Nassar: A talented actor and director with a nose for quality roles
Muhamed Hanif, better known by his screen name, Nassar, was introduced to the screen by K.Balachander in the 1985 film Kalyana Agathigal. Although the film failed at the box-office, audiences and critics appreciated th performance by Nassar, albeit in a minor role. After playing negative roles in Rajinikanth’s Velaikaaran and Karthik’s Vanna Kanavugal, he played […]
Selvaraghavan Birthday Special
Selvaraghavan is the elder brother of actor Dhanush. He made his unofficial debut as a director through Dhanush’s debut movie, Thulluvadho Illamai where their father, Kasthuriraja was credited as the director. His official debut came with Kaadhal Konndain in 2003 – probably his best work to date. He then made his foray into other themes […]
Sripriya – Versatile and talented actress
Actress Sripriya starred in more than 300 films in various languages, with approximately 200 of them in Tamil. She has also directed films in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu, including the 2014 Telugu remake of Drishyam. She made her debut in the semi-religious film Murugan Kaatiya Vazhi directed by P.Madhavan and soon found herself sharing the […]
How South Africans were robbed of celebrating Illaiyaraja’s genius
With the countdown on for the official launch of Illaiyaraja’s Symphony Number 1, the first symphony ever by an Indian composer, it is important to reflect on the way Illaiyaraja is seen by South African- Tamilians of all ages and, more importantly, on how this perception of Illaiyaraja and his music came about. Illaiyaraja made […]
Gautham Vasudev Menon – Overcoming challenges in style
Bold. Audacious, Outspoken, Courageous. These are just some of the adjectives one can use to describe maverick director Gautham Vasudev Menon whose films set in urban India have found particular favour with those living outside of India, while still delighting a significant percentage of Indian movie fans. Gautham’s walk to his current level of success […]
History of Tamil Cinema – Part 9
CINEMATIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 1941 In this episode Ellis R Dungan and J Moylan together again One of the first releases of 1941 was the film Surya Puthri, another film directed by Elis R Dungan, assisted by J. Moylan. The film starred Kothamangalam Subbu and Kothamngaralam Seenu in the lead roles with KR Chellam, TR […]
History of Tamil Cinema – Part 8
In this episode * G Ramanathan transforms Tamil film music * Tamil cinema’s first dual role * Ellis R Dungan records more firsts for Tamil cinema * NS Krishnan’s own production makes waves * Social drama in a thriller format Presenting Carnatic music in a modern package: G Ramanathan Gopalan Ramanathan was orphaned at a […]
Sivakarthikeyan – Namma Veetu Pillai
The rise to fame of Sivakarthikeyan is an inspirational one. Like Rajinikanth, Sivakarthikeyan had many challenges in his career and has slowly worked himself up to his current position as one of the leading actors in his tier. Sivakarthikeyan was born on 17 February 1985 in the Sivagangai district to G Doss, a jail superintendent […]
What happened to Tamil religious movies?
Disclaimers In Tamil Nadu – a state where Hindus form 78.9% of the total population, it is surprising to note that Hindu religious films are now virtually non-existent. From the early days of silent cinema and the early talkies, religion, history and myth were the basis of almost all movies. The boom in religious films […]
Sigaram Top 15 Tamil films of 2024
Compiled and ranked by Devan Nair and Dhaarani Nair Introduction Sigaram is 90 days old today and it is time to look back at the best films of 2024. Last year, we featured a Top 10 list as at 01 November 2024, but there were some films that released after that date and more films […]