Tamil cinema in 2024: Where biggies failed to deliver and smaller films took centre stage
The HinduWith the curtains drawing on 2024, Tamil cinema had its most tumultuous run post-pandemic this year. But none of these films could match the disappointment the two most-awaited biggies gave this year: director Shankar and Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2 and director Siva and Suriya’s Kanguva. Suresh Mari’s J Baby — starring the veteran Urvashi in arguably the best performance by an actor in Tamil cinema this year — is an underrated gem. Rise of the multi-starrers While Tamil cinema has long forgotten its ‘double-hero’ subject films featuring top stars which were a mainstay a couple of decades ago, the pan-Indian trend has made way for a slew of multi-starrers and this year the count went up considerably. Despite a bunch of aforementioned tracks making the cut, it’s a far cry from the usual number of tracks that would end up as yearly chartbusters given how yesteryear Tamil cult classics like ‘Kanmani Anbodu’ from Gunaa and ‘Azhagiya Laila’ from Ullathai Allitha were used this year in Malayalam films Manjummel Boys and Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil respectively.