By Srinivasan Sundar
Those five were the ones that were easily and quickly visible in my mirror. Most memorable films; Not necessarily the greats of the decade. I peeped again, this time to catch glimpses of my film memories of the nineties. It is like trying to open up a case that’s been filled with one thousand butterflies. The first ones to flutter out need not be the most magnificent ones. Kollywood of the last decade of the second millennium (simply, the 90s) did not have any specific defining feature. But a lot of water was flowing. There was an explosion of commercial film-makers like P.Vasu (reloaded), Suresh Krissna, K.S.Ravikumar, Shankar et al.Music and sound of Tamil films got revolutionised with the arrival of A.R.Rahman. Seeds of pan-Indian films were sown (?).Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan abruptly cut down the number of movies they did but successfully retained their special spots; Ajith Kumar and Vijay were getting established.
Muthu (1995, K.S.Ravikumar)
This is a gem. Coming after the legendary Baasha, K.S.Ravikumar’s first film with Rajinikanth had sky high expectations right from the word go. A remake of a Mohanlal film, Muthu is also the first of A.R.Rahman for the Superstar. And man what an album! As an intro song for Rajini, nothing yet to beat ‘Oruvan oruvan muthalali..’ – both in music as well as lyrics (Vairamuthu). Intermission is something unique to the Indian films. A story has to be broken and restarted at an elevated level. Commercial directors like Ravikumar knew only too well the criticality of the interval block. Muthu’s interval gave goose bumps. Following Annamalai, the film had the tested cast of Radha Ravi and Sarath Babu fulfilling their mandate. Rajinikanth sparkles in Muthu even till this date. Icing on the cake – Rajini conquered the hearts of the Japanese too.
Nadigan (1990, P.Vasu)
This is such a fun film of a man posing as an old music master and getting caught up in a triangular love trap with a lady and her much older aunty. This is one of the few full length comedy films by Sathyaraj. The actor pairing up with Goundamani delivered a laugh riot; and the duo continued their dream run for years. Along with the lead actor, the ageless Manorama too carried the film on her shoulders. The entire story is set off by an ‘English comedy/Comedy with English’, a recurrent theme in Tamil films. P.Vasu, who had been directing films since the 80s, flourished in the initial years of the 90s as he rolled out blockbusters year after year. It was as if he had cracked the code suddenly. Nadigan is a remake of a Hindi film from the 60s.
Bombay (1995, Mani Ratnam)
The second film in the nationalistic series by Mani Ratnam, Bombay is a bold and beautiful package. Right from Nayakan to Alaipayuthey to the latest PS-1 (incidentally), Mani Ratnam’s films have an in-built element of a journey of the lead characters; Bombay is a story of a Hindu-Muslim couple from southern Tamil Nadu who find themselves caught up in the communal riots of Bombay. It is not a given thing that bringing together an A-Team delivers success. The secret of Mani Ratnam’s longevity and versatility seems to lie in his capability to make an A-Team deliver. Bombay is a film where the cast and crew were having a fight to outperform each other with a single goal of making the film victorious. Easily among the most impactful works of Rajiv Menon, A.R.Rahman, Manisha Koirala, Arvind Swamy and so on.
Sethu (1999, Bala)
It is tough to make comedies. It is tougher to make tragedies like Sethu that can render you sleepless for nights. Sethu is the Moonram Pirai of the 90s. Living up to his master’s legacy Bala, with his very first film, etched himself in the memory of Tamil film lovers forever. The director drew from the deep reserves of actor Vikram, who delivered a once-in-a-lifetime performance (..well till the director’s next one with him). Maestro Ilayaraja gave a supremely melancholic number in ‘Enge sellum indha paadhai..’ that just wrenches your heart. Films like Sethu are rare; They come once in a decade.
Indian (1996, Shankar)
I had watched this film multiple times in theatre. It is tough to capture a film like Indian that had such a grand vision and extraordinary execution in a few lines. Indian is simply a movie of superlatives. Kamal Hassan gave an incredible performance as Senapathy, the veteran vigilante who had stood by the side of Shubash Chandra Bose in India’s struggle for independence. The film had 3+ hours runtime and it ended up getting trimmed at the theatre level. The story had a radical but an organic ending. Indian has so many elements like – varmakalai, freedom movement, corruption, family sentiment, animal rights, love triangle, investigation, and so on – that could stand on their own legs as independent films by themselves. The talent of filmmaker Shankar lies in managing complex and mammoth projects like this and steering them to success. It is intriguing and disappointing that he is yet to reach the scale of a Bahubali or RRR.
Last words – Thevar Magan, Aasai, Kadhal Desam
Baradwaj Rangan 
Madan
April 23, 2023
I know it’s a personal list of memorable films, but it’s a curious one all the same. Muthu sort of gets overshadowed, justifiably, by Annamalai and Baasha. The Shankar selection is maybe the one I agree with most. But Nadigan rather than any of the brilliant Kamal comedies, for another?
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hari prasad
April 23, 2023
Madan , was it true that AR Rahman faced a lot of threats from Rajini fans as they thought the songs were a mess and they didn’t suit him?
I even read that they were especially dissatisfied with the Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali song , which now we arguably call as the best Rajini opening song ever.
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Madan
April 23, 2023
hariprasad: I have no idea what goes on in the crazy TN fanboy ecosystem. As a Tamil speaking Mumbaiite, I was blissfully unaware of all this. At that time, none of the Tamilians I knew in Mumbai and nobody in my relative circle said anything negative about the songs of Muthu. I am not myself the hugest fan of Oruvan, seeing as the intro is quite reminiscent of Rakkamma. But it’s a good song and overall the album was easily better than the ones for Annamalai or Baasha.
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hari prasad
April 23, 2023
Also , I don’t understand why the Rahman – Rajini combo songs often get flak from both Rajini fans and the Rahmaniacs.
Yes , Lingaa was a vile mess of an album , still is it the only valid reason you’re gonna hate on all songs from that combo?
Sivaji (barring that terrible Boss theme song which infuriated me a lot after I first listened to Neruppu Da and made me think that Rahman could have done a banger of a rock anthem like this) is the best with the right balance of Rahman experimentation and the Rajini pandering.
Muthu comes a close second.
Baba’s Sakthi Kodu , Maya Maya and Dippu Dippu were my childhood favorites and they lift my spirits up when I’m down.
Maybe I’m in the minority , but I’m one of the few that liked the soundtrack of Kochadaiyaan.
And Minsara Poove from Padayappa , man Nithyashree Mahadevan’s singing was really great in that song!!
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Madan
April 24, 2023
Muthu, Padayappa, Endhiran in that order for me. I might even take Endhiran ahead of Padayappa on some days. I like the electronic experimentation on that album. Sivaji didn’t do much for me other than Thee Thee Thee. Haven’t given Kochaidayan or Linga a fair shake. Do like Sakthi Kodu. Remember a then young Karthik performing it for some televised event, probably Sun TV.
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hari prasad
April 24, 2023
Arima Arima is what you would expect Rahman to compose for a brammanda set song from a Shankar movie.
The grand orchestration , Rajini’s impersonation of Darth Vader (he even used a lightsaber) , not one not two but multiple Aishwarya Rais , that two robotic lions and Hariharan’s “YENNNDHEEERAAA” shouts which Robo Shankar kalaachified a lot in Vijay TV made it a memorable one.
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vsrini
April 24, 2023
Sethu feels more a part of the 00s wave of filmmakers (Bala, Ameer, Sasikumar, etc) who tried to bring a darker more rooted pseudo-realistic flavour to Tamil cinema, than a 90s film (though by release date it is definitely one).
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Voldemort
April 24, 2023
I like the Kochadaiyaan album too. Manapennin Sathyam is a lovely song.
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KayKay
April 24, 2023
My take on why an ARR album for a Rajini film doesn’t quite gel is the Sivaji Vs Endhiran effect:
When Deva or Vidyasagar are composing for a Rajini flick, it’s the Sivaji effect, a score tailored to a Rajini flick bearing hallmarks of the composer’s signature flourishes.
With Rahman, it’s an Endhiran effect; a score that’s still uniquely his but forced to shoe-horn in some token Rajini-isms.
Muthu probably struck the best balance, and Sivaji comes close. The rest seem kinda off-kilter. Sorry, barring “Sakthi Kodu” I can’t stand the Baba score with the Rajini intro number being the worst I’ve heard. “Baba Kichu Kichu Than” sounds ridiculous in Tamil, and one of the rare instances where I liked Rahman’s re-working of it for Swades. The Linga score , like the movie, is merely aggressively mediocre.
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Srinivas R
April 24, 2023
My favorites from 90s Tamil Cinema
Mahanadhi – first movie that sort of kept playing in my head for a while
Baasha – the movie that transformed Rajini the superstar to stratospheric stardom, no longer will stars aspire to become the next Kamal
Gentleman – trendsetter, a message movie with mass entertainment. This template has become tiring now, but this movie was the first of its kind
Bombay – the first pan Indian Tamil film for me. A movie that was the last of Manirathnam’s familiar method. From Dil Se Mani became a diff Film maker.
Vaali – an icky theme headlined by a popular star
Sethu – bookending the decade with the bolder, darker movies that were ahead. The non stop nonsense of “love” movies, Paakama kaadhal, sollama kaadhal and all that ended with Sethu.
The rise and rise of AR Rahman & also Deva was another theme. The decline of the second rung of stars – Karthik, Prabhu, Vijayakanth etc. Started in 90s.
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
April 24, 2023
Srinivas R : A small correction. With respect to box office, Vijayakanth didn’t belong to the second rung. He was alongside Kamal and Rajni in fact had a better strike rate than those two when it came to towns and villages. Distributors slept better at nights when Vijaykanths films released than when they used to during Rajni and Kamal’s releases. If you look at the scale of Vijaykanth’s films they easily stood alongside those of Rajni and Kamal’s.
Vijaykanth’s box office hold is very much understated since his films didn’t care much for the cities even if they did well there.
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hari prasad
April 24, 2023
Here’s my favorite movies from the 90s
1.Michael Madana Kama Rajan , 2. Kadhala Kadhala and 3. Ullathai Allitha
They don’t make comedy movies like this now.
Vaali
It’s evident in his post-Mankatha roles that even if Ajith plays a role that has touches of evil , he has a sentimental flashback to justify his wickedness.
Even in Mankatha , its revealed that he’s a cop all along and he’s been playing around with Arjun.
But in Vaali , though he has a twin who’s a nice guy , he isn’t sentimentalized.
Ajith’s villathanam was at its peak in this movie and considering his gentleman image that he has now , I don’t think he would pull off a similar role like this.
Annamalai
Though Baasha was the movie that made Rajini the phenomenon he is , for me Annamalai was the better movie.
It had a better conflict , the emotions were more stronger , it had more mass moments , the heroine character added something to the movie , the really convincing character arc of Rajini starting off as an innocent milkman to a vengeful entrepreneur , which reminded me of the character arc of Varun Dhawan in Badlapur where he loses all his nimmadhi , innocence and sanity to his quest for revenge.
Mudhalvan
Questionable political opinions aside , Mudhalvan is an entertaining political fantasy and it still is the best one in Tamil cinema ever.
Mahanadhi
This movie was so heartbreaking to watch that my Kamal fan mother swore not to watch this again.
So , I use this fear of her to just either poke fun at her or to get my pocket money , like asking ” Kaasu kudukureengala , illa Mahanadhi padatha pottu vittu odirava?” for example.
Sethu
This movie definitely stood out from the rest of the 90s movies for its utter cynicism and why we need an Adithya Varma when we have his dad Sethu do a really better job as an obsessed lover?
Thulladha Manamum Thullum
Had SA Rajkumar’s best soundtrack and one of the few movies that really utilized Vijay’s limited acting skills and Simran too was really good in this movie.
Suryavamsam
Big B’s version might be the best because of how hilariously bad it was , but the original too is equally fun to watch.
Sarathkumar’s speech before the end was equally moving and funny at the same time.
Special Mentions : Captain Prabhakaran , Jai Hind , The KT Kunjumon classics Ratchagan and Kadhal Desam , Thevar Magan , Ninaivirukum Varai ( for the shock that gave me for the fact that the hero considered the heroine as his friend till the end , which even today’s directors hesitate to do) , Padayappa , Viraluketha Veekam (that V Sekar classic which is a KTV staple) and Amaithipadai.
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hari prasad
April 24, 2023
Forgot to mention Thalapathi and Iruvar , Mani saar I’m sorry saar ☹️
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
April 24, 2023
V Sekar brand of films was also a highlight though I am not sure how many here like them despite their crudeness. I like them nowadays mostly for their comedy starring Goundamani and smaller comedians. Vadivelu’s career which had started with Rajkiran and Kamal’s movies was sustained solely through his on-screen chemistry/non-chemistry with Kovai Sarala and without getting bashed at her hands/brooms/plates/pillows he would have struggled to stay in the memories of people during that decade. And this trend of Kovai Sarala- Vadivelu slugfests were originally invented by V Sekar whose films had good popularity in the 90s. I usually like the first 45-60 minutes of his movies where the middle-class families shown in them are so neatly detailed and the dynamics between members of a dysfunctional family are all well laid out. But only in the second halves of these movies, Sekar usually goes haywire and these films are made watchable only for their comedy tracks which are still golden in YouTube.
A large portion of underappreciated Vadivelu’s pre-‘Winner’ comedies are from V Sekar’s movies and I don’t miss any of them whenever I see them on KTV.
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
April 24, 2023
This period, the 90s marked the arrival of Goundamani as almost the default second hero of many low-budget films starring Karthik (Sundar C films), Prabhu and Satyaraj (Gurudhanapal films). I read somewhere that Gounder had charged almost 75 percent of Rajni’s salary for his role in Mannan and in an interview with KS Ravikumar, he mentioned that Gounder, Sarath and himself had charged Rs.1.5 crore each for Nattamai! Just imagine!
This kind of stardom for Goundamani set the tone for future Santhanam- Small Hero starrers which was becoming a small trend in the early 2000s. We don’t get comedians like Gounder/Vadivelu anymore and I really wish someone takes his place and we get those fun-filled mindless entertainers back!
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Satya
April 24, 2023
Is it just me, or is Arunachalam truly underrated? I feel so, and found it much entertaining than a people’s favorite like Padayappa (which truly works for me in the portions where Padayappa is an old man).
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vsrini
April 24, 2023
@Satya: You are not alone. Arunachalam is a much more focused story than Padaiyappa that does a fairly decent job adapting Brewester’s Millions. The first half is all-over-the-map, just like a lot of other Rajini 90s films, but the second half is pretty fantastic. My only wish is that Rajini had done this movie in the 80s. His image would have fit the character far better at that time period. Personally I am not a fan of the Rajini-KSR collaborations (I find the writing to be lackluster) but I recognise I am of the minority opinion there.
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hari prasad
April 24, 2023
Also , Arunachalam’s first half was a bit eerily similar to Muthu except there’s no Sarath Babu like ejamaan character.
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vsrini
April 24, 2023
@hari prasad: Agreed. The first half is quite poor and I just wish they would have made him a true pauper (getting shit on by the rich rekatives of his girlfriend) instead of giving him this “adopted aiyo paavam” Muthu-esque story. Hence my wish about this being made in the 80s, where Rajini played so many poor working-class characters.
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satishkvasan
April 25, 2023
Kurudhipunal, Thevar Magan, Sathi Leelavathi, Indian , Nammavar, Mahanadi – Kamal movies from the 90s. .what variety
Annamalai, Baasha – For someone who moved from Mumbai to South for his engineering, this was an experience
Gentleman – Poonal wearing Tamil leading man??
Amaithipadai – cant forget the election transformation scene
Thiruda Thiruda, Roja, Bombay: how can you picturize songs like these…how can you make such global movies
Jai Hind – dunno why I still enjoy the Senthil Goundamani scenes from this movie
Kadhal Kottai – pakkama kadhal!! Can’t watch today for sure… But was definitely fascinating at that age
Aasai, Iruvar – Made me a Prakash Raj fan
Mogha mull – An interesting literature based movie..fascinated the teenager in me
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Prakash Alagarsamy
April 25, 2023
All in all a great decade for movies.
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brangan
April 26, 2023
Jeeva Pitchaimani: Absolutely.
Vijayakanth started out as second-rung, but right from the start, his low-budget films began to make money for the distributors. SAATCHI in late 1983 was a blockbuster, and he had his big breakthrough year in 1984, when he did some 15-odd films, ranging from dramatic roles (VAIDHEGI KAATHIRUNDHAL) to thrillers (NOORAVADHU NAAL) and he got his first AVM film (VELLAI PURAA ONDRU), which was a big deal at the time.
And the biggest deal of all was that he started getting bigger budgets, like the dance set for this absolutely smashing Raja song in JANUARY 1. After that year, he was on par — perhaps more “paisa vasool” for small-time distributors — than the more expensive Kamal/Rajini.
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MANK
April 26, 2023
Brangan that was a fantastic song and Captain seems to have danced pretty well. I have never heard of this film or song before , so thanks for the intro. I remember that in the early ’90s, captain’s films like Ezhaijaathi and Sethupathi IPS were made on much bigger budgets(apprx 3-4 crs. which was huge at the time) and scale than the average Rajni\Kamal films of the time. He had big heroines like Jayapradha acting opposite him.
Btw, for me this raja chartbuster from Bharathan choreographed by Prabhu deva where he matched steps with Bhanupriya is Captain’s best.
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