If you are one of the (stupid) people who refuse to watch movies with subtitles, click out of this. I’m recommending some Tamil-language movies and you MUST watch them in Tamil, with subtitles of course. 

These movies all fall into a category called Kollywood, which is the Tamil cinema industry. I grew up watching these and they helped shape who I am today. While entertainment does have its ups and downs, there are really great, fun, and meaningful films in this industry, some of which have even received international awards. If you’re someone who’s looking for a new genre of movies, and something that you’ve never seen before, I would definitely recommend Kollywood, and I will!

Tamil movies are the backbone of my existence, and I want to share them with all of you! In this day and age, action movies are one of the most common types of movies that people make. While a lot of movies are good, many plotlines are overused and some are just so gory. If you’re into that, good for you, I personally avoid too much gore because it’s DISGUSTING. 

Another thing that movies can sometimes get wrong is how realistic it is. While it may look awesome, I get a little annoyed when there’s one guy who defeats 43 people in four minutes. No, you don’t have the strength of seven elephants combined. I’m going be talking about a couple of movies that are actually good and don’t make you want to stand up and bang your head against the wall.

‘Kaithi’: An ex-convict, Dilli (Karthik Sivakumar), is released from prison and ready to restart his life. As Inspector Bejoy (Sunil Kumar, better known by his stage name, Narain) takes him home, they catch a gang smuggling an INSANE amount of drugs. For the second plotline, we see a police station. Constable Napoleon (George Maryan) arrives for his first shift in this station. He is then abandoned by the other officers and left with four college students, two of which were caught creating problems while drunk. The others, their friends who came to their aid. The police station is then unexpectedly attacked by the same gang, led by Anbu (Arjun Das), in an attempt to release members of the gang who were arrested and placed in the holding cells. Dilli, Bejoy, and a truck owner, hastily drive their way to the police station in an attempt to save it.

However, I will say, this movie is intense. But, that’s the fun part. The highlights of this movie are Sivakumar and Das’ acting and the fight sequences. This movie was unusual for Sivakumar, who usually did movies for family audiences. This was also a huge bang for Das’s career. He plays a ruthless, severely drugged gangster, and his performance in the police station is something worthy of the Oscars. It was a thrilling adventure that I devoured happily. It can be found on Amazon Prime and I hope you enjoy it!

‘Billa:’ I might not have been alive when this movie was released (2007), but after watching it two years ago, it completely changed my view on two things: gangster movies and Ajith Kumar. Kumar plays two characters; a ruthless, classy gangster named Billa, and a good-hearted thief called Velu. After an accident happens to Billa, Velu is hired by police officer Jayshankar (Prabhu Ganesan), to pose as Billa, due to his ‘striking similar looks,’ to find Billa’s boss and destroy the whole gang from the inside. 

This movie is a remake of the “Billa” that came out in 1980, which, after some research I found out, is a remake of a 1978 Hindi-language movie, “Don.” “Don” was then remade into a Hindi-Language movie of the same name in 2006. This was the movie that sparked the idea to create “Billa” (2007). As if this isn’t enough, the 2007 “Billa” was remade into a Telugu-language movie in 2009. Can you tell people loved this movie? I’m one of those people. After all the remakes, why would I be talking about this one? 

Is it because it’s the only one I’ve watched? Yes. Is it still amazing? Yes! This movie was classy and was a delight to watch. It was a fun movie and it kept you curious and interested the entire time. Also everyone’s outfits and overall appearances are FIRE. The songs were also remixed to fit the new generation of music, and they are amazing. This movie lives on Amazon Prime and is two hours and 15 minutes long. If you want a good movie to keep you entertained on a random evening, this is the one!

“Beast”  I’m going to be honest, I’m kind of stretching the ‘action’ part of this. There is a ton of action in this, but also a bunch of dark comedy. By ‘a bunch’ I mean 95 percent of the dialogues in this movie will make you laugh or at least let out a little chuckle (If you hate this movie, kindly get away from me). Unfortunately, this movie received an overall bad review when it came out (for what). The main actor, Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, more commonly known as ‘Vijay’, received backlash from his fans, but I believe that was completely unnecessary. While the movie wasn’t perfect, it still remains on my list of favorite movies. 

Vijay portrays Veeraraghavan “Veera,” a traumatised former R.A.W agent who wants to heal and move on with his life, and he acted so well. Veera is one of my favorite movie characters of all time. He’s absolutely hilarious with his monotone facial expressions while still spitting fiery insults. Along with Vijay comes the heroine, Preethi, (Pooja Hegde). At first, it just seems like they put her in the movie because she’s really pretty but she portrays a woman desperate for a better man than her fiance. Sparks fly at a wedding and Preethi gets Veera a job at the security company where she works. 

Then they go to a mall to discuss security for the mall, and that same mall happens to get hijacked by terrorists. It becomes a ‘retired officer back in action’ situation and Veera works with a group of hilarious characters to save the mall. This movie can be found on Netflix and is definitely worth watching.

I love these movies, and these are only some of the plentiful great movies of Kollywood. Hopefully, you will give me a chance and try out these movies, and will enjoy them!