Aaranya Kaandam

In Chennai an ageing crime boss is trying to hold on to what power he has left. On the same day a sack of cocaine is stolen, and the thieves are two people with no connection to any of it. That single mistake sets two rival gangs against each other, and as the day goes on everybody's calculations come apart. The film takes place in one day. It is Thiagarajan Kumararaja's first film, and is cited as the work that opened the neo-noir vein in Tamil cinema: no hero, no moral center, dark humour, and a narrative that does not run in a line. Jackie Shroff appears in Tamil cinema for the first time as the ageing boss Singam Perumal. It premiered on 30 October 2010 at the South Asian International Film Festival, where it won the grand jury prize. The regional censor board objected on grounds of content, profanity and violence; the producer and director took it to the central tribunal in Delhi, which cleared it. It was released in 2011 with an adult certificate, and won best first film and best editing at the 59th National Film Awards. Who it's for: Viewers who like neo-noir, crime stories confined to a single day, and Indian films that break genre shapes. Who it's not for: The violence and language are hard and none of the characters is sympathetic. The narrative also does not hold your hand.