2023 was not great for Tamil cinema as even Vijay and Ajith struggled to secure a hit which impressed everyone across the board. The year did have some quality releases like Good Night, Dada, and Chittha, but it also had some disappointing films that balanced the scale. Many films listed here were among the much-awaited movies of the year, but ended up as damp squibs much to the dismay of fans.
Michael
Ranjit Jeyakodi’s Michael, starring Sandeep Kishan, came with a lot of promise. The trailer and promos of the film assured a stylish action drama feeding the ongoing trend. However, upon release, Michael had only style and lacked any substance. It followed the story of the titular hero who rises up the ranks in Mumbai underworld. He has a secret mission, which is revealed as a huge surprise, but any viewer could spot the plot from miles ahead. Except for some brilliant frames, no guardian angel was saving ‘Michael’.
Custody
The woes of Naga Chaitanya continue. Even Venkat Prabhu, who resurrected the career of Silambarasan with Maanaadu, could not do the same for Chaitanya with Custody. The action drama is the story of an underdog constable who goes against the leader of the state. A predictable screenplay and underwhelming action sequences turned Custody into a damp squib.
Pichaikkaran 2
Actor-musician Vijay Antony turned director with Pichaikkaran 2, which was supposed to be a spiritual sequel to the successful first part. However, his debut directorial venture lacked a proper story and the emotions that made director Sasi’s film a success. Instead, Antony came up with a convoluted plot involving some obscure contrivances like a brain transplant. Halfway in, the film turned into a bad iteration of a Shankar/AR Murugadoss anti-establishment movie, ending up all over the place.
Kolai
Balaji Kumar of Vidiyum Munn (2013) fame returned to direction after a decade with Kolai. The opulent production design of the film is the only thing that stands out in this bland whodunit. The problem with Kolai is not that it follows all the tropes of the genre to a tee, but it doesn’t carry any iota of originality in doing so. Vijay Antony plays a reclusive detective. The character is plain and underwritten. Everything about the film is plastic, which doesn’t make the viewer invest in the story or wonder about the killer.
LGM
Cricketer MS Dhoni’s incredible ability to read a game is after all not a transferable skill. As a debut producer, the cricketer failed to make a feel-good movie as he seems to have intended to. Directed by Ramesh Thamilmani, LGM aka Let’s Get Married is about a tour a couple, the guy’s mom, and his friends embark on for the girl to get to know her future mother-in-law. The biggest problem with LGM is that it fails to make you laugh. On paper, the idea might have sounded promising but the writing fails the film.
Karumegangal Kalaigirathu
Director Thangar Bachaan, who is regarded as someone who makes great rural films, has seen better days with movies like Azhagi, Solla Marandha Kadhai, and Pallikoodam. Karumegangal Kalaigirathu is a melodramatic story about a retired judge, who goes in search of his daughter born out of wedlock to his lover. Parallelly, a parota master tries to reunite with his daughter. The film is a testing affair that has some horrendous performances. On top of that, the director mistakes fundamentalism for culture. At one point, he makes claims that parota is a cause of heart attacks. In another, a character goes ‘Old is always beautiful’. Such truistic ideas make the film a dated and arrogant affair.
Aneethi
Like Thangar Bachaan, Vasantha Balan is also stuck with the idea of romanticizing poverty as a virtue. In Aneethi, all the poor are by default good people and the rich are heartless monsters, who live and breathe only to exploit others. Such one-dimensional takes on things make Aneethi a painful watch. The anti-capitalistic ideology of the director is all that becomes apparent in the film.
Chandramukhi 2
While Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi, the official remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu, turned out to be a blockbuster, P Vasu taints its success with this shockingly bad sequel. One can see the pattern of all these directors with good track records failing to emulate their success. Things seem to have changed in Kollywood where melodrama and sentiments don’t work anymore.
Iraivan
While the veterans are struggling with old formulas, some contemporary filmmakers try to keep up with the trend of violence and still fail. Director I Ahmed and his film Iraivan is an example. The movie is yet another story about a serial killer. It follows all the cliches of the genre delivering an abysmal thriller that tests one’s patience.
Japan
2022 was a great year for Karthi with three consecutive hits–Komban, Ponniyin Selvan 1, and Sardar. 2023 might have started on a decent note with PS 2, but the second part was more about Vikram and Jayam Ravi and less about Karthi. So, the actor pinned a lot of hope on Japan, and his collaboration with actor-director Raju Murugan. With quirky makeover and intonation, the action drama failed to impress the audience because it doesn’t reveal what the film is all about till the end. The titular hero realizes he has HIV and decides to right lot of wrongs. That seems to have been the idea behind Japan, but that is not evident from the film, which is all over the place.
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