Raju Murugan has had a shaky career of late. Setting aside his fun romantic-comedy episode of ‘Modern Love: Chennai’ ‘Lalagunda Bommaigal’, his last two feature films were the heavily censored 2022 Jiiva starrer ‘Gypsy’ and 2023’s Karthi starrer ‘Japan’ – easily his worst effort to date. Murugan returns with his latest film ‘My Lord’ starring M Sasikumar and Chaithra J Achar as the lead duo in a satirical drama which hearkens back heavily in tone to his sophomore film, the heavily acclaimed and awarded 2016 film ‘Joker.’

Director of last year’s breakaway hit ‘Tourist Family’ Abishan Jeevinth turns from starring in an extended cameo in his own debut to leading role in ‘With Love,’ a romantic comedy directed by Madhan (one of the co-writers of 2024’s romantic drama ‘Lover’). Also starring Anaswara Rajan, RJ Ananthi and Saravanan, ‘With Love’ is an attempt at a quirky take on the genre. 

A Thai Pongal celebration was held at the Calthorpe Community Garden in London last week, bringing together attendees from a broad range of communities for a harvest festival celebration.

The thirteenth annual ‘Kings of Gaana’ took place at Troxy on 14th December, organised by King’s College London’s. British Tamil comedian Kutti Hari and broadcaster Nisha Nisanthan hosted the world’s largest inter-university Gaana competition.

2025 has been an interesting year for Tamil cinema. There have been no film releases for Vijay, whose next film ‘Jana Nayagan’ is awaiting release in early 2026. The much anticipated collaboration between director Lokesh Kanagaraj and Rajinikanth was a middling disappointment. Dhanush released two films as director, neither of which show much improvement in his trajectory as a writer. Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s reunion following their 1987 classic ‘Nayakan’ was unanimously panned by critics and audiences alike. In the midst of all this negativity, there were a few releases which act as a silver lining to an otherwise lacklustre year of film.