Who are you and what is this site about?

The little amount of biographical information I can provide is as follows: My name is Balaji Sivaraman and I hail from Chennai, where I am currently residing. I am quite young having been born in March 1988 and I passed out of college only recently. I was fortunate enough to land myself a job in Oracle Financial Services, which is where I am going to be working for the foreseeable future.

I actively named this site as Kollyviews, largely because that particular portmanteau word (i.e. Kollywood + Views) was still missing from any of the major sites dealing with Tamil movies. This site is going to serve more or less as an outlet & placeholder for my opinions relating Tamil movies. Consider this site as hobbyist in nature, but I am trying to seriously pursue my interest in both Tamil movies/writing reviews through it.

What gives you the right to talk about, and review, Tamil movies?

For starters, the power of the World Wide Web and its free domain space is such that all I require to create my own website dealing with Tamil movies is a considerable knowledge of the Internet. Apart from that, I have a great love for movies in general, and in particular, Tamil movies.

I have been seeing most of the Tamil movies (except the really bad and awful ones) in multiplexes recently and that number is constantly going up. Also, my appreciation for the history of Tamil cinema is gradually increasing as I watch more and more yesteryear movies that were released much before my birth.

But all such details are unnecessary, what it essentially boils down to is this: I love Tamil movies and I love writing about them, so I am about as qualified as anybody else to provide my opinions on Tamil cinema.

What about your star ratings?

I chose the four star rating mainly because of my familiarity with it. A large number of movie reviewers in the web use this particular method of rating, and I personally find it easy to qualify & recommend a movie on 4-star rather than a 5-star scale.

4, 3.5 and 3 stars - These movies are generally highly recommended and a must-watch by any measure. The only difference being the presence of any noticeable flaws leading to a reduction in rating. Although no movie is flawless, certain movies may also get the full rating despite their flaws, because they may stir up personal emotions/feelings that other, more accomplished films might not.

2.5 and 2 stars - These movies form the middle-ground between the really bad and good one. Almost always, liking of films that fall in this category will largely depend on whether you like the genre or not. My own perspective in this region might be skewed because of my personal liking of certain genres, so take it into account with your own discretion.

1.5 and 1 stars - In general, these movies will have more flaws than they intend to and will almost always be unwatchable most of the time. Some movies may also get this rating because they fail to achieve what they set out to in the first place.

0.5 and No stars - This category is self-explanatory, though I cannot imagine how many movies I watch will fall into this one.

Who produces content for the site and its design?

All the written content in this site is produced by me. Almost all the graphics including background images, individual stars and overall layout images are also created by me.

Do you watch movies early in multiplexes?

I generally tend to watch movies featuring the big star heroes definitely in theaters. And, apart from that, I will always watch any movie that catches my eye with its subject matter/genre in multiplexes. The movies I will catch up with at a later time are generally ones that strike a wrong note with their trailers, providing me with the gut feeling that they might not be worth spending time in theaters for. Though if I am pleasantly surprised by these movies in home viewing, then all the better.