Really 2012 had lots of “Twists and turns” for Tamil cinema where highly expected movies bombed badly at box office and many silent movies without star values gave a holistic movie experience to the audience, also performing at box office. Indubitably this is a healthy sign that results are not star driven, but are quality driven and no longer stale stuff can be tolerated. I would say that our Tamil audience conveyed a strong note to the industry people giving them 2 choices – “Try something new” (or) “if it is same old stuff, at least make the packaging interesting”

Please proceed to read further which will throw more light on the “2 choices” which I have indicated above. I would like to categorize the movies in 4 categories and each category has different values.

1)    Movie of the year

There can be no other choice for this category, other than “Vazhakku enn 18/9”. True definition for a good cinema. Even if best 10 movies are selected for this decade, this movie will find a place owing to ‘n’ number of reasons and the top 5 reasons could be 

a)      Fresh and excellent screenplay

b)      Rare movie to portray the “other side” of technology. Conveyed a “much needed message” required for the teen age children and parents. It also takes us a tour with a snapshot on current agriculture, atrocities of politicians and police, child labor and existence of folk arts getting subsided.

c)    Characterization is outstanding aspect of this movie. The good example is “call-girl” character which comes only for few minutes. The scene where the hero is striving for food, where everyone crosses the fainted hero without any care and one who really cares for him is a call- girl. Yes it is very true that it’s tough to guess where the humanity is? Great thinking by Balaji Sakthivel.

d)      The subject of the movie had ample scope for ‘A’ stuff, but its Balaji Sakthivel who is vivid in demarcation for this kind of subjects and he made it watchable by everyone.

e)      Crisp movie which doesn’t have any shots which is not required for the movie within which the story details the life of lower class people in city and their sufferings in handling the society’s pressure on them.

2)    Feel-Fresh and quality entertainers

The much required aspect for a movie nowadays is “freshness”, after being exhausted by repeated stuffs. There are always good audiences for new attempts and if it is interesting, we always give right recognition for such movies. The following movies met all the above indicated qualifications and also met the standards of quality cinema.

1)  Pizza – Must-watch thriller movie. In general people who don’t believe in ghosts never like such genre of movies and even such kind of people will enjoy “PIZZA”.

2)  Naan E – The movie much liked by kids in 2012. Graphics works were scintillating

3)  NKPK – Fun filled movie in a different platform.

4)  Neerparavai – Excellent movie depicting the life of fishing community in 360 degrees.

5)  Kumki – Usual romance set in a new backdrop really gave a fresh and wholesome experience.

6)  Kaadhalil Sothapuvathu Eppadi – Feel good romance movie with fresh treatment. But this movie satisfied only the elite audience.

3)    Time-pass entertainers

  The movies which fall in this category were mostly “run of the mill” movies, but guaranteed 100% entertainment provided if you don’t mind the logical flaws. This kind of movies are really required to give a cocktail experience and satisfies the week end audience who are tired with everyday stress providing respite to them.

1)      Thuppaki – Racy movie which came with excellent packaging and supported by casting

2)      OKOK – Santhanam magic elevated the spirit of the movie.

3)      Kalakalappu – Fun, fun and fun. Good comeback by Sundar.C

4)      Sundarapandian – Racy fun filled movie with twists which made the audience locked to their seats.

5)      Attakathi – Reasonably entertaining in parts and not allowing to feel bored. 

4)    Great attempt, but slightly missed perfection.

The following movies were different on its subject mostly with a strong message which deserves appreciation. But somehow perfection was marginally missing which diluted the overall essence of the movie. Otherwise these movies would have reached greater heights.

 
1)      Sattai

2)      Marina

3)      Dhoni

4)      Rattinam

5)      Aarohanam.

6)      Aaravan. 

 Exceptions.

 The two other good movies which are missed out are Nanban and English Vinglish and the rational for not accounting them is that the former is 100% remake movie and later is a dubbing movie.