Tollywood

This blog comes from someone with limited technical knowledge of filmmaking and it's my personal opinion. I am open to discussions, criticism, disagreements, or whatever comes with writing something like this. But at the end of the day, this is still my blog, and I pay 5k a year to maintain this domain so it's been so long so here you go!

This piece is mostly from an audience perspective, like how we, as viewers, are slowly becoming comfortable with mediocrity in commercial Tamil cinema. What once used to be one of the most demanding and intellectually responsive film audiences in India is slowly drifting into a culture of accepting nostalgia over narrative. (A completely distressed meme culture because of few digital mafias that are surrounding it, which is may be polarised or may be imperialised on a large scale, again, just my opinion)

And before anything else, I genuinely respect every filmmaker, AD, editor, cinematographer, production designer, writer, and especially actor because actors often walk into films with nothing but belief in the vision of the director, without always having control over the writing around them. I also have my best friend working endlessly in this industry, surviving terrible schedules and impossible production pressure. So this isn’t a rant against “people who make films.” It’s more about where the ecosystem of mainstream commercial Tamil cinema seems to be heading.

The first film my parents took me to in theaters was Sivaji when I was in UKG. The second was Ayan. My brother’s first theatrical film was Thuppakki. At that age, we probably understood nothing except the songs, the whistles, and not crying like the other kids in the theater.

But when you grow up, you understand so much about films like Sivaji, Ayan, Mankatha, Thuppakki, Vikram, Kaithi, Nayakan, Vadachennai, Vaanam, Anniyan, Thalapathi, CCV, and Ghilli, and these are not just mass films. They are examples of commercial cinema functioning at an extremely high level of craft with a strong STORY. I am repeating myself, the strongest screenplays carried these films!

Commercial cinema was never meant to be dumb cinema.

A good commercial film balances:

- star image

- screenplay rhythm

- emotional payoff

- musical highs

- interval blocks

- crowd elevation moments

- and most importantly, narrative momentum.

That balance is what made Tamil cinema special. For me personally, nothing comes close to Vikram in recent years. I had an absolute blast watching it in theaters. I was a grown-up college kid screaming at every frame. And honestly, I think it’s one of the finest commercial films made in Tamil cinema in the last decade. Because beyond the “moments,” Vikram actually understood staging, payoff, character entrances, score integration, and screenplay escalation. Every elevation in Vikram had purpose.

And somewhere after that, we fell into what I call the “Second Half Trap.” Most mainstream films today have enough material for a strong first half:

- a promising setup,

- a stylish intro,

- references,

- nostalgia callbacks,

- Maybe one strong action block. And then the writing collapses.

There’s no second act progression. No thematic escalation. No emotional layering. No screenplay discipline. The narrative simply starts surviving on references to older films and audience goodwill. That’s what frustrates me the most.

Tamil audiences once demanded writing.

We used to celebrate proper character arcs, layered antagonists, emotional continuity, good endings, musical storytelling, and strong rewatch value. Today, many films feel like stitched-together moments designed for theater reactions and Instagram edits rather than complete cinematic experiences.

The problem is not nostalgia itself. Nostalgia is powerful. The problem is when nostalgia becomes the substitute for writing. Many recent “comeback films” feel like spoof versions of an actor’s older classics using references, old mannerisms, legacy shots, callbacks, and recycled emotional beats without building anything new cinematically. Instead of creating iconic moments organically, films are borrowing iconicity from older films.

And audiences including me sometimes are accepting that because it reminds us of something we once loved. But did we actually watch a good film? Or did we just experience temporary emotional memory? That’s the bigger question.

Most films today genuinely feel like they should have ended at the interval. Now, a single “mass scene” or reaction image is enough to carry an entire film online for weeks, even if the overall writing is weak. We’ve slowly become audiences that celebrate fragments instead of complete films.

And what makes this more painful is that another industry right next to us is doing the exact opposite. YES, I AM FUCKING BIASED, BUT GIVE ME A REASON FOR NOT BEING BIASED. Malayalam cinema currently has the most intellectually engaged audience in Indian cinema.

You cannot fool that audience with noise.

That industry consistently:

- prioritises writers,

- encourages screenplay experimentation,

- respects performance-driven cinema,

- and allows actors to completely disappear into roles.

The biggest stars are comfortable playing flawed men, villains, emotionally weak characters, or socially uncomfortable roles without protecting the “hero image" in every single frame. And the audience accepts it because they trust storytelling more than stardom. That ecosystem matters.

Now coming to music and yes, this is extremely subjective. Please don’t tell me Karuppu had “great music.” I have zero talent to create music remotely close to that level technically, but personally, it felt more like sonic overload than emotional composition.

Too much percussion. Too much layering. Too much noise occupying the soundscape without melodic or lyrical clarity. And before people attack me, no, I don’t think Sai is anywhere close to what Anirudh built as a cultural music ecosystem in Tamil cinema.

Now the Goats like ARR or Harris and even Anirudh failing sometimes are these:

- pushed live performance culture,

- constantly introduced new vocal textures and singers,

- understood hook structures,

- and created theatrical musical highs while still retaining melodic identity.

Sai’s sound design works in certain worlds like Karuppu, yes. But I personally don’t see long-term emotional musical identity there yet. Again, opinion.

And honestly, RJB screaming inside the Rohini theater for a film that felt structurally average confused me, like, bro, chill. Nothing was there for you to celebrate like that?

Did the film truly maximize Suriya as a performer outside the final stretch?

Were the visuals genuinely cinematic? Or were we watching stylized, anime-inspired frames stitched together with excessive digital enhancement, i.e., AI at its core and weak emotional continuity in the second half?

And to everyone saying Karuppu is Suriya’s big comeback film (SLOW CLAPS BROTHER), I completely disagree.

Go back to May 1st, 2025. Watch Retro again. Retro would be one of the weakest writings of Kartik but it was 100x better than Karuppu. He maximized Suriya as an actor from a disaster like Kanguva. I will argue for an entire day that Retro was a significantly stronger film.

And this entire discussion is not really about Karuppu alone.

It’s about us. As audiences. We are slowly losing the ability or maybe the patience to demand complete commercial filmmaking again. Today, many films are surviving purely on nostalgia and meme amplification while actual screenplay quality keeps dropping.

And maybe the saddest part is: we know it.

But we still accept it for ₹500 because at least we got one nostalgic whistle moment. (₹1500 in my case watching Karuppu, which probably explains the emotional damage behind this blog.) And honestly, this should not become a Suriya hate piece because I truly respect that man. I still believe he has one of the best emotional performance ranges among mainstream Tamil actors. And hopefully, my man Jithu Madhavan will do the cooking! THE GOAT OF MALAYALAM CINEMA WILL SAVE SURIYA AND A LIFETIME SETTLEMENT FROM MY END IF THE FILM FLOPS!

AND SUPER HYPED FOR DC! That's it from my end. I didn't want to talk about life and tell "Life is great and enjoy the max" kind of words because it's not what it is. I understood that I think it's just the imbalance that just kind of keeps all of us just sailing through!

Need some cringe content? You can watch this below vlog!

https://youtu.be/KKP3Jm9twrY?si=I8-jF4faHtBTUrhR