All eyes on ‘Coolie’: Can Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj turn things around for Tamil mass cinema in 2025?

The stage is set, but there’s palpable tension in the crowd. A crowd-favourite local flavour has faded from the routine. There’s chatter where chatter’s always famous for — be it about an upcoming romance comedy tackling divorce, or Rathnavelu’s return to seek vengeance from Maamannan in a road thriller, or that of a debutant music composer making the waves. But there’s silence in the balcony rows. A quiet storm has been brewing in Tamil cinema, and the spotlight bears down on one of the biggest superstars, entering his 50th year in the industry, to rise to the occasion.

“But has there been a dearth of mass films?” you might wonder. Yes, there’s a scarcity of good big-star mass flicks. For more than a year and a half, concerns have been raised about the state of big-star mass commercial films and the unreliable hit rate among the superstars, which has led to a disbelief in mass filmmaking. On the one hand, there has been a shift in syntax, with many stars seeing value in breaking out of the mould. A result of redundant formulaic hero vehicles and an apparent shift towards realism has led to a sentiment many seem to echo — “let’s wait until the reviews are out; we have been disappointed enough.”

After a promising 2023, in which big stars and smaller diamonds shone bright on the silver screen, Tamil cinema went through a dull patch in 2024. No big-star mass films clicked on both the critical and commercial aspects; only Amaran and Maharaja, attempts far removed from conventional mass, managed to tick the right boxes. And now, the first half of 2025 has painted an even startling image — big stars do not seem to have taken stock of the dip.

On one hand, superstars have given in to their itch to experiment, which, though commendable, has added undue stress to successive projects. Earlier this year, superstar Ajith Kumar tried out an off-beat attempt like Vidaamuyarchi— intended to stay away from the formula — and followed it up with Good Bad Ugly — which, while it became a top-grosser, still ended up being ‘unconventionally mass,’ with an overload of fan-service that couldn’t impress the coveted ‘common audiences.’

Karthik Subbaraj and SU Arun Kumar, too, have shown a lack of inclination towards mass cinema, for good reasons, in these cases. Arun’s Veera Dheera Sooran: Part 2, starring Vikram, married inventive screenwriting and immersive scene construction, but critics and audiences were left wondering if the occasional hero-appeasing moments felt rather forced. Retro, while it featured a fantastic Suriya, was a hit-or-miss for the larger audiences; its experimental genre shifts only impressed the critics.

Even this year’s Maarganand ACE, though helped by good word-of-mouth, weren’t intended to serve mass. This has also been the year where smaller nuggets — like Kudumbasthan, Tourist Family, and the excellent Madras Matinee — have found a special place among audiences. The success of Sundar C’s 13-year-old Madha Gaja Raja points towards a craving for mass masala among the audiences, reasserting that cinema needs a healthy mix of both familiar comforts, daring assortments, and the occasional Madras Matinee. Which is also why all eyes are now on Rajinikanth’s Coolie, which is all set to arrive in theatres with massive fanfare on August 14.

Where is the Thalapathy of Tamil cinema?

There’s another reason one could point a finger at for the poor show in the upper echelons. If there has been one superstar who has repeatedly stuck and reinvented the mass formula in Tamil, it is Vijay. And Tamil cinema is already feeling the pinch of what a post-Vijay scene would feel like (the actor has announced that his next, Jana Nayagan, will be his last). What truly fascinates one is how a Vijay film — whether it is a largely genre-centric actioner like Leoor a mass-inclined entertainer like Varisu — had the ingredients to pull in the audiences. If his rival Ajith juggles extremes, Vijay’s range is deliberately focused. A lack of a quintessential Vijay film is what 2025 — and Tamil cinema after 2026 — will miss. Perhaps it’s time for Ajith to pull back and reset his range between a Viswasam and a Yennai Arindhaal.

One man’s loss is another man’s blockbuster:

Then comes the curious case of Thug Life, the highly panned Kamal Haasan starrer, imbued with misfitted Nayakan deja vu that made fans wonder if it was indeed Mani Ratnam at the helm. The gargantuan fall from the fame of Thug Life inadvertently makes way for Coolie, starring Kamal’s contemporary Rajinikanth. With caution in the air, a psychological bias toward mean reversion would come into play, and the initial first-day reviews might benefit from the debacle that Thug Life turned out to be. 

Lokesh, a storyteller with a knack for mass cinema

If all those above reasons should help Coolie, there’s a ‘minimum guarantee’ factor in the Rajinikanth starrer that has single-handedly driven the hype ahead of the release — it’s directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, a modern maverick who showed filmmaking flair with Maanagaram and Kaithi, caught the pulse of the modern audiences with Kamal’s Vikram and the formation of a cinematic universe, and is inching to better himself after his middling Vijay-starrer Leo. A creator with an unmissable knack for action filmmaking, Lokesh has become the go-to for stars who wish to break the formula in style, and yet somehow make it their own.

Cracking a quintessential Rajinikanth film has been quite a challenge for modern filmmakers — only Subbaraj came close to making a Rajinistic film with Petta. If there’s one filmmaker who could take a well-calculated swing at this, it’s Lokesh. From the word go, everything about Coolie promises a comeback of all that Rajinikanth fans have idolised him for — you can expect sufficient fan-service, the quintessential rising-from-the-ashes character arc, and the superstar at his most stylish self, unleashed against a barrage of villains. With the film also not part of his coveted Lokesh Cinematic Universe, you can expect Coolie to be freer — unburdened by inquisitive fans bringing their own theories to measure, or the narrative constraints of a shared universe.

The success of the ‘Jailer’ formula:

What we know about Coolie might make a fan wonder if the film’s production banner, Sun Pictures, has looked to recreate the magic of Jailer, Rajinikanth’s previous film, helmed by Nelson. Akin to that film, we have multiple A-listers — like Nagarjuna Akkineni, Upendra, Soubin Shahir, and Aamir Khan — teaming up with/against Rajinikanth. There’s a ‘Monica’ for a ‘Kaavaala’, and if Jailer was unexpectedly violent, you know Coolie would be relentlessly gritty.

Tamil cinema needs a ‘Thalapathi’:

Now comes the reveal that has piqued the interest of many. In a recent interview, Lokesh revealed that he had wished for Coolie to be compared with Thalapathi, Rajinikanth’s acclaimed gangster film directed by Mani Ratnam. Fans have taken note of how some shots from the promo and the superstar’s hairstyle are akin to the 1991 film. While this might make you worry a bit — films cashing in on past glory have been abysmal of late — you can trust Lokesh to do what he did to Vikram, which was a spiritual sequel to Kamal’s 1986 film of the same name. Even if that’s not the case, Tamil cinema needs a film like Thalapathi. In any case, we need both Thalapathi and Thalaivar to light up these dark, desolate skies.