Varisu Pongal: Revisiting Thalapathy Vijay's Pongal Releases

Thalapathy Vijay's upcoming film Varisu has been locked for a Pongal Release and let's celebrate it by taking a look at his Pongal releases so far. There are quite a few of these.

Coimbatore Mapillai (1996)

A light-hearted comedy starring Vijay alongside legendary comedian Goundamani. Sanghavi played the female lead in the film, written and directed by C Ranganathan. It was released on January 15.

The story follows Balu who falls in love with Sumithra, the girl who owns the house he has rented and the entire colony that the house is in. Mahesh, Sumithra's cousin wants to marry her for her wealth, and this creates problems in her relationship with Balu, leading to their breakup. What happens to Balu and Sumithra's relationship forms the rest of the story.

Kaalamellam Kathirupen (1997)

Kaalamellam Kathirupen was released on January 14. The film stars Vijay and Dimple as the two leads. The supporting includes Karan, Jaishankar, Srividya, and others.

The story follows Kannan who is a spoilt rich kid, and he tries to get Manimegalai to be his wife through any means. His life takes him on a roller-coaster ride and he matures with experiences. He changes his way of life and tries to apologize to her for his mistakes. His efforts to apologize and the consequences of his actions form the rest of the story.

Kannukul Nilavu (2000)

Kannukul Nilavu gave us one of Vijay's brilliant performances and the music of the film scored by Ilayaraaja was a huge hit. The film retained the hit combination from Kadhalukku Mariyadhai - Vijay, Shalini, Faasil, and Ilayaraaja. The film didn't get the attention it deserved, at the time of its release.

The story follows Gautham, a mentally disturbed young man, who is heavily affected by a tragedy that befell a girl whom he was in love with. Without knowing his background, Hema and her friends play a prank on him, but once they realize his story, they try to help him. Luckily, Hema's father is a psychiatrist and he helps her decode his life and bring him back to normalcy. But the task is not that easy.

Friends (2001)

Friends is a nostalgic movie for Vijay and Suriya fans as the two stars acted together in this film for the second time, and they have not appeared together again ever since then.

The story talks about the friendship between Aravind and Chandru and how that gets affected when Aravind gets married. The film was directed by Siddique and starred Vijay, Suriya, Ramesh Khanna, Devayani, Vijayalakshmi, and Vadivelu among others.

Vaseegara (2003)

A romantic comedy focusing more on comedy and less on romance, Vaseegara was a moderate success when it was released. The film was directed by Selvabharathi and starred Vijay, Sneha, Vadivelu, Manivannan, and Nasser among others.

The story follows Bhoopathi who arrives at his father's friend's place for a job. He falls in love with the daughter of his father's friend, Priya, who is already engaged. Bhoopathi's nature and childlike behaviour make the film funny and enjoyable.

Thirupaachi (2005)

Vijay's action avatar took a new turn with this film. It was directed by Perarasu who is known for naming his films with the names of towns in Tamilnadu. Thirupaachi starred Vijay, Trisha, Mallika, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Pasupathy among others. Chaya Singh appears in the song 'Kumbida Pona Deivam' in the film which became a raging hit.

The story follows Sivagiri who is insanely fond of his sister and when she is married off in Chennai. He visits the city to make sure she will be fine. He ends up enraged by the rowdyism in the city and makes it his mission to make sure his sister can live in peace.

Aathi (2006)

Aathi was directed by Ramana, and starred Vijay, Trisha, Sai Kumar, Prakash Raj, Nasser, and Vivek among others. The story follows two members of a family who are left all alone and go in different directions after their family gets destroyed. They meet after a long time and realize that they have a lot to share with each other, including secrets and common goals.

Pokkiri (2007)

Pokkiri is probably the biggest Pongal hit for Thalapathy Vijay. The film was a remake of Mahesh Babu's Telugu film of the same name. The Telugu version was directed by Puri Jagannadh. The Tamil version was directed by Prabhu Deva. The film starred Vijay, Asin, Vadivelu, Prakash Raj, and Nasser among others.

The story follows Tamil who is a gangster. He meets and falls in love with Shruthi who is going through some trouble because of a corrupt and vulgar police officer. They develop feelings for each other but Shruthi's emotions oscillate when she learns the facts about his identity. Meanwhile Tamil faces issues with his gangster life as well. How the two sort their issues out forms the rest of the story.

Villu (2009)

Following the grand success of Pokiri, the Vijay-Prabhu Deva combination reunited for another Pongal release but this time the result was not as desirable. The film received negative reviews and marked the beginning of a career lull for Vijay in the following couple of years.

The story follows Pugazh who ... well it's a complicated plot that would take time to explain.

Kaavalan (2011)

Kavalan was a welcome breath of fresh air for the fans of Vijay who got a fun and enjoyable watch from Siddique who gave us Friends in 2001. The film, a remake of Siddique's Malayalam film Bodyguard, also brought back the celebrated combination of Vijay and Asin. The film starred Vadivelu, Nasser, and Roja apart from the two leads.

The story follows Bhoominathan who is appointed as a bodyguard to a local big shot's daughter as she goes off to college in a city. The bodyguard is initially hated by Meera, and she creates a fake identity through voice calls and creates a fake relationship with Bhoomi. This starts out as fun but then Meera and Bhoomi actually fall in love and Meera does not know how to take the situation forward.

Nanban (2012)

Nanban was a remake of the cult hit 3 Idiots, and Vijay reprised Aamir Khan's role in the Tamil version. The film was directed by Shankar, who had never worked on a remake before Nanban, and didn't do one after that either. The film stars Vijay, Ileana, Jiiva, Srikanth, Sathyan, Sathyaraj, and others.

The story follows Panchavan Paarivendhan who is a person who believes in living life one moment at a time without worrying about marks, money, and other materialistic aspects of life. His presence and friendship create changes in the lives of his friends and how these changes affect them forms the rest of the story.

Jilla (2014)

Jilla was released alongside Ajith's Veeram for Pongal in 2014. When the two films were released together, the hype created was an insane experience.

Jilla was directed by Nesan and starred Vijay, Mohanlal, Kajal Agarwal, Soori among others. The story follows Sakthi who is a gangster following the steps of his adopted father. However, he accidentally ends up as a police officer for his father's sake, and then goes through a change of mind after certain experiences. He decides to bring his father away from his way of life and fix things and that's easier said than done.

Bairavaa (2017)

The most recent Pongal release for Thalapathy Vijay ended up as an underwhelming experience for the fans. The film starred Vijay, Keerthi Suresh, Daniel Balaji, and Jagapathy Babu among others.

The film follows Bairavaa who falls in love with Malarvizhi and when she keeps avoiding him tries to find the reason. She reveals the danger that surrounds her and instead of walking away, he walks into her life more sincerely than before.