Gopinath Rajendran

‘God works in mysterious ways’ they say, and in a way, love does too. While the romance genre itself is done to death in all art forms, very few Tamil films have captured the intricacies of contemporary relationships and the multiple factors that might have to fall into place for them to work. The latest to join the elusive list is director Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s Kadhalikka Neramillai starring the fantastic duo, Nithya Menen and Ravi Mohan. In Kadhalikka Neramillai, Shreya (Nithya) and Sidharth (Ravi Mohan) are two oddballs with diametrically opposite belief systems, only their recent heartbreaks and profession being the common factor between them. While fate brings them together, the meet-cute leads to a dead end. When their paths cross years later, one is now a single parent while the other gets an unwelcome visitor from their past. Whether they put aside their differences and come together forms the rest of Kadhalikka Neramillai.

One of the oldest tricks in the cinematic book of twists is introducing car accidents. Tamil cinema’s tryst with it has been a long-standing one. Just a small flip through the memory reminds me of films like Kushi, Kovil, Manmadan Ambu and even recent flicks like Star and Thiruchitrambalam. When it results in impending tragedy for our protagonist or those affiliated with them, most films leave us wishing that fateful day never happened. While the conflict in Shane Nigam’s Tamil debut Madraskaaran also happens to be the same, given the number of times it happens, it’s also the first time one might probably feel that the protagonist should never be allowed to take the wheel and his driving license immediately cancelled.

A long, icy road is the first shot of Kraven the Hunter, the sixth film in the infamous Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Given how all the other films, except the Venom movies, turned out to be fiascos, the very first shot of Kraven felt like a metaphor for the studio’s long and trying journey with Marvel’s IPs. After all, it’s not a lot to work with when you only have characters commonly associated with Spider-Man and you cannot even use the friendly neighbourhood superhero. Despite being far better than Morbius and Madame Web, Sony’s latest and possibly final superhero outing, Kraven the Hunter, still misses its mark by miles.

If you are one of those die-hard cinephiles who believe Die Hard is a Christmas film (along with the first two Home Alone flicks), then Netflix’s latest offering may very well make it to that coveted list of yours. Jaume Collet-Serra, the mastermind behind some simple yet efficient nail-biting action thrillers is back and while he’s not teaming up with Liam Neeson this time, he’s got an efficient Taron Egerton and a cast-against-the-grain Jason Bateman facing it off in Carry-On.

Moana is back for another adventure! Whether that’s even necessary is a different question considering the first film, which came out eight years ago, was one of Walt Disney Animation films’ best outings of all time and a well-rounded product on its own. Our titular hero became a wayfinder, turned buddies with the demigod Maui by retrieving his fishhook and in due course, took her fellow Motunui people back into the sea as voyagers like how their ancestors once were. Moana 2 puts our heroes back in the open ocean on a new adventure that makes us wonder what’s the sea creature equivalent of a cash cow.

‘Technicolour’ seems to be the word of the week when it comes to the releases this Friday. If The Colours Within and Wicked from two different corners of the world are technicolour spectacles, director Karthick Naren’s latest outing, Nirangal Moondru, not only makes for an addition to that list but also treats the three-color process as a metaphor for the men who populate its vibrant world.

A Roman general, in a bid to expand his base, ventures out into the open sea with his army. Before you think you have inadvertently clicked the link to the review of Gladiator 2, fret not; this is how Kanguva begins. The fascinating story of director Siva’s Kanguva stretches from a legendary island’s hills to the sandy shores of Goa; it even transcends time as its proceedings occur in two different timelines. But whether they amalgamate to make for an intriguing watch is a different question altogether.

“When the guns roar, the arts die,” said celebrated playwright Arthur Miller. Many art masterpieces have been swallowed up by wars but art, like the ever-forgiving land that has caused countless battles, has withstood it all. It has been the blank canvas to paint everything from propaganda films to anti-war movies. While many of them resort to skewed agendas, director Rajkumar Periasamy takes the road less travelled with Amaran, and along with producer Kamal Haasan and powerhouse performances from Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi, the filmmaker delivers an evocative biopic of Major Mukund Varadarajan.