The 10 best Tamil movies of 2005.

10 Kanaa Kanden
A truly detestable bad guy and a likeable lead pair made this romantic thriller quite entertaining. Prithviraj played a vicious loan shark who made the lives of Srikanth and Gopika quite miserable and the movie had an intelligent third act where Srikanth had his revenge. Cinematographer-turned-director K.V.Anand maintained a good pace but showed an inexplicable tendency for crudeness at some places.

9 Kasturi Maan
This character-based movie was a relief among movies that relied on heroism, glamour and violence. Meera Jasmine made an impression in an author-backed role of a girl who sacrifices a lot to make her lover Prasanna succeed in life. The down-to-earth story was just a bit too loud.

8 Ullam Ketkume
Jeeva's film was a nice mix of friendship, romance and sentiments as he focused on the relations between five friends in college. Believable characters and realistic situations captured the essence of college life quite well. Having Asin and Arya, two actors making their debuts here but already popular due to other movies released earlier, helped out too.

7 Chandramukhi
Fazil's Manichithrathazhu was nicely modified to suit Rajnikanth, who for his part gave up his cigarette-smoking and punchlines to play the role of a psychiatrist. The suspenseful story, funny comedy, good music and a terrific climax(with Rajni enjoying himself as a ruthless king) made this Tamil cinema's biggest hit ever. Jyothika went a little over-the-top sometimes but her hard work in the climax was laudable.

6 Ghajini
An interesting concept, of how a patient with short-term memory of only 15 minutes goes about finding the guys who killed his wife, was wasted in the film after an intriguing start. But the delightful romance between Surya and Asin almost made up for it. Surya played a suave businessman as well as he played the patient and Asin stole our hearts.

5 Anniyan
After the disastrous Boys, Shankar returned to his favorite vigilante theme, spiced up with multiple personality disorder. Some glaring holes in logic were covered up with the director's trademark fast pacing and elaborate staging of sequences. Vikram differentiated well between three characters and dazzled us in scenes where he had to switch between them.

4 Kannaadi Pookkal
An emotional film that maturely handled the rather unique subject of sibling jealousy. The underlying sense of optimism and the focus on positive feelings made the film touching rather than manipulative inspite of the tragedy that drove it. Ashwin gave a strong performance and carried the film on his shoulders.

3 Raam
A memorable protagonist added a unique touch and made the otherwise-good murder mystery even better. Ameer maintained the pace successfully after a roaring start and managed to add comedy deftly into the mix with the help of one character. Yuvan delivered the best soundtrack of the year and the cinematography was spectacular.

2 Thavamaai Thavamirundhu
Cheran's heartfelt ode to a father's love was emotional and touching but very uplifting. Down-to-earth and realistic, he took us down memory lane with an accurate portrayal of life without unnecessary sentiments or melodrama. The segment where Rajkiran and Saranya enjoy the sunset years of their lives was truly exhilarating. Rajkiran was phenomenal as the dad.

1 Kaadhal
A stunningly realistic film that did the near-impossible job of making us forget that it was a movie. It showed that love is not the bed of roses that is usually shown in the movies and we were with the young lead pair as they were hit with a dose of the real world. The realism led to some breathlessly tense sequences. The cast was effortlessly natural and debutant music director Joshua Sridhar helped with some youthful, catchy tunes.