Bhuvanesh Chandar
The Hindu
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.