This Friday June 4 is rather unusual. It marked the first Friday after summer vacation and it has stealthily broken without a single film release. The only release of this week ‘Pensingam’ also did not target Friday and got released on Thursday for its own good enough reason.

The summer fever started well in advance as most of the producers held their films to make best use of the school vacation. If you carefully look at the summer releases, in the anxiety to cash in the summer vacation the producers went overcautious. The months of April and May saw 18 releases with all films releasing with its own strategic plans.

The real summer started on April 2 with ‘Paiyaa’. This Karthi-Lingusamy film held its nerve and took many by their feet. As a result there was no big release on April 9 except for a small film ‘Sivappu Mazhai’. And in the following week ‘Paiyaa’ was improving on his box office power that again made no film releasing on April 16. Films like Vaada, Guru Sishyan, Kadhal Meippada which were announced as early April releases were postponed indefinitely. But dubbed films had no fear factor and they behaved as usual. In fact the Vivek Oberoi’s high decibel Tamil dubbed film ‘Prince’ released the next week after ‘Paiyaa’. It sank with out a trace is another matter.

Again late in April there was an alarm woven around the release of ‘Sura’ starring Vijay and released by Sun Pictures in the fourth week. Unmindful of ‘Sura’ two films ‘Rettaichuzhi’ and ‘Bayam Ariyaan’ were released a week ahead of ‘Sura’. The small films had their talk in the first week but muted in the following weeks. The much expected ‘Sura’ released on April 30. Like ‘Paiyaa’, ‘Sura’ was also the single release of the week.

In May after seeing Sura’s performance for a week the much postponed films ‘Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam’ and ‘Guru Sishyan’ found their places in theatres. Supporting them were ‘Goripalayam’ and ‘Kuttipisasu’. All four films were of four different genres and that called in the different sets of audiences.

There was again a lull in the second Friday of May with no eventful release except for a small film ‘Kurukku Puthi’ releasing in a couple of remote mofusil theatres. Withstanding ‘Sura’, the third week of May saw a bunch of releases. Most of them were belated releases held up for various reasons from no takers to court cases. Magane En Marumagane, Maanja Velu, Kola Kolaya Mundhirikka, Kanagavel Kaakka and Kutra Pirivu all scrambled for good theatres and got some.

This was also considered a defensive move as Sun Picture announced their second release within a month. Sun Picture which usually spaces its films to make the maximum was ready to launch ‘Singam’ after ‘Sura’ evoked mixes responses from the audiences and theatre owners.

Sun Pictures ‘Singam’ was the last major release of summer and two films ‘Kadhalagi’ and ‘Kattradhu Kalavu’ dared to journey along with the hyped Suriya film. All the three are running successfully in its second week.

But this week was no major shake as just two films were released and that too dubbed films. ‘Enakka Unakka’ is the Tamil dubbed version of ‘Drona’ Telugu film, starring Nitin, Priyamani, Kelly Dorge, Mukhesh Rushi and others. The Telugu film released in 2009 is testing Tamil waters banking on the bikini acts of Priyamani. The other release of this week is the dubbed version of much anticipated Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi thriller Universal Soldier – 3 Regeneration.

In short 20 films made it as summer releases. But the success rate is awfully low. Except for ‘Paiyaa’ which started the summer and ‘Singam’ that ended the summer there is no film which can be unanimously called big hit. It is interesting to note that the younger brother Karthi gave the first hit and the elder brother Suriya gave the final hit. So the Summer-2010 undoubtedly belonged to the brothers.

Even the next Friday hasn’t forecasted a big release and that will keep the ‘Singam’ roaring for more days.