Jil Jung Juk
With a futuristic theme, Deeraj Vaidy’s Jil Jung Juk drew the audience to the theatre with the ‘Shoot the Kuruvi’ song and its quirky teasers. But that was it. The quirks were indigestible and the funny elements were anything but that. After a while, it’s an eye-roll fest at every “joke” in the film.
Muthina Kathirika
A few laughs here and there do not rescue the drag fest that is Muthina Kathirika . Yeah, we all cringe while saying that title loud. We have the systemic Tamil cinema hero wanting to marry a girl half his age and his pursuit is somehow supposed to be “comedy”. Add to this VTV Ganesh with his usual jokes. Like the title, the movie too went stale.
Enakku Veru Engum Kilaigal Kidaiyathu
08CP_Goundamani00
Despite the film’s amateurish presentation and tacky production values, Goundamani, the master comedian, held interest for a while with his irreverent wit. But what do you do when he’s almost entirely removed from the film? From spoof-like indulgences, gears shift towards a tiresome Tamil cinema love trope — a rebel falling for a politician’s daughter. When the film ends with a hint of a sequel, we end up wishing it doesn’t find a release.
Kanithan
Investigative reporting mostly makes for an interesting watch. Or so we thought until T. N. Santhosh’s Kanithan hit us in February. A potentially superb script about the counterfeit certificate industry is completely botched up with an overdose of masala and unbearable performances from Atharvaa and Catherine Tresa. This film should fit right into a rack titled ‘How to screw up like a pro’ in a library containing film study material.
Sowkarpettai
Despite its title, it isn’t exactly a film you should watch with your North Indian friends. Why? The film is about how two ghosts avenge being murdered by a Marwari moneylender and his three ‘Rajasthan ki sher’ sons. The only thing horrifying about this adult-rated film is how everyone else in the theatre had disappeared, leaving us alone, scared.
Mudinja Ivana Pudi
From tacky production values to a lengthy second-half flashback to recurring jokes about infidelity, the film’s got everything you’d expect in a K.S. Ravikumar film. And like his recent films, you feel Mudinja Ivana Pudi too has reached screens a decade or two too late.
Thodari
It had garnered quite a lot of expectations what with its cast (Dhanush and Keerthy Suresh) and excellent music by Imman, but much like the train in the film, the movie too derails. Pantry boy meets assistant of an actor in a train and falls in love at first sight (duh). A love that will see the 50-kg hero dance on top of a speeding train, which has no way of stopping. Let’s leave the how and why he dances aside, please.
Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru
KIK, director Rajesh’s seventh film, is testament to how little his cinema has evolved. The novelty has worn out and replacing a Jiiva/Arya with G.V. Prakash, or Santhanam with RJ Balaji didn’t do this film any good. It’s time to rest this one-trick pony. Writing a Rajesh film has become so easy that the only conflict he must be facing is deciding whom to cast for the cameo in the climax… Arya, Vishal or Jiiva.
Remo
For something that was billed as a rom-com, there’s very little rom or com. With such an immensely likeable actor like Sivakarthikeyan at its centre, how can a film be so charmless? Remo is what happens when you put effort into every aspect of the film but the writing.
Kavalai Vendam
This is less a film and more a consistent flow of bodily fluids, of every imaginable kind — from puking on spouses to diarrhoeic men finding “solace” right in the middle of the police station. The issue is not with the use of excremental gags to get laughs, but with their lack of inventiveness in their usage. When you’ve decided to take the lower route, couldn’t you have gone all the way down… way, way below the belt?
