Tamil cinema’s biggest surprises of 2022: From ‘Love Today’ to ‘Vilangu’

Here’s a rundown of how Tamil cinema’s creators surprised or shocked the audiences in 2022, the first year since the pandemic in which theatres in TN were open for a full calendar year

It’s the inevitable unpredictability that fuels most conversations around cinema. The beauty of any art form is its ability to break all hypotheses, throw out all schemes and set structures, and retain the ultimate control to itself. Tamil audiences have grown to expect the unexpected, and to suspect the worst from anyone and everyone.... but sometimes creators take the cake as well. Post the pandemic, 2022 was the first year in which theatres in Tamil Nadu were open for a full calendar year, and we had enough surprises and shocks in store on both streaming and the big screen.

While most knew Darbuka Siva as the composer of Enai Noki Paayum Thota, the filmmaker in him delivered a pleasant surprise with Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee, a teen rom-com, with a cast of newcomers, that captivated younger audiences and served as a beautiful throwback piece for the ‘90s kids.

Also, did any of you expect Cibi Chakravarthi’s Donto be such a hilarious college drama? After more than ten years, Sivakarthikeyan embraced the fact that he is the perfect star for a college entertainer, and he lived up to the reputation of his moniker ‘Prince,’ despite the disappointing aftertaste of his film with Anudeep KV.

Dhanush is one of the most unpredictable stars in Tamil cinema, and 2022 was yet another testament to that. The year started on a terrible note; his film with Karthick Naren, Maaran, was unbelievably amateurish. Quoting our review of the film, it came across as a “terrible mish-mash of scenes stitched together in a haphazard manner.”

But Dhanush soon went on to do Dhanush-like things, and after The Gray Man, the star took all our collective breaths away with one of our favourite films of the year, Thiruchitrambalam, in a grounding story of a man dealing with trauma which doubled as an endearing rom-com. Unfortunately, his next release Naane Varuvean didn’t quite hit the mark.

Since before the streaming boom, Tamil content creators have been trying to crack the long-format crime thriller. 2022 brought more than half a dozen of these titles; like the underwhelming Tamil Rockerz, a could-have-been-better Irai, a middling Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie, an excellent Suzhal: The Vortex, and more. Suzhal, which hailed from Pushkar-Gayathri, is in fact one of India’s biggest successes on OTT in recent years.

But ZEE5’s Vilangu takes the cake as the most surprising entrant to this list. Prasanth Pandiyaraj’s series stars Vemal as a small-town sub-inspector of police, who is tasked with solving a series of crimes. When he finds a mutilated body, the narrative begins to take many twists and turns. A grounding treatment of a neat investigation helped the show tremendously and it manages to pack in many surprises in its seven-episode run.