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By Rinku Gupta ( Cinemaspeak for video updates) The grand audio launch of producer (and hero) Kamal Govindraj's Puranagar was held recently. The grand function was attended by dignitaries like Bhagyaraj, K Rajan, Mansoor Ali Khan, Tarun Gopi, RV Udhayakumar and others. The film is directed by Minnal Murugan with music by EL Indrajith. Murugan has directed a film on Sri Lankan Tamils called Ellalan. Puranagar is a film dealing with caste issues which are the bane of society.

By Rinku Gupta ( cinemaspeak for video updates) Director Samudrakani's Nadodigal 2 is about a group of friends ( Sasikumar, Anjali, Barani) who are the good samaritains of the town, helping out on every issue with protests and petitions. As a result, Sasikumar ends up with nobody willing to give him their daughter in marriage. When finally,  a rich family agrees to him marrying their daughter ( Athulya) , he thinks good times are ahead. But fate has other things in store. On his wedding night, he finds out his new wife was forced into wedlock by her parents because she actually loves a man from another caste. When Sasikumar hears this and sees her ready to slash her wrists, he decides to help her elope with her lover. What follows is total mayhem, with his wife's family hot on her pursuit, ready to indulge in honour killing for sullying their name. How does Sasikumar save his wife? Does he find true love in his life? How does he handle the casteist mindset of the people...

By Rinku Gupta In his next outing, Dagalty, Santhanam plays a con - man called Guru who lives in Mumbai. A rich man in Mumbai ( Tarun Arora)  has an unusual habit. He draws faces of women on a whim and then sends his staff on chase to look for a woman who looks exactly like the painting, all for an astronimical sum of 10 crores this time. Guru manages to find a girl who ressembles the photo and heads to Tiruchendur to bring the girl Malli ( Ritika Sen) to Mumbai on the pretext of fulfilling her dream of directing a film. But things go south when he has a change of heart when he learns the truth about her impending fate.  How does he now rescue Malli from the millionaires clutches? Santhanam  has cut down on the punches and one liners to a minimum in the film, keeping the ' heroic' acts in check,  so as to make it watchable.  There are some funny scenes here and there, the climax scene with Bramhanandam and the farcical cat and mouse game with the million...

By Rinku Gupta Utraan directed by Rajagajini is set in a college campus and revolves around the issues faced by students. Roshan Udayakumar plays a college boy who lives with his college teacher ( Heroshini), who looked after him since childhood. When he falls in love with a college girl  college (Priyanka) this issue of their relationship becomes a bone of contention. Added to his problems are petty college issues leading to enemies which make life tough for him. How does he deal with it all? Roshan looks good and  does a neat job and carries the emotional , action and romance scenes well. His personality fits the role to a T.  But the story seems dated, and the manner of filming reminds you of 80s college movies. The issues the students face seem trivial and there is no solid reason, apart fron the usual love angle, for all the enemity and fights on display.   There are too many characters being mentioned at random which is a tad distracting....