2005 was, I thought, an eventful year not just in my life but all around me too. So I thought I'll just say random stuff about the year in this entry.

Tamil Cinema
It was a wonderful year for Tamil cinema, with a lot of talent being exhibited, together with the standard stupidities that are an annual ritual. I saw a lot of great films this year. I think the standard is definitely going up, with new people taking over old.

Some films that I think are the pick of the year (in order) :

1. Kanda Naal Mudhal
2. Kanaa Kanden
3. Arinthum Ariyamalum
4. Ghajini
5. Ullam Ketkume
6. ABCD
7. Anniyan

Notes:
I actually wanted a top-ten thing, but I found I couldn't think of ten films off-hand.

Kanda Naal Mudhal, by debutant director V Priya, was surprisingly brilliant. I was impressed by the movie even before its release because of its sleek promos and posters and wonderful cast and crew. The crew has five National Award recipients including P.C. Shriram (Cinematography). The cast has Prasanna and Laila, with many great supporting actors like Karthik (of Vaanam Vasapadume) and Revathi. The movie is produced by Prakash Raj's DUet Production, which is enough to convince me to watch; He's greatly impressed me as a producer with his Dhaya, Naam and Azhagiya Theeye.
The movie is surprisingly flawless. For a debutant, Priya shows great skill in putting a movie together. I thought the screenplay was brilliant; absolutely no lag. I was also impressed with the way she wove the movie's six songs into the script with no incongruity. Yuvan's music and background score is among the best he has ever done. I think if he makes a new year resolution to exclude rap in every movie he scores music for next year, he can make every one of his albums hit the top of the charts.

Ghajini might be fourth on my list, but I still though it was brilliant. The three above it just excelled with their startling realism. I was also impressed by Ullam Ketkume, but I thought it fell short in terms of musical score and cast performance. For all the hype about Harris Jeyaraj's Ullam Ketkume, I was thoroughly unimpressed. I liked only Dhoda Dhoda; Mazhai Mazhai and Kanavukal Periya Kanavukal were okay. Mazhai Mazhai is quite a nice song, actually; congrats to Rajusundaram for destroying it single-handedly with his horrible choreography. If the performances had been better, it would have beat Ghajini with its brilliant script and realism.

Chandramukhi's absence is not a mistake. Though Jyothika's performance was very impressive, and Vidhyasagar's music was very nice, I was not impressed by the movie. Even though I am not really a Rajini fan, I think that his movies have a style and finesse that is enjoyable to watch. That was absent here. The one thing I'm impressed with is Rajini's willingness to make movies in which he is not so much the center of attention. I await Sivaji with great anticipation. (Because so many greats are coming together : ARR is back with Shankar, Rajini's in the lead, Sujatha's doing script, KV Ananth is doing cinematography, JD-Jerry and Balaji Sakthivel are in the story team)

I haven't seen Thavamai Thavamirundhu and Sandai Kozhi yet; I heard they're very good.


Music

1. Ghajini
2. Anniyan
3. Ah Aah
   
4. Arinthum Ariyamalum
5. Kanda Naal Mudhal
6. Raam
7. Kanaa Kanden
   
8. Oru Kallooriyin Kadhai
9. ABCD
   
10. Majaa

Notes: Harris has managed to impress me on both of his last two releases. He is changing his style and still doing well; that's good. He's experimenting with music; that's good too. One qualm I have is that he should stop repeating himself with stuff like Rangola Hola etc. Another thing is that his background music is still very bad. He has to learn to emote with music. Anniyan was a good effort, Ghajini had good places in the flashback scenes that were nice. But more often than not, his music is jarring the flow of narration rather than enhancing it. Especially in fight scenes. I think Anniyan's fight scenes were dissapointing largely due to Harris, though to be fair I have to say they were inherently not good.

Yuvan has impressed me with several good albums this year. He just has to let go of rap. He is relying to much on rap to move some of his songs. He has to wake up and realise that his biggest hit albums are those with no rap in them : Arinthum Ariyamalum, Kanda Naal Mudhal, Daas, Kathal Konden, Poovellam Kettupar, Dheena, Manmadhan (Thathai Thathai's rap actually made sense and enhanced the song).

So that wraps up Tamil Cinema 2005, I guess. Stuff I'm looking forward to next year : Gautham Menon's Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu, Shankar's Sivaji, Vishnuvardan's Pattiyal, the untitled Jeeva movie that will be starring Arya, the script Maniratnam is working on which I am guessing and hoping will come out next year, debutant Krishna's Jillendru Oru Kaadhal, K.S. Ravikumar/Kamal's Thasavatharam, S.J. Suryah's Puli.

Labels: Lists

kanna wrote at 10:10 PM