SHADE OF SURPRISE...

AS WE DRAW THE CURTAINS ON 2025, LET US LOOK AT TAMIL CINEMA'S DISMAL LOWS, DELIGHTFUL HIGHS, AND OTHER UNEXPECTED SURPRISES THIS YEAR

- PRASHANTH VALLAVAN

CHANCES are that if you travel back in time to the end of 2024 and meet an eager cinephile, they would be more surprised at your summary of all that transpired in Tamil cinema 2025 than the fact that you just stepped out of a time machine. "Let's go watch the pyramids being built later, I'm sure it's the aliens, but sit down and tell me why a Rajinikanth-Lokesh Kanagaraj film and a Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam film didn't work...and wait, Madha Gaja Raja released you say?" they might ask. You might watch as their eyebrows crinkle the forehead as you follow it up with "But..." and drop a complicated (ostensibly biased) explanation for why the silver jubilee of the 2000s ended up delivering every shade of surprise; a major chunk of it disappointing, a reasonable extent of it delightful, and some that reminded us how Tamil cinema used to have magic in its masala.

The fall of the giants

Let us address the dinosaur in the room. The year started with bountiful promises and ended up giving us trust issues instead. Perhaps, as some filmmakers would suggest, the ever-inflating expectations of the audience increased the magnitude of the disappointment. Perhaps the unstoppable chain reaction of hype is a consequence of the star system, carefully fostered by the film industry itself. No matter the reason, the worst that was expected from Thug Life and Coolie was mediocrity because it marked a Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam reunion after three decades, and the debut collaboration of the most sought-after mainstream director of the time and the longest-reigning superstar of Tamil cinema. What ended up happening was as surprising as it was disappointing. However, the mixed response could hardly stop, let alone derail the hype train, as the momentum was just enough for Coolie, and to a lesser extent, Thug Life, to stay on the list of box-office hits.

The middling order