One of the most significant years in recent times for Tamil cinema is closing this weekend. This is the last respectable weekend of the year with a few decent films releasing including one from a super star Kamal. And as usual except the Kamal film all others were long delayed.

Manmadhan Ambu, Nellu, Aridhu Aridhu, Thenmerku Paruvakatru, Athisaya Manal Matha, Chutti Sathan-3D and Gandhipuram are the closing films of 2010 releasing this Friday.

This Friday the fun started a day early with ‘Manmadhan Ambu’ releasing on Thursday itself. The romantic comedy loosely adapted from ‘There’s Something About Mary’ is well received. Kamal’s strength in situation comedy is legendary and when an astute director KS Ravikumar at the helm you can expect sparklers to fly. Trisha and Madhavan, Sangeetha, Ramesh Arvind, Usha Uthup adds up star value. Suriya and ‘Kalavani’ Oviya are also in a cameo.

‘Manmadhan Ambu’ has all that exotic feel of Europe and the Mediterranean. Watching it will be a fitting good bye to an eventful year.

‘Nellu’, directed by M Sivashankar is based on the real incident Kizhvenmani Massacre in which 44 oppressed class agricultural laborers were burnt to death by upper caste landlords for seeking higher wages.

The sensitive theme of caste discriminations and their realistic portrayal faced some problems with the censor board and the release was delayed. Sathya, Bhagyanjali, Karthik and Varsha are the main actors supported by OAK Sundar and Vasu Vikram. ‘Nellu’ has some good songs penned by Na Muthukumar and Thamarai and set to music by SS Kumaran.

‘Aridhu Aridhu’ is an action-love story based on the line ‘Aridhu Aridhu Manidarai Pirathal Ardhu’, focusing on terrorism and violence that claim human lives every day. The story takes place in Chennai, Australia and New Zealand. It is directed by KR Mathivannan, who was an assistant to Shankar from Gentleman to Sivaji.

New faces Harish and Uthara from New Zealand are playing the lead characters. Uthara is a winner of a beauty contest in New Zealand in 2008. Thaman S has scored the music.

‘Thenmerku Paruvakatru’ is a rural themed emotional drama telling the bonding between a mother and her son. It is directed by Seenu Ramasamy of ‘Koodal Nagar’ fame. This film belongs to the histrionics of Saranya who has excelled as the mother to hero. Vasundhara of Vattaram and Peranmai pairs and debutant Sethu play the young leads. The ethnic songs of ‘Thenmerku Paruvakatru’ by NR Rahnanthan are already a hit.

‘Athisaya Manal Matha’ is a small budgeted film based on some miracles of Mother Mary. Vinu Chakravarthy, Ponnambalam and Vasu Vikram are some familiar faces in this film directed by R Shambathkumar. This is only releasing in a couple of obscure screens.

‘Chutti Sathan-3D’ is the third refreshed version of the first 3-D film made in India ‘My Dear Kuttichathan. With enhanced Digital Restoration this third version is the first digital release of the film. While the second version had Urmila Matondkar as added attraction the third version has Prakash Raj and Santhanam to add some contemporary value. The story of a friendly genie and its adventures with kids must be a treat to kids and family this holiday season.

The major dubbed film of this week is ‘Gandhipuram’ starring Gracy Singh, Ram, Bramhanandam, Priya Anand and Bindu Madhavi. ‘Gandhipuram’ is dubbed from Telugu ‘Rama Rama Krishna Krishna’ in which Arjun plays a ‘don’ Mumbai who returns to his native village ‘Gandhipuram’ after his dying wife pleads him to give up violence.

Sneha’s police action drama ‘Bhavani’ could not release this week as announced. The film continues to be mired in misfortunes despite brave attempts to get a smooth release.

There we come to the end of the year 2010. It has been an eventful year with many old rules broken and innovative ideas implemented. Stars were made out of nobodies and as the brightest spot, content ruled and everything else played second fiddle to the art of film making.

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