Baththa
2026 · The Hindu
Baththa, which starts as any other gangster drama, truly comes to life during this unique, darkly comical inciting incident involving Sabari and Baththa. But in a typical Balaji Tharaneetharan manner, the screenplay makes you both cry and laugh at Baththa. Baththa is necessary today.
Pyaar Prema Kalyanam
2026 · The Hindu
Unfortunately, the filmmaker seems ill-equipped to handle that style of cinema. He trades bite for some cheap pleasures and a candy-flossy outlook, and the result is a harmless, well-intentioned yet shallow film. Seemingly written for the reel-viewing generation, PPK ends up as a glossy film whose good intentions rarely make a mark.
29
2026 · The Hindu
Though Rathna ends the film with mixed results in the ambitious exploration of identity, it is the romance subplot that has a beating heart. Rathna shows impressive conviction in his writing, staging and picturisation, which shines through even in the weaker portions of the film.
Blast
2026 · The Hindu
In a different film, where more ingenious ideas are spring-loaded for mass elevations, Blast would have truly become her career-defining big bang. That said, Blast is a Preity Mukundhan show all along, and the Star-actor knows how to pack a punch, alright!
Vishwanath & Sons
2026 · The Hindu
With this complicated father-son relationship at its core, director Venky Atluri's family drama ends up as a well-written, larger-than-life entertainer that not only feels wholesome, but also bats for the right progressive registers. This is good pure-genre masala cinema.
Magudam
2026 · The Hindu
If you haven't caught the drift yet, this three-hour-long gangster saga is a terribly contrived and amateurish actioner. Over three long hours, Magudam manages to do something many bad films couldn't: make film-watching feel like a punishment.
Jana Nayagan
2026 · The Hindu
The overstuffed narrative keeps shuttling from one idea to the next; instead of bettering the template, the director sticks to recreating most of it, while also writing a lengthy third act which balloons the film to a whopping 183 minutes. Right from the first act, the screenplay impatiently brushes through several events at breakneck speed, thus losing much of the necessary emotional heft needed to anchor this story.
Idhayam Murali
2026 · The Hindu
Idhayam Murali charms you with an extremely likeable premise to tell a coming-of-age story that sometimes suffers from inadequate substance and struggles to land its high moments smoothly. While the film understands the feeling of unrequited love, it never builds the emotional depth needed to make those moments linger.
Gatta Kusthi 2
2026 · The Hindu
Gatta Kusthi 2 not only betters its predecessor but also comes close — just about — to redeeming the problems in the first film. However, the last thirty minutes of Gatta Kusthi 2 almost upend all the good it had done till then, as the director resorts to brain-numbingly regressive tropes and cop-out climactic choices.
Con City
2026 · The Hindu
Con City is the latest addition to the long list of Tamil mid-budget flicks that rely too heavily on an interesting one-liner to squander away character depth and ingenuity. After a point, when the convenient turns pile up one after the other, the film doesn't have the wit to turn it all into a comedy, and you can't help but feel indifference towards the characters. Overall, Con City only feels like watching a worn-out magician energetically perform a long-debunked magic trick.
Karuppu
2026 · The Hindu
This is the mass masala film Suriya fans have been waiting for. It features Suriya in a never-before-seen avatar and offers endless fan service through callbacks to the star's filmography. But it is also RJ Balaji's film, out and out, one in which he plays to his strengths and emerges largely victorious in the enormous challenge of helming a mass hero film.
Normal
2026 · The Hindu
Normal is a blood-slick popcorn actioner that offers the gleeful satisfaction of watching those brainrot puzzle videos on YouTube. There's hardly a moment when Normal takes itself seriously, with every action set piece reveling in a hilariously grisly and macabre sense of cinematic violence.
DC
2026 · The Hindu
After a point, though, the violence-heavy action feels repetitive and without proper emotional propulsion. The primary issue plaguing the film is the weak emotional core. A lot could have at least been done to make us root for Das and Chandra's relationship.
Maharaja
2024 · The Hindu
It's not the ideas or the situations that are meant to grip you, but more by how they are executed; Nithilan meticulously works on the writing to show evil as banally as possible.
Rathnam
2024 · The Hindu
Unfortunately in Rathnam, even when Hari is visibly giving his all to make a captivating actioner to re-introduce his style, only the intrigue in how he plays up his tropes this time hooks you up more than the film itself. Over-the-top melodrama, ineffective punchlines, excessive use of background score, scenes straight out of a television soap to appease 'family audiences'...even when he's trying to renew himself, the result remains as outdated as it can get.
Annapoorani
2023 · The Hindu
Debutant Nilesh Krishnaa's film is filled with many heartfelt, well-intentioned ideas that are neither cooked to our heart's content nor have the consistency or presentation to see through the perfect meal it so desperately wishes to be. The ideas are appetising but the film is not delectable. Annapoorani is ample if you're hungry and looking for a small kiosk to snack. If you're too keen on consistency and an appetizing presentation, there's little it has to offer you.
Enemy Of The Smuggler
2026 · The Hindu · Nov 2026
Enemy of the Smuggler could have been a neat little gangster drama had it had the conviction to be more straightforward. However, such moments of ingenuity are constantly interrupted by bouts of formulaic filmmaking. One wishes the filmmaker had trusted his own experience a little more, for the more compelling film here is the one buried beneath all the unnecessary cinematic embellishments.
Jailer 2
2026 · The Hindu · Oct 2026
Nelson betters the 'Jailer' template with a well-calibrated sequel that knows when to let Rajini loose and fills the in-between stretches with riotous humour and narrative build-up. But all these complaints hardly spoil what is otherwise a smooth, entertaining film. Jailer 2, especially, is proof of a serious filmmaker at the helm, who is also, incidentally, the funniest.
Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai
2026 · The Hindu · Oct 2026
An unnecessary fight sequence, a sudden twist featuring a young boy, and an ambiguous ending close what is Ram's weakest, most emotionally distant feature film yet. In the midst of all this, there's a compelling Ram film somewhere, but one wonders if the cost of searching for it is two hours of a mortal audience's time.
Dorothy
2026 · The Hindu · Sep 2026
Dorothy might be the start of a queer revolution in mainstream Tamil cinema, and Karthik has shown real effort to understand some of what queer life in India means. All it took was one audacious filmmaker, a daring producer, and a passionate cast to pull off what might just become the most important Indian film of the year.
Sardar 2
2026 · The Hindu · Sep 2026
If only the second half had reached such heights, Sardar 2 could have become one of the most satisfying action films of its generation. After the intermission, the film loses steam, especially during an underwhelming scene at a fort. Though it ends on an underwhelming note, Sardar 2 has enough going for it to warrant a watch.
Mandaadi
2026 · The Hindu · Sep 2026
Mandaadi is another example of how good, earnest writing and filmmaking can deliver a neat, engaging film even with a routine template. The sailboat racing scenes stand out as major highlights, with meticulously planned and executed action choreography, and the film shines best when it stays on the many personal, complicated spaces between the characters.
Hi
2026 · The Hindu · Aug 2026
Hi is precisely that quintessential comfort film that Tamil cinema has been missing for quite some time. Even if you nitpick, Hi will convince you to forgive it, for there's real effort to make a clean, honest film. This film proves all those sentiments about good family entertainers being a sign of the industry's good health.
With Love
2026 · The Hindu · Feb 2026
With Love, directed by Madhan, is a straightforward rom-com that is aware of the emotional register it is aiming for, but lacks the substance to build to it organically. Without any convincing psychological backing to this journey, the rest of the film rests on how they find Anisha and Balaji, and even in those regards, the film ends up with mixed results.
Stephen
2025 · The Hindu · Dec 2025
Stephen spends much of its two-hour runtime appearing as a run-of-the-mill psychopath story... the film appears quite amateurish, playing all the keys of a forgettable melody. However, the brilliance in the script comes to the fore when the writer makes even the audience empathise with Stephen, and the inventive climax reinvents the serial killer archetype—though Stephen fumbles as it never feels like a pulsating crescendo reaching its peak.
Bison Kaalamaadan
2025 · The Hindu · Oct 2025
It's a politically sharp and tonally strong drama that is also his most commercially conventional work yet. It's not every Friday that multiple genres blend this seamlessly, and Bison fuses elements of a sports drama, a biopic, a social actioner, and a gangster saga into a singular experience. Mari Selvaraj has long immortalised his name as a rare game-changer.
Madharaasi
2025 · The Hindu · Sep 2025
Madharaasi, thankfully, comes as a saving grace, showing how impactful action can be when propelled by well-written pathos. It also shows how writers can weave in social themes without pandering to the crowd. Above all, it's Sivakarthikeyan who dominates the screen, slipping comfortably into the ebbs and flows of a peculiar man with 'animal instincts.'
Maargan
2025 · The Hindu · Jun 2025
Despite such wild ideas in the mix, Leo John Paul's Maargan impressively brings it all together to a large extent, becoming a thoroughly engaging thriller. However, the film fails in its final act, forcing a blunt reality upon us and ending with an in-your-face moral lesson that turns didactic, undermining the supernatural elevation that made the investigation compelling.
Test
2025 · The Hindu · Apr 2025
Sashikanth's directorial debut is a competent showcase of his abilities as a director. At a time when films largely rely on curveballs and subversions to keep the audiences gripped, Test refuses to become a T20 and prioritises character over plot. What plays spoilsport to such a smooth-sailing film is its cop-out final act, where intricate knots are conveniently and hurriedly dealt with.
Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2
2025 · The Hindu · Mar 2025
Where Veera Dheera Sooran stands out, for the most part, is how information is withheld and how scenes are conceived. Yet, even through all that, Vikram keeps us glued to the screens. Veera Dheera Sooran is what fans of Vikram have longed for, but it isn't just for them.
Dragon
2025 · The Hindu · Feb 2025
Dragon is a thoroughly entertaining dramedy about a boy-next-door, and it also features an imperfect hero who learns a thing or two about doing the right thing. It's the sweet spot between the sensibilities of Pradeep and Ashwath, capturing the zeitgeist with a modern take on stories that need to be told at a time when unemployment, social media-driven envy, and a general sense of dissatisfaction have gripped the youth.
Vettaiyan
2024 · The Hindu · Oct 2024
Vettaiyan is a brave attempt to do something the moral compasses of Tamil cinema have long been wishing for, and it's arguably one of the best Rajinikanth films since Kaala. However, as thoughtful as Gnanavel was about stylising and staging the encounter scenes, he seems to have struggled to find a pitch for what he really had to say. The film's conceit rests more on how it deceives the audiences' judgement in the investigation, rather than organically making a stand against it and writing impactful dialogues against these killings.
Vaazhai
2024 · The Hindu · Aug 2024
With Vaazhai, Mari Selvaraj — apart from showing you who he is — makes you smile, laugh, think, and leaves you with a lump in your throat. Vaazhai is as measured a story gets to be told in modern-day mainstream cinema. From how the frames are composed to how shots are juxtaposed, it's poetry in motion.
Raayan
2024 · The Hindu · Jul 2024
But to much dismay, this is all we get to know about him in the film, and the writing of his character contributes to Raayan falling short of all its promises, opting for a worn-out route, and ending up on a disappointing note. Raayan, however, neither holds up to the standards of the actor in Asuran nor the director in Pa Paandi.
Star
2024 · The Hindu · May 2024
There's a lot of heart in everything filmmaker Elan wishes to tell through Star, but sometimes, what we do in the name of love might not be how something truly needs to be loved, and this is the case with the way Elan decides to flesh out his ideas. It is only the memory of these few moments — and the inert good intentions of the film — that makes Star shine even when it falls.
Leo
2023 · The Hindu · Oct 2023
Lokesh's Leo, to much disappointment, derails here, becoming his weakest film to date. It loses out on the whole 'Who is Leo Das and why did he turn against his own people?' question, the pillar on which the entire film rests. Even a stunningly-conceived car chase sequence cannot save this actioner from losing its zeal; the many boring knife fights only dampen it further.
Maaveeran
2023 · The Hindu · Jul 2023
Not every Friday do you get the satisfaction of stepping out of a through-and-through entertainer that leaves you with nuggets of afterthoughts after engaging you for more than two hours, attempts a political-superhero film that is rooted in its milieu, and does all of this while underplaying or subverting the conventional tropes while also appeasing the commercial cinema audience. Maaveeran ticks all these boxes.
Pathu Thala
2023 · The Hindu · Mar 2023
The screenplay of Pathu Thala is woven tight — more than the source material — but there are too many issues in how this film is paced. None of the characters manages to create an impact, and everything feels rushed. This remake is a good case study of how it isn't enough to infuse more novelty on paper if the same doesn't translate to the screen.
Kabzaa
2023 · The Hindu · Mar 2023
Kabzaa makes one wonder if 'inspiration' was an understatement, for the entirety of the film, from start to finish, feels like a rushed KGF rip-off loaded with empty shells of everything that made Neel's films enjoyable masala cinema. The film is so flat that you feel no real connection to the characters or the proceedings.
Dada
2023 · The Hindu · Feb 2023
In DaDa, debutant Ganesh K Babu writes a solid storyline with this and the film is impressive despite the conventional treatment of the screenplay. Most of the emotional beats land well, and if only for a bit more novelty in how the story progresses, DaDa might have become more than what it settled to be. It nevertheless is an effort that is definitely worth a watch.
Veera Simha Reddy
2023 · The Hindu · Jan 2023
Veera Simha Reddy is anything but an engaging package. It has a tepid storyline that works against such 'Balayya moments' and the writing is all over the place. In Veera Simha Reddy, we have a loosely knit and archaic narrative told through a template screenplay.