Quarter-Quarter-Quarter

FRIDAY, the day in which most of the Tamil movies operate their child to be born in the silver screen. This has become a custom with some actual funda behind it. When a movie hits the silver screen on Friday, which is the last working day in India, the production unit rely on the fact that people tend to approach cinema malls during Friday weekend followed by two weekly holidays. Hence, the production unit tosses the movie on Friday to get good profit immediately in the first three days of the release so that it can act as a psychological advantage to showcase the box office report in the news and media sites. Well this year was quite a boon as it started with FRIDAY, 01-01-2010. But unfortunately not many producers were ready to compete with last year biggies, AVATAR which continued to dominate the box office for nearly 8-10 weeks running at packed houses. All we had was just 3 income tax releases on the opening day of the year, namely, Pugaipadam, Thunichal and Nil Kavani Kadhali. No one even knows that these duds were released on the auspicious day of the year but as usual they did their part not to run more than a week doing justice to their producers.

Now comes the Pongal clash with no movies from the leading stars Ajith and Vijay. It was a peaceful Pongal but we had the Magnum Opus Aayirathil Oruvan, the much-awaited release at last hit the silver screen on Pongal, the Tamil New Year. The movie had mixed reviews from the day it was released and it had also created rich interest amongst the audiences of quality cinema who went a step higher in decoding the nuances in the movie. But in the end, Selva has to re operate his child as the audience failed to understand most of the second half and also chopped a few unnecessary scenes. But the movie made a good show in the business and it was clear winner in the Pongal battle with other movies Kutty, Dhanush starrer failing to do enough business and Porkkalam, which was nothing other than waste of money. The other dark horse in the pongal battle was the Capital Cine Work's Naanayam, which earned decent reviews, but the movie failed to run well because of poor marketing.

Moving to the end of the month, we had close to 5 movies with screens swarming to get the biggies. We had the much-publicized Tamil Padam, a spoof of popular movies. The movie and the marketing strategy has created enough hype to attract the audience with it's pre release interviews and the famous 'Mirchi' Shiva, doing the lead role, which is a in deed quite a controversy role as he had to spoof the most popular heroes of south. But quite surprisingly the team has managed to keep up their expectations and I would say they lived to their expectations. They spoofed in each and every form from the trailers, songs, names and even the newspaper advertisements. Along with Tamil Padam, we had another Production debutant, Soundarya Rajnikanth came with Venkat Prabhu's Holiday 'Goa'. Venkat Prabhu carried the hopes from Chennai 28 and Saroja but this time, it was more close to a spoof and dry humour. The movie didn't do good business in the box office as it lacked in the fundamental story. Not all movies with Prem Ji can fetch you good profit in the box office is what Venkat Prabhu learned from this movie. The movie which created controversy in the internet media, which was leaked in the internet even before the movie hit the silver screen, Jaggubhai, from KSR and Sarath combo with the comedy legend Goundamani getting back to acting also released along with these two movies. When you don't have content, no matter you create as much hype as you can, Tamil audience has been matured enough to place the movie in the garbage when it does not have any content to satisfy their money that they spent. Jaggubhai clears grabs a place in the wastebasket. Now a days, it has become a principle of telecasting trailors imitating Sun Pictures with a few taglines and punch dialogues from the movie. It was 'Vaaaa Daaaaa' with Vettainkaran where Sun Pictures kept shouting in all their channels to promote their production. We had an english version of 'Vaaa Daaaa' with Dhairiyam, P Kumaran starrer shouting 'Come Onnnnnnnnnnn'. Who can answer the following question? Name the list of theatres in which Dhairiyam was released? Hint: No of days the movie ran is equal to the list of theatres the movie was released.

Perfect month February first witnessed Ajith's Aasal. With no major hopes because of the production company and with not much pre release hype, the movie literally bombarded at the box office. The fans and the neutral audience did not have any relieving factor that they can cherish for except for the factor 'Ajithkumar' and his so-called screen presence. Another humorous part of the movie was the promotion that they made or rather the promotion from an actor to a co-director Ajith kumar. Sluggish dry humour, senseless songs, irrelevant fights, not-at-all-necessary screenplay has made the movie to find the next place in the waste basket. With this, I hope the end of Charan can soon come. A quarter without Sun Pictures? Defintely not, this time they had an interesting impossible combo of Vishal playing a play boy character in TVP - Theeratha Vilayaatu Pillai. Once again, Sun Pictures proved and stand strong in claiming that 'We will promote only movies with rubbish masala'. Can someone please show them quality movies please?

Failed to release on the Valentine's Day, Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya was released towards the end of February. With Gautam's magic the movie stood tall and won several critics and also made good money at the box office. The movie, for the first time had Simbhu with a neat acting and has showcased Trisha as a good and hot heroine. The X factor of the movie is that it made the audience to feel their presence in the movie as it was taken in such a manner that it would have happened in every man's life. Not to forget the Oscar Winner's return to Tamil Cinema after a long gap. The songs are still ruling the box office and each and everyone's hello tune.

The month of March, where every producer scared to release their baby because of the violent IPL season 3 also had a few releases. We had Jai starrer 'Aval Peyar Tamizharasi'. The movie was pretty decent and also did arguable money in the business because of the killer IPL that literally made every human being to sit and watch the match. We also had other few duds like Thambikku Endha Ooru, Veerasekaran, Kumarin Pennin Ullathile and Yaadhu Maagi which won the straight seat in the waste basket. With Chennai Super Kings, literally failing in most of the matches, hope started to shift its focus towards cinema again. At the right time was released Vasantha Balan's Angadi Theru. The movie gave a brilliant portrayal of the Angadi Street and it earned excelled reviews from all corners of the world. With the quarter almost getting over, we wish to see more Angadi Therus and more 1000 in 1 movie to come.

Article posted @ http://www.clapsandboos.com/