Shankar Movies Ranked from Worst to Best

Known for his extravagant vision, socially and emotionally impactful narratives, Director Shankar is, without a doubt, one of India’s most prolific directors working right now. Debuted way back in 1993 with Gentleman, his career graph always advanced upwards primarily because of the ambitious projects he preferred to direct over the years from Enthiran to Anniyan and many more.

And most importantly, his movies never failed to create a buzz amongst the audience for a wide variety of positive reasons, be it the visuals, the story line, the songs, or the sheer scale he showcased in every one of his projects. So, celebrating his long, successful, and fruitful film career, here are his twelve films ranked in a Worst to Best order. Now, keep in mind, worst do not necessarily mean that the lower-ranked movies are atrocious to watch, those are the films we considered to be inferior when compared to others. Get it!?

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12. I

Starring – ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram & Amy Jackson
Streaming Platform – ZEE5

Shankar’s I, a romantic, revenge drama, turned out to be an entertaining film only made possible by ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram’s exceptional performance. Shankar added the much-needed spice to the predictable narration using many interesting revenge techniques. With a chartbuster album from A. R. Rahman, Shankar took it a step further than normal with his creativity, and picturization of songs. Despite the glaring flaws, ‘I’ can be enjoyed for the visuals and the performance of Vikram alone.

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11. Nanban

Starring – Vijay & Ileana D’Cruz
Streaming Platform – Disney+ Hotstar

After the tremendous success of Enthiran, Shankar made a colorful Tamil remake of 3 Idiots as Nanban collaborating with Thalapathy Vijay for the very first time. Being a story about friendship and the prevailing education system, it was an easy task for the director to engage the audience and deliver his social concern. Shankar’s visual treatment of the story added with the energetic performance by Vijay, and Ileana D’Cruz made Nanban a wholesome entertainer.

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10. Boys

Starring – Siddharth, Genelia D’Cruz
Streaming Platform – ZEE5

In the 2003 coming-of-age drama, Boys, Director Shankar manages to take a straightforward plot revolving around four teenage guys and turns it into a compelling musical entertainer that is way ahead of its time. From the well-written screenplay by Shankar and Sujatha Rangarajan, splendid performances, and the exceptional soundtrack by A. R. Rahman made this film a controversial-yet-enjoyable entertainer back in the early 2000s.

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9. 2.0

Starring – Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar
Streaming Platform – Amazon Prime

Costing just over 540 crores, Shankar’s tour de force 2.0 is India’s biggest movie ever, in terms of budget, production, and technical grandeur. Lead by Super Star Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar fulfills the role of the antagonist with Amy Jackson as the supporting character and Chitti’s love interest.

Excluding the mundane storyline that is easily predictable from a million miles away, 2.0 flourishes when it comes to its visuals, ostentatious production design along with Shankar’s rich visualization and ambitious imagination. The movie has all the right ingredients needed for a commercial entertainer, capped with a significant social message.

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8. Kadhalan

Starring – Prabhudeva, Nagma
Streaming Platform – Amazon Prime

After delivering a blockbuster with Gentleman, director Shankar hits it out of the park yet again with Kadhalan. With the ‘Indian Michael Jackson’ Prabhudeva as the protagonist, ‘Mozart of Madras’ A. R. Rahman as the music director, and a director with a grand vision, Kadhalan is a winner through and through.

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7. Gentleman

Starring – Arjun Sarja & Madhoo
Streaming Platform – Amazon Prime

[This movie is also featured in our ‘Best Tamil Movies on Amazon’ list]

Gentleman marks the debut of Shankar, a clean commercial entertainer with social awareness as the primary ISP. After Gentleman, quite a few movies followed equivalent templates of putting forth a social issue, and the protagonist taking government in his own hands for justice. Not only the story but even Goundamani-Senthil’s comedy track and A. R. Rahman’s music remains as classics to date.

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6. Jeans

Starring – Prashanth & Aishwarya Rai
Streaming Platform – Amazon Prime

Jeans is one of the most popular South Indian films back in the late 90s that primarily succeeded because of the melodramatic plot and the iconic soundtrack by A. R. Rahman. A must-watch!

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5. Anniyan

Starring – ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram & Sadha
Streaming Platform – SUN NXT

[This movie is also featured in Sanjay’s ‘Best Movies of Vikram’ article]

Anniyan, directed by Shankar, was notoriously famous due to the concept of split personality, where Vikram got a golden opportunity to score with three characters Ambi, Anniyan, and Remo in a single movie. The social concern of the movie, coupled with the interesting play of the characters made Anniyan one of the Best Movies of Shankar.

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4. Mudhalvan

Starring – Arjun Sarja & Manisha Koirala
Streaming Platform – YouTube

In Mudhalvan, Director Shankar took a sensitive plot of politics and governance that showcased the transformation of a Journalist to a Chief Minister in an engaging manner. Shankar’s brilliance in handling an issue and providing a possible solution for it worked out very well in Mudhalvan and famously known for elegantly executing the songs, Shankar surprised everyone with the visuals in the song – Mudhalvane. The clever concept of a common man turning into the Chief Minister for a single day added with the sensible dialogues by writer Sujatha made Mudhalvan one of the best made political dramas in Tamil.

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3. Indian

Starring – Kamal Hassan
Streaming Platform – N/A

Indian took Director Shankar to a whole new level as the story explored more on the themes of corruption with a star like Kamal Hassan in the lead role. Shankar’s style of entertainment with a striking social message packed with relatable emotions made Indian a blockbuster and also an official submission to the Academy Awards from India.

Kamal Haasan and Shankar were notoriously known for perfecting and experimenting with their films, introduced prosthetic makeup to the industry, which added authenticity to the performance of the iconic character Senathipathi. Indian is one of the most celebrated movies of Tamil cinema and is not to be missed.

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2. Sivaji: The Boss

Starring – Rajinikanth & Shriya Saran
Streaming Platform – JioCinema

Starring Rajinikanth in the lead on his first-ever collaboration with Shankar, Sivaji helped Rajini elevate his stardom to a whole different level. It dealt with the story of a Software Engineer returning from the USA with intentions of serving his country and how he is stopped by corrupt officials and politicians only to make him clean the entire socio-political system. Director Shankar’s well-written screenplay, Sujatha’s sharp dialogues, Rajini’s magnificent screen presence, made Sivaji one of the biggest blockbusters in everyone’s career.

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1. Enthiran

Starring – Rajinikanth & Aishwarya Rai
Streaming Platform – SUN NXT

This 2010 blockbuster film starring Superstar Rajinikanth in the lead, is a milestone, not only in Tamil Cinema but the whole Indian Cinema Industry itself. Director Shankar set the standard very high and raised the bar that no one was able to even come near it for a decade and Shankar himself had to come up with a spiritual successor in 2.0 to achieve the feat once again. With top-notch technical expertise, computer animations on par with Hollywood, Rajini’s never dimming energy and Director Shankar’s unimaginable vision, made Enthiran one of the finest sci-fi films.

A Collaborative Writing Effort by Sanjay, Nirmal and Surya

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