Directors are said to be the captains of their films and however talented they may be some times the winds overwhelm them and whisk away their cruises to another shore they were not proposed to hit. The same thing happened in Kollywood in 2010 with the directors. While some heartfelt efforts were received well some were forced out of mind too. While some detached direction created records there was enough variety particularly from the new comers.

In the process there were some new genre introduced for the first time in Tamil cinema, thanks to the brilliance of its directors. Debutante director Amudhan brought in a new genus called spoofing to the big screen with ‘Thamizh Padam’. Chimbudevan showcased cowboy comedy in ‘Irumbukottai Murattu Singam’ and Lingusamy did a road movie ‘Paiyaa’. What is more pleasing here is that all these three brave new attempts were lapped up by Tamil audience.

Then there were some directors who made a great film out of wafer thin stories with only there sheer talent. Here we insist on repeating the phrase “with only there sheer talent”. M Rajesh’s ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ and Hari’s ‘Singam’ are thin storylines that were made big by the directors. Then Gautham Menon’s contemporary romance was sweet and refreshing yet without a strong story. But for Gautham’s brilliance ‘VTV’ would have been an ordinary fare.

Suseendran, Vijay and Sasikumar managed to preserve their reputation as classy directors of never say die spirit with Naan Mahaan Alla, Madraspattinam and Easan respectively. Naan Mahaan Alla was an emotional action while Madraspattinam was a slick period film. Sasikumar returning after two years again chose a new milieu with a sharp dose of realism.

Among the rooted time-honoured directors many of them, except Shankar, were not in their proven elements. Mani Ratnam was surprisingly low in ‘Raavanan’. KS Ravikumar’s Jaggubai was down and out even before the release and Manmadhan Ambu was neither his film nor Kamal Haasan film. Selvaraghavan was forced to take more time for his next film after ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’. Karu Palaniappan could not cut ice even though his Mandhira Punnagai was rare and unusual.Veteran K Bhagyaraj in ‘Siddu Plus Two’ was far from the times of the day. None of his lucky factor in ‘Thillalagadi’ could help Jayam Raja, neither his Telugu script nor his Jayam Ravi.

Some promising faces in this department like Pushkar: Gayatri, Mithran Jawahar and Samy said they need more time to come back. Pushkar: Gayatri’s in ‘Va- Quarter Cutting’ and Samy in ‘Sindhu Samaveli’ could not live up even after the hype their films received. Mithran Jawahar’s both films with Dhanush – Kutty and Uthamaputhiran – were ordinary, clichéd and did not have much work for a director.

Click here to read - REWIND: The Directors of 2010 – Part II