The 10 Tamil Films in 2022 That Defined Kollywood
Ask any fan of Tamil cinema about 2022 and you are likely to see a wide, nostalgic smile. This wasn’t just a “good” year; it was a comeback. It was the year we all remembered what it felt like to be in a crowded theater, laughing, crying and whooping together. After two years of such quiet, 2022 returned the big-screen spectacular in a way we haven’t seen in ages. But it wasn’t only the titans. For every Rs 500 crore monster that shattered records, there was a tiny little 'feel-good' film that stole our heart, or a violent, unflinching drama left us speechless.
And it proved to be a year in perfect balance. We got more of the heroes we loved out on screen, but characters who are also complex. We got earth-shattering background scores, and we also got gentle, soulful melodies. It was a year when a movie about a silent old pig farmer could loom as large as a generations-spanning epic, and a quiet little food delivery dude could rise up to become an enormous blockbuster. It was the year Tamil cinema showed it could do anything, and do it well. Here are 10 of the films that made it so.
Vikram
If 2022 was a party, Vikram could be the guy who kicked the door down. This was not just a movie; it was a cinematic event, a roar that sounded like nothing less than the “Aandavar” had landed, and he’d brought a whole new universe with him. The film is about a black-ops agent, Amar (the great Fahadh Faasil), looking to solve a series of vigilante killings. His search leads him to a masked cabal, a drug dealer named Sandhanam (a loose-cannon Vijay Sethupathi) and a ghost from the past: mild-mannered Karnan (Kamal Haasan), whose real identity is the film’s detonator.
This is Lokesh Kanagaraj in top gear, on fire. The movie, it is impossible not to note, is a master class in craft. Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography is slick and neon-flecked: Those inky blacks, those neon-drenched reds.And Philomin Raj’s editing is so sharp it could cut you. And then, there’s Anirudh. The BGM of Vikram is not the music, it is a main character, an adrenaline shot that transforms every scene to an anthem. Fans lost their minds over the “Agent Tina” fight, a jaw-dropping set piece so unexpected in its awesomeness that it pretty much changed what people thought could reasonably be considered “badass.” And of course, the interval. The slow-mo, the thundering score, that final clarion call — it wasn’t an intermission block: It was a crowning.
Ponniyin Selvan: I
Ponniyin Selvan had been Tamil cinema’s unfilmable ambition for decades. It was a tale so magnificent, so grand, that it existed only in the dog-eared pages of Kalki’s immortal epic and the minds of millions. Then, Mani Ratnam did it. PS-1 is a dazzling immersion in the time of the great Chola empire, an expansive political epic filled with warring princes, radiant princesses and sinister intrigues. The tale begins with the dashing warrior Vanthiyathevan (Karthi), whom the crown prince Aditha Karikalan (Vikram) sends to convey a message from him to his sister, Kundavai (Trisha), and the emperor of an empire called Sundara Chola, ultimately initiating a game of thrones that could pluck apart kingdoms.
As pedants who revere the books lamented the departures, audiences were transfixed. This is pure, grand-scale cinema. A.R. Rahman’s score is a character, too, steeped in historical context but timelessly epic — the “Ponni Nadhi” and “Chola Chola” songs are cultural belles of the ball to this day. But the movie’s visual soul is the cinematography of Ravi Varman. He paints with light from nature, and each frame of the mist-shrouded battlefields to the warm candle-lit glow of palaces looks like a Thanjavur painting come alive.” Karthi's portrayal of Vanthiyathevan, Of course handsome and wicked was the heart & soul of this film – Hand stacked up in terms of charm to overcome anyone either with his jokes or heroic touch!
Thiruchitrambalam
In a year of epics and explosions, Thiruchitrambalam was a bear hug. It was the movie that made us remember how nice a simple and sincere story can be. Dhanush is Pazham, a food delivery executive who leads a humdrum existence with his “thug” grandfather (a delightful Bharathiraja) and alienated, stern father (Prakash Raj). He traverses through failed romances and a trauma that runs deep, completely oblivious to the fact that his best friend, Shobana (Nithya Menen), is really whom he has been looking for all along. It’s a somewhat clichéd storyline, but with so much heart behind it that it feels as fresh as brand new.
What powers the film is its simplicity and above all, its chemistry. The relationship between Dhanush and Nithya Menen is the heart of the film, a simple, platonic friendship that somehow feels utterly real and lived-in. Their patio conversations are some of the most finely written scenes of the year. Anirudh’s music is the other soul of the film, as we escape ‘mass’ beats for his soulful and breezy album. For the massive hit “Megham Karukkatha,” a charmingly simple dance sequence was an anthem of joy. It’s a movie that doesn’t shout; it just smiles, and the audience smiled right back.
Gargi
Gargi was not so much a film you watched as an experience you endured. This no-holds-barred, gut-wrenching courtroom drama is one of the most important Tamil films of the decade. A career-high performance from Sai Pallavi, who portrays Gargi, a school teacher with a loving family rooted in the middle class. Her world comes crashing down when her father, whom she absolutely adores, is arrested and charged with an appalling unspeakable crime against a child. Left abandoned by her family and community, she embarks on an all-out battle for justice, with nothing but a bungling stuttering junior lawyer (a stupendous Kaali Venkat as Srinivasan) by her side.
The movie is a masterpiece of tension and misdirection, dragging the audience where it wants them to go before doing its best to yank out the rug from underneath them in one gutting final twist. But Gargi is about more than the twist. It's a gripping commentary on the justice system, and trial-by-media as well as our own prejudices. These scenes set in the courtroom are not powerful because of melodrama, but rather because they are not. Govind Vasantha’s score is a haunting, minimalist heartbeat heightening the sense of dread and the film was a trailblazing profile for featuring an out trans judge. It's a tough, vital, and unforgettable film.
Kadaisi Vivasayi
Once in a while, a movie happens that seems less like a movie than an example of poetry. Kadaisi Vivasayi (The Last Farmer) is that film. It’s about Maayaandi (played with superlative excellence by the incredibleul 85-year-old Nallandi), the last farmer in his village carrying on traditional farming techniques. When the village decides to have a festival, they tap him to produce the ceremonial grain. But that chain of events is so eccentric, and comes to seem so absurd — involving a dead peacock and a muddled opportunity taken by Roger — as to send this simple schlemiel off to prison, where we discover the movie is really a gentle, profound meditation on a dying way of life.
The director, M. Manikandan, who also shot the gorgeous, naturalistic cinematography, has made a movie that’s devoid of sensationalism in every sense of the word. Nobody is a villain, everyone is tactless and realistic. Vijay Sethupathi has a lovely cameo as a man on a spiritual journey; Yogi Babu is excellent as a man who has sold his farmland in exchange for an elephant. Santhosh Narayanan’s spare, gritty score mingles with the sounds of crickets and rain. The result is a quiet, powerful and deeply moving exploration of faith, bureaucracy and our estrangement from the land. This is a genuine work of art that will be passed down through generations.
Love Today
No one really saw Love Today coming. With its low budget and a director-actor who was barely into his 20s, the retro fantasy became a huge hit and captured the zeitgeist of its generation. Pradeep Ranganathan plays Uthaman who is in an ideal relationship with Nikitha (Ivana). But when time comes to haunt them, Nikitha’s strict father (Sathyaraj) sets one condition if they get married — give each other their phones for 24 hours. What ensues is a madcap, laugh-out-loud and all-too-real deep dive into the digital skeletons we too-often keep in our virtual closets.
The film’s genius is its nonstop, high-energy script and innovative visual gags — using social media chats, DMs and search histories to bring to life on screen. Pradeep’s sequences of absolute, frenzied panic during his “crash out” soon proved to be fan-favorites right away. Yet under all those laughs, the film turned out to be a Trojan horse for real conversations about privacy, trust and the curated “public” selves we project. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s funky BGM was the ideal accompaniment to the madness, and the “Mamakutty” and “Revi” subplots are still stuff of legends. It was the youth-connect film of the year.
Mahaan
What occurs when the man oppressed his entire life by “principle” finally rebels? MahaaN, a stylish and sprawling gangster epic is one such attempt to engage with this question. Chiyaan Vikram, in his element, portrays Gandhi Mahaan, the son of an anti-liquor crusader who on his 40th birthday goes for a night of rebellion. This same one night that takes his family from him, and with his “freedom” he decides to create one of the largest liquor empires. Decades after that, his long-lost son, Dada (a fiery Dhruv Vikram), a righteous cop, re-enters his life not for a family reunion but for revenge.
This is Karthik Subbaraj at his best, creating a visually complex, morally circuitous world. At its heart, the film is an ideological battle between a father who defends personal freedom and a son who brandishes dogma like a cudgel. Shreyaas Krishna’s cinematography is beautiful, and that of a slick, cool film. Santhosh Narayanan’s music too is another star, and songs such as “Naan Naan” sequences from “Soorayaattam” has gone to become iconic. Audiences adored the brutal “long-take” fight scene in the middle of the film, and the climax that cleverly substitutes a physical rumble for a high-stakes game of devastating wits.
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect
Rocketry is a passion-driven labour of love that was almost willed into being. IN playing the brilliant ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan who is wronged and betrayed, R. Madhavan transfigures himself from his directorial debut to such an extent that he ceases to act and becomes Nambi Narayanan. It’s a searing, frequently enraging biopic that tracks Narayanan’s life — from his genius days at Princeton to pioneering work on the Vikas engine in France — to 1994’s notorious espionage scandal that derailed his career, ruined his reputation and destroyed his family.
It is a raw, unsparing examination of the human cost wrought by bureaucratic and political collusion. The science of rocketry is a slow, fascinating if somewhat dense dive for the first half but here in its heart we find the film: where the film’s heart is. Scenes of Nambi being tortured and, more wrenchingly still, the hardships his family faces from their own community are nearly too much to bear. Framed by a present-day interview with Suriya (in heavy cameo mode), the film is a towering, must-tell story of an innocent patriot martyred and his decades-long battle to clear his name and salvage his reputation.
Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu
After an array of lighter films, the Gautham Menon-Silambarasan-A.R. Rahman combination was back with VTK, a rough and tough gangster-origin tale that was quite down to earth. Simbu Shiva, in powerhouse mode, plays Muthu, a poor lower-caste lad from a village who’s come to Mumbai with the dream of making some money by working at his friend’s jalebi parotta stall. He quickly realizes the stall is a front, and he is gradually, inexorably, drawn into the violent and dark world of the Tamil underworld.
This is a film of two halves, and Siddhartha Nuni's brilliant cinematography announces that separation. The village sections of life are almost inanimate, like still paintings representing Muthu’s freeze-frame existences. The second he arrives in Mumbai, the camera goes hand-held and frenzied, live to his new dangerous world. And the score by A.R. Rahman is a gem. The biggest, most meme-worthy moment of the film was the “Mallipoo” song — a oner sequence of gangsters that were completely out of their elements, in search for a brief taste of joy that was both beautiful and soul-crushing. A classic example of one that’s transcendent in all departments, including the interval scene when Muthu changes gear and takes violence as an option is still a “must-max” transformation scene.
Sardar
Karti announced himself as the king of content backed biggie with Sardar. This brisk, intelligent spy-thriller had a socially conscious kernel running through it. Karthi, running with the first of his two roles, plays Vijay, a selfie-seeking “cool” cop who wants to shake off being known as a “traitor”, like his father – a spy that vanished 30 years ago. When the death of a social activist sends him on the scent of a giant corporation, he discovers an AUTO-Cad blueprint that leads directly back to his dad, the legendary long-lost spy Sardar (Karthi, again).
Astronauts on a fictional mission to Mars, we learn how small a step it has been from our world of modular kitchens and shiny water taps.4) KaduguWhat starts like an unusual heroine’s story—roughed out with flushes of improbable humor —swerves into the far more serious territory of moral dilemmas in director Vijay Milton’s drama about society bouncing off its poorest.5) KaithiThe sights that director Lokesh Kanagaraj uncorks inside his night-night film are both exhilarating and affecting, none perhaps exceeding the magnificent final image: a flashing bulb through Taught Words caps everything else Dilli’s fight for good deserves.The sense is rewarding—the tanker tracks work up or motorway loops speed forward; but it is breaking away that infuses sweetness. Viewers The sequence "Chittagong jail" and the entire flashback which shows about Sardar's past was loved by fans. BGM Elevations:The BGM from G.V. Prakash Kumar was a perfect add up to the mass sequences and tense moments. The most emotional, fan-loved scene? When, after 30 years in a prison abroad, Sardar reads through a stack of newspapers and breaks down: He sacrificed his life for nothing. It was a hard-hitting, message-driven smash.