Century Strikers Of 2011 ~ World Cinema News

Cinemimi[Thursday, January 12, 2012]
At a time when there's a lot of competition from not just within the same industry but other languages as well, and when films hardly survive a few weeks in theatres, there are few quality entertainers that see a successful 100 day run or more as well.

Cinemimi Team takes a look at few of these films that ran for 100 or more days in screens in 2011...Aadukalam

'Aadukalam' is one film that made Tamil cinema proud at every aspect, what with the number of awards it swept at the National Awards ceremony and international accolades that poured in for the film. It's not always that critical acclaim and commercial success go hand in hand, but this film tasted success at both the fronts, three cheers to sheer hard work from Vetrimaaran, Dhanush, Taapsee Pannu, GV Prakash and the entire team on their venture, which is sure to be treasured for a few more years to come.

Siruthai

Karthi and his convincing dual performance as Rocket Raja and Ratnavel Pandian IPS took audience by storm. It was one commercial treat loaded with emotion, romance and comedy and the scenes featuring Karthi and Santhanam are still popular. The on-screen chemistry between Karthi & Tamannah Bhatia sizzled as well. However, the highlight was the quick yet the convincing transformation of Karthi from being a reckless thief to a fierce police official.

Kaavalan

'Kaavalan' is probably a favourite to Ilayathalapathy Vijay fans for it featured the actor in a breezy romantic entertainer after quite sometime and it weaved magic among fans. The film that's a remake of Malayalam blockbuster 'Bodyguard' featured Vijay, Asin and Mithra Kurian in lead roles and opened to positive reviews. It was also screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

'Ko' is indefinitely one of the biggest hits of the year. This film that released in mid 2011 came as a perfect summer treat for not just Tamil film patrons but also Telugu folk, for it was dubbed and released as 'Rangam' which saw a 100 day run as well! The movie has Jiiva, Ajmal, Karthika Nair and Pia Bajpai in the lead roles and is directed by KV Anand. It may be mentioned that the success of 'Ko' took its protagonist Jiiva to the next level in the industry. With KV Anand's slick direction that's loaded with commercial elements, the film threw light on politics with Jiiva as a terrific photojournalist.

Vaanam
This multi-starrer was loaded with not just commercial elements but also a social message. The film that saw Simbu, Anushka, Bharath, Prakash Raj, Sonia Aggarwal and Saranya Ponvannan in the lead shows the happenings of one day, 31st December, and is an anthology where all these lead characters come together in the end. It shows the role of money in the leads' lives and terrorism. The movie was appreciated critically for performance by the ensemble of stars.

Mankatha

Only Ajith could have pulled off such a role with ease. After doing 49 films as a hero, the actor turned an out-and-out baddie in 'Mankatha' with grey shades till the very end of the film and wowed his fans! Ajith in his salt and pepper hairdo garnered the attention and appreciation of one and all. This film that marked Thala's 50th film saw a huge opening and saw an ensemble of stars including Trisha, Lakshmi Rai, Premgi and others in the lead and is directed by Venkat Prabhu with music by Yuvan.

Deiva Thirumagal

The role of Krishna was tailor made for Vikram. As a few critics cited, this film made even the toughest of men shed a tear or two. The film saw Vikram as a mentally challenged adult whose life is all about his lil' daughter, Sara. Three cheers to AL Vijay for a clean family entertainer that lingered in the hearts of audience even long after watching the film.

Kanchana

This comedy horror entertainer that's produced and directed by the multi-faceted Raghava Lawrence ran to packed theatres in Tamil and Telugu. This non-spooky ghost film had a strong social message neatly intertwined in the plot and B-town makers are vying to remake this project with top-notch actors shortly (it is said that Shahrukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt will be seen in the Hindi version, but it hasn't been announced officially). A major plus for 'Kanchana' is that the film catered to all the centers.