Madonne Ashwin’s debut 2021 National Award winning film ‘Mandela’ was received warmly by critics and audiences alike. The Yogi Babu starring satire deftly explored themes of identity and politics without compromising artistic sensibility. For his follow-up feature, Ashwin teams up with Sivakarthikeyan for the satisfying meta-masala film ‘Maaveeran.’ This is a return to form for Sivakarthikeyan, whose recent two films 2022’s ‘Don’ and ‘Prince’ failed to live up to the quality of 2021’s ‘Doctor.’

Following a fantastic debut and sophomore feature with 2018’s ‘Pariyerum Perumal’ and 2021’s ‘Karnan,’ Mari Selvaraj returns with his latest endeavour, the political family drama ‘Maamannan.’ Selvaraj focusses on tackling caste issues through his filmography, revealing the inhumanity and obstacles the Dalit community face under oppression and marginalisation.

‘Por Thozhil’ stands on a decent albeit formulaic plot, a good central performance from Sarathkumar and a progressively tense second half.

For this anthology, Amazon Prime made the intelligent decision of passing the mantle of Creative Producer to one of Kollywood’s best: Thiagarajan Kumararaja. The result of this is a collection of short films at least a few leagues above the standard witnessed in previous attempts.

Nelson Venkatesan’s previous outing was a well-made family entertainer called ‘Monster,’ starring a typically cartoonish SJ Suryah as a man haunted by a mouse. The film is innocent fun, which are two words I would not use to describe his most recent work ‘Farhana.’ Venkatesan completely shifts gears, to deliver a solidly thought-out thriller. It impressively weaves through themes of masks, desires and self-control. 

Venkat Prabhu’s latest cinematic offering arrives not too soon after his best work with 2021’s ‘Maanaadu’ and last year’s middlingly received ‘Manmadha Leelai.’ ‘Custody’ is a bilingual venture, featuring names from both the Tamil and Telugu film industry, including lead Naga Chaitanya. Despite a cult following for his films, Prabhu’s filmography has been spotty at best - ‘Mankatha’ seemed like a fluke until ‘Maanaadu.’ With ‘Custody,’ Prabhu has slipped back into cruise control. 

Seven months after the release of the first instalment of ‘Ponniyin Selvan,’ the conclusion of the two-part film hits screens worldwide.

Note: there are some cuts made to the theatrical release of 'Soppana Sundari' in the UK to suit the family audience.

TW: distressing scenes 

Perhaps it is due to the subpar content being dished out by the star vehicles of Tamil cinema in recent times, but Obeli N. Krishna’s ‘Pathu Thala’ was surprisingly palatable. Starting out as an associate director to Gautham Vasudev Menon in the early part of his career, Krishna’s directorial debut, 2006’s ‘Sillunu Oru Kadhal,’ was mostly remembered for its great soundtrack and the buzz behind its real life lead pair. His latest offering strays from the romance genre, instead opting for a tried and tested masala gangster story. The film is a remake of the 2017 Kannada film ‘Mufti.’

Overall, ‘Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’ is a film about duality: both a wonderful slice of life film and a philosophical work of magical realism. Equally importantly, it is a masterful display of fantastic filmmaking, both simple and brilliant.

Despite a decent core concept, ‘Vaathi’ fails to land due to its contradictory internal thought process. If writer/director Venky Atluri had thought through the lesson he wished to teach, he would have understood that the standard formulaic ‘masala’ treatment would not work.