All eyes on Coolie: Can Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj flip issues round for Tamil mass cinema in 2025?

The stage is ready, however there’s palpable rigidity within the crowd. A crowd-favourite native flavour has pale from the routine. There’s chatter the place chatter’s all the time well-known for — be it about an upcoming romance comedy tackling divorce, or Rathnavelu’s return to hunt vengeance from #Maamannan in a street thriller, or that of a debutant music composer making the waves. But there’s silence within the balcony rows. A quiet storm has been brewing in #Tamil cinema, and the highlight bears down on one of many greatest superstars, getting into his fiftieth 12 months within the trade, to rise to the event.

“But has there been a dearth of mass movies?” you would possibly marvel. Yes, there’s a shortage of good big-star mass flicks. For greater than a 12 months and a half, considerations have been raised concerning the state of big-star mass business movies and the unreliable hit charge among the many superstars, which has led to a disbelief in mass filmmaking. On the one hand, there was a shift in syntax, with many stars seeing worth in breaking out of the mould. A results of redundant formulaic hero autos and an obvious shift in the direction of realism has led to a sentiment many appear to echo — “let’s wait till the opinions are out; we now have been disillusioned sufficient.”

After a promising 2023, through which large stars and smaller diamonds shone brilliant on the silver display screen, #Tamil cinema went by a uninteresting patch in 2024. No big-star mass movies clicked on each the vital and business elements; solely Amaran and Maharaja, makes an attempt far faraway from standard mass, managed to tick the precise containers. And now, the primary half of 2025 has painted a fair startling picture — large stars don’t appear to have taken inventory of the dip.

On one hand, superstars have given in to their itch to experiment, which, although commendable, has added undue stress to successive tasks. Earlier this 12 months, famous person #Ajith Kumar tried out an off-beat try like Vidaamuyarchi— supposed to steer clear of the method — and adopted it up with Good Bad Ugly — which, whereas it grew to become a top-grosser, nonetheless ended up being ‘unconventionally mass,’ with an overload of fan-service that couldn’t impress the coveted ‘frequent audiences.’

#Karthik Subbaraj and SU Arun Kumar, too, have proven an absence of inclination in the direction of mass cinema, for good causes, in these instances. Arun’s Veera #Dheera Sooran: Part 2, starring Vikram, married ingenious screenwriting and immersive scene building, however critics and audiences had been left questioning if the occasional hero-appeasing moments felt slightly compelled. Retro, whereas it featured a implausible #Suriya, was a hit-or-miss for the bigger audiences; its experimental style shifts solely impressed the critics.

Even this 12 months’s Maarganand ACE, although helped by good word-of-mouth, weren’t supposed to serve mass. This has additionally been the 12 months the place smaller nuggets — like Kudumbasthan, Tourist Family, and the wonderful Madras Matinee — have discovered a particular place amongst audiences. The success of Sundar C’s 13-year-old Madha Gaja Raja factors in the direction of a yearning for mass masala among the many audiences, reasserting that cinema wants a wholesome mixture of each acquainted comforts, daring assortments, and the occasional Madras Matinee. Which can also be why all eyes are actually on Rajinikanth’s #Coolie, which is all set to reach in theatres with huge fanfare on August 14.

Where is the Thalapathy of #Tamil cinema?

There’s another excuse one might level a finger at for the poor present within the higher echelons. If there was one famous person who has repeatedly caught and reinvented the mass method in Tamil, it’s Vijay. And #Tamil cinema is already feeling the pinch of what a post-Vijay scene would really feel like (the actor has introduced that his subsequent, Jana Nayagan, might be his final). What actually fascinates one is how a Vijay movie — whether or not it’s a largely genre-centric actioner like Leoor a mass-inclined entertainer like #Varisu — had the substances to tug within the audiences. If his rival Ajith juggles extremes, Vijay’s vary is intentionally targeted. A scarcity of a quintessential Vijay movie is what 2025 — and #Tamil cinema after 2026 — will miss. Perhaps it’s time for Ajith to tug again and reset his vary between a #Viswasam and a Yennai Arindhaal.

One man’s loss is one other man’s blockbuster:

Then comes the curious case of Thug Life, the extremely panned Kamal Haasan starrer, imbued with misfitted Nayakan deja vu that made followers marvel if it was certainly Mani Ratnam on the helm. The gargantuan fall from the celebrity of Thug Life inadvertently makes means for #Coolie, starring Kamal’s up to date Rajinikanth. With warning within the air, a psychological bias towards imply reversion would come into play, and the preliminary first-day opinions would possibly profit from the debacle that Thug Life turned out to be. 

Lokesh, a storyteller with a knack for mass cinema

If all these above causes ought to assist #Coolie, there’s a ‘minimal assure’ issue within the Rajinikanth starrer that has single-handedly pushed the hype forward of the discharge — it’s directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, a contemporary maverick who confirmed filmmaking aptitude with Maanagaram and Kaithi, caught the heartbeat of the trendy audiences with Kamal’s Vikram and the formation of a cinematic universe, and is inching to higher himself after his middling Vijay-starrer Leo. A creator with an unmissable knack for motion filmmaking, Lokesh has develop into the go-to for stars who want to break the method in type, and but in some way make it their very own.

Cracking a quintessential Rajinikanth movie has been fairly a problem for contemporary filmmakers — solely Subbaraj got here shut to creating a Rajinistic movie with Petta. If there’s one filmmaker who might take a well-calculated swing at this, it’s Lokesh. From the phrase go, the whole lot about #Coolie guarantees a comeback of all that Rajinikanth followers have idolised him for — you possibly can anticipate adequate fan-service, the quintessential rising-from-the-ashes character arc, and the famous person at his most fashionable self, unleashed in opposition to a barrage of villains. With the movie additionally not a part of his coveted Lokesh Cinematic Universe, you possibly can anticipate #Coolie to be freer — unburdened by inquisitive followers bringing their very own theories to measure, or the narrative constraints of a shared universe.

The success of the ‘Jailer’ method:

What we find out about #Coolie would possibly make a fan marvel if the movie’s manufacturing banner, Sun Pictures, has seemed to recreate the magic of Jailer, Rajinikanth’s earlier movie, helmed by Nelson. Akin to that movie, we now have a number of A-listers — like Nagarjuna Akkineni, Upendra, Soubin Shahir, and Aamir Khan — teaming up with/in opposition to Rajinikanth. There’s a ‘Monica’ for a ‘Kaavaala’, and if Jailer was unexpectedly violent, you realize #Coolie can be relentlessly gritty.

#Tamil cinema wants a ‘Thalapathi’:

Now comes the reveal that has piqued the curiosity of many. In a latest interview, Lokesh revealed that he had wished for #Coolie to be in contrast with Thalapathi, Rajinikanth’s acclaimed gangster movie directed by Mani Ratnam. Fans have taken word of how some pictures from the promo and the famous person’s coiffure are akin to the 1991 movie. While this would possibly make you are worried a bit — movies cashing in on previous glory have been abysmal of late — you possibly can belief Lokesh to do what he did to Vikram, which was a non secular sequel to Kamal’s 1986 movie of the identical identify. Even if that’s not the case, #Tamil cinema wants a movie like Thalapathi. In any case, we want each Thalapathi and Thalaivar to mild up these darkish, desolate skies.