid’s Arrow’,
but rather about Man-Madhan and Ambu, the three characters.
Well, a guess can be ventured at this stage; Kamal
Haasan’s character is called Manohar or Manoj
or any other name that begins with ‘Man’.
Maddy plays Madan while Trisha is Ambu which might
stand for Ambika or Ambujam etc... The title definitely
is reminiscent of Michael Madana Kama Rajan which
also came from Kamal’s pen). Then of course
there is Vijay’s Kaavalan. Well, the star certainly
needs a hit now and has teamed up with the man who
gave him one of the biggest hits in his career –
Friends. But, thick competition will not make it easy
for Vijay to find the bull’s eye at the box
office. Suriya’s Bollywood launch vehicle Raktha
Charithra has reportedly moved on from the last week
of November to the next month. It will be really interesting
to watch how RGV (the master of intensity, strange
camera angles, gangsters and close-ups) portrays Suriya.
We will be in for a whole new experience with the
star.
Arya will be looking to sign off 2010 on a very high
note with Chikku Bukku. He has had a tremendous run
so far with Madhrasapattinam and Boss Engira Bhaskaran
being appreciated by all classes of audience. With
Chikku Bukku he seems to be returning to the romantic
young guy mould and going by the momentum that he
holds at present, it is going to be hard to stop him.
Meanwhile, Shreya too will be hoping that the movie
brings a turnaround for her fortunes in Kollywood.
Jeyam Ravi might just make his presence felt in December
with Engeyum Kaadhal which also sees Prabhu Deva as
director for the first time since the Villu debacle.
And, there are also talks about the possibility of
Dhanush making it two releases in as many months with
Aadukalam being slated for release soon. Sun Pictures
are not known to hang around too long and are also
not wary of competition, especially with the kind
of marketing force that they command. Yes, it is a
genuine chance that Dhanush may find himself in a
bit of a quandary with Aadukalam stopping the flow
of Uthamaputhiran. That apart, the movie will be closely
watched because of the promise that was shown by its
director on his debut- Polladhavan. Can the Dhanush-Vettrimaran
team create magic again?
Well, these are just the major flicks lined up. There
might be quite a few more that are willing to hit
screens during December. Well then, what is the reason
for the exponential number of films queued up for
the next month? Remember, it is not just December
that is crowded; even November has been very active
during and post-Diwali. The reason is perhaps too
easy to fathom; Superstar. The virtual dominance held
by Endhiran over the box office for a three week to
one month period meant that many other movies had
to wait for their chance to get into theaters without
being run over. It is perhaps this backlog of releases
during October that has caused the ‘December
bottleneck of 2010’. Of course, we are not claiming
that all movies listed above are sure shot December
releases. Looking at the number and star power of
the movies, it is quite likely that some of them may
push towards Pongal which will possibly cause another
bottleneck for the harvest festival. Tamil cinema
at the moment is facing ‘problems of prosperity’.
Let the good times continue.
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