Many a Tamil movie has set the cash counters ringing. Many have churned out ‘masala’ stuff and many others titillated an unsatiated audience. But a few movies set the trend for a many to follow, the impact on movie makers and the public being equally great.

These trendsetters were a result of a good story line combined with brilliant direction and acting. Many such trendsetters were created not by veterans but by greenhorns, graduating from Film institutes and farms! When the masses stopped flocking to the theatres, these movies pulled them in by the droves.

The following is a list of Tamil movies, by no means exhaustive, that set lasting trends :

Kalidas(1931)

• Kalidas was the first Tamil talkie film, detailing the life of Kalidas, a simpleton turned poet extraordinaire by the grace of Goddess Saraswathi. This film merits attention, for reasons funny and for setting trends :
• the characters in this film at times spoke in Telugu, an early attempt at getting wide market coverage!
• there were more than four dozen songs in the film, a couple of them evoking patriotism
• most of the songs were of the Carnatic classical variety
• T.P.Rajalakshmi, the heroine, lent her voice to her songs, which would be emulated by the stars to follow
• the film was a mythological, a subject at once familiar to the audience, but of which they could never have enough

Nandanar (1933, 1935, 1942)

• 'Nandanar' was the first Tamil film that was a non-mythological. It narrates the life of a humble farm worker from a downtrodden caste who became a saint through his devotion to Lord Shiva.  'Nandanar' dealt with two important aspects of the state of society then, and now - untouchability, scant respect for Harijans and entry of Harijans into temples.

• this film gave rise to a genre of films based on the lives of saints.   In mythologicals, most of the characters were gods, but the films on saints attracted a lot of people too since they dealt with people, from all walks of life, who attained the something everybody just wishes for, the feet of the Lord.

• this film was produced by New Theatres in 1933 and later Assandas Classical Talkies filmed Nandanar's story in 1935, casting the famous female singer K.B.Sundarambal as Nandanar, in a male role!  But both movies evoked lukewarm response from the movie going public.  Yet another film on this saint was made by Gemini in 1942.

• K.B.Sundarambal was paid an astronomical amount for this film, rumoured to be about 1 lakh.  This film also featured the great Carnatic classical vocalist, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, playing the role of the landlord who torments Nandanar before realising the Harijan Nandanar's greatness.  Iyer had a broad outlook and inspite of his position did not hesitate to fall at K.B.Sundarambal's feet in one of the memorable scenes in the film.

• the 1935 film was shot in studios in Calcutta and on location in Tamil Nadu.  Three songs in this film were based on tunes from another Hindi film, Chandidas(1934).

Thyagabhoomi (1939)

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Directed by K.Subrahmanyan, this film was a watershed in the sense that it spoke eloquently on the prevailing social and patriotic scenario. The freedom movement was at its peak and Gandhi inspired the common folk and achievers in other walks of life.

• Thyagabhoomi interspersed actual footage of Gandhi marching, spinning the charka and so on with similar actions of the lead.players, which received an emotional response from the audience. The hero, Sambu Sastri, a poor Brahmin priest starts a Gandhian movement along with a Harijan, Nallan championing the causes of Harijan temple entry, removal of untouchability and so on.

• the famous musician, Papanasam Sivan composed the music for this film and played the lead role.

• the film was based on a story by the famous author, R.Krishnamurthy, better known by his pen name, Kalki, in the Tamil magazine, Ananda Vikatan.

• the fact that the film crew was made up mostly of Brahmins lent credibility to the message conveyed in the film.

Nam Iruvar (1947)

'Nam Iruvar' was the screen version of a stage play of the same name produced by NSK Drama Company.  It was the last of the films based on patriotism.  Even today some of the songs of in this film are standard fare on television and radio during occasions of national importance.

• this film comes down heavily on the evils of black marketeering and lust for money.

• the producer of this movie, A.V.Meyyappan, brought the rights to the patriotic poems of the great Subramanya Bharathi and set them to tune in the film

• Kumari Kamala was off to a great start with this film, dancing to the tune of Bharathiyar.

Parasakthi (1952)

Krishnan-Panju directed this controversial and dialogue laden film that spoke of rationalism.  The film showed the hero as a rationalist, having great affection for his sister,  almost murdering a priest who tries to molest her inside the precincts of a temple.  Like 'Nam Iruvar' this film too depicts the rampant black marketeering of the time.

M.Karunanidhi, the later day Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, penned the dialogues for this film, which were later released as an audio record.

this film stressed the importance of dialogues for a film, and their delivery in an impassionate manner, epitomised by 'Sivaji' Ganesan.  It is to be noted that this was Ganesan's first film, after several encore performances in stage dramas.

this movie was also used as a vehicle to convey the philosophy of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), then a fledgling political party.  The Film Censor Board raised objections to certain scenes in the film before finally releasing it for public viewing.

Devadas (1953)

The name 'Devadas' conjures up only one thing in a Tamil film aficionado's mind - tragedy!  This film, based on the Bengali writer Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's novel, narrates how the hero, unable to suffer the wedlock of his childhood love with a old man, broods and finally meets death.

• the film ended in a tragedy, which was quite new to the Tamil audience.  It was to be later be filmed again in Telugu and Hindi.  Needless to say, they too enjoyed enormous popularity, as did the Tamil film.

• Casting, lyrics(Udumalai Narayana Kavi), and music (C.R.Subbaraman) held the audience spellbound, adding to  the tragedy that ran through the length of this film.

Kalyana Parisu (1959)

Kalyana Parisu, director C.V.Sridhar's debut film, deals with triangle love, two women vying for the same man.  The film enjoyed huge box-office popularity.

• the separate comedy track set a trend for its brand of humour, with M.Thangavelu providing the guffaws.

• music was composed by A.M.Raja and all the songs in the film were a runaway hit.

Server Sundaram (1964)

Krishnan-Panju had one more first with Server Sundaram.  Nagesh was cast as the hero, Sundaram, quite a revolution at that time.

• Departing from the beaten path of longwinding dialogues, this film had pithy, to-the-point dialogues, written by the soon to be director, K.Balachandar.

• Nagesh's acting was a revelation -  his versatility in bringing out the pathos in a given situation was admirable.  Needless to say, he was as splendid as only Nagesh can be in the comedy scenes.

Pasi (1979)

Shobha's stellar performance in this Durai directed film won her a National award for Best Actress.  She plays Kuppamma, a rag picker, mouthing an almost separate dialect of Tamil, contemptuously called 'Madras Tamil'.

• the film was 'realistic' in that the 'Madras Tamil' spoken in it was authentic.   Also, filming was entirely done on location at hutments in Madras.

• songs and dance sequences that blight commercial Tamil films were conspicuous by their absence.

• this film portrays the lives of people who live along canals and other waterways in Chennai without passing value judgment on them, providing a detached view.  One cannot but identify oneself with the characters that are captured in the film, notably Kuppamma and Muniyandi (Delhi Ganesh as a rickshaw puller).  That relations among such people are as strong or fickle as among people fortunate enough to be better off is admirably shown.

Thanneer Thanneer (1981)

• Thanneer..Thanneer directed by K.Balachandar was based on Komal Swaminathan's play.
  The story is set in Athipattu  a hamlet in the arid region of Southern Tamil Nadu, which does not have access to any source of water.The main thrust of  the film was   to expose caste dynamics in politics and insensivity of  the bureaucracy to the needs of the rural poor.
• The film was chosen as the best  Tamil film and also won the awards for best screen play
• The cast included Saritha who acted as Sevanthi, Radha Ravi who acted as the husband of Sevanthi

Nayagan (1987)

• Mani Ratnam's Nayagan tells the tale of a underworld don in Mumbai.This film is noteworthy for the way it was crafted .Cinematographer P.C.Sriram and Art director Thotta Tharani added a new dimension  to their respective fields ..
• Kamal Hasan's screen portrayal of the ruthless don won him the country's best actor award
• P.C.Srirram won the National award for  cinematography  and Thotta Tharani for art direction.

Veedu (1988)

• Balu Mahendra's Veedu deals with Housing a major problem faced by urban middle-class Indian.
  This film is a striking departure from the earlier works of Balu Mahendra..Balu Mahendra as his own cinematographer has made the film very visual.

• Sudha, a clerk in Chennai lives with her sister and her grandfather, a retired music teacher.Her friends advice her to build her own house.When she starts on this venture, she runs into numerous hurdles.Helped by her colleague and friend Gopi she goes from one office to another trying to get the project going.As the house is nearing completion , her grandfather dies and the Metropolitan Water Authority appropriates the house.The film ends with Sudha  seeking justice in a Court of Law.

• Archana  acted in the role of Sudha, the harassed clerk.Her portrayal won her the National Award for the Best Actress.Another striking feature of the film was the portrayal of the grandfather by
  M.A.Chokkalinga Bhagavathar, a one-time drama artiste.
  
• Another interesting feature of the film was that it did not have any songs. The background music was scored by Illayaraja.The background music blends well with the movie.The major part of the background music was extracted from Illayaraja's music album How to name it