I would like to share with you a little fact that struck me hard! Tamil movies have been made since the 1930s, all with the basic necessity of having a story, screenplay, cast, cinematography, music & NAME. After all, what is a movie without a name?!!!
The name of a movie is like a sticky note that we attach to a blurry memory of the movie in our Brain's Mind Map. It is quintessential to have a name that reflects the striking aspect of the movie so that people (given they watch 200+ movies a year through TV, Theater, "Pirated Home Theater") can relate well and immediately start/join a discussion about the movie even years after its release.
Very few directors take care in naming their movies appropriately. People that strike my mind are Mani Rathnam, Cheran, Kamal, Gautham Menon and the new crop of directors especially Mysskin. This can be attributed to the Entertainment Tax waiver associated towards Tamizh Names for Movies, a law enforced by our Chief Minister (M Karunanidhi). Many thanks sir.
A short observation while comparing of the trend of making movies a decade ago with now:
I remember a classic time in Tamil cinema where movies were made of STAR/HERO value A.L.O.N.E. Let us consider our dearest Hero Superstar's filmography. Padikathavan (Illiterate), Velaikaran (Servant/Labour), Panakkaran (Affluent), etc were named after his roles in the movies where he plays an Illiterate, Labor and Affluent (in the climax). Now there are not many words for such roles and eventually directors instead of changing the story, changed the way they named the movies.
Thus started Annamailai, Basha, Muthu, Padayappa, Arunachalam where the movie names depict the name of the character played by our Superstar. Along with the movie's name, throw in some junior artistes who keep repeating the name throughout the movie, you get a mental image of the movie pinned with the sticky note (Name of character and the movie itself). This way, how many ever movies you make with the same story, screenplay & cast you get different records in people's mind for each movie that is tagged to the Movie Name sticky note.
Thankfully in this trend of movie making, a story & screenplay combination, if reused is a major factor for the movie bombing at the Box-Office. Film Makers have different stories and story telling methodologies and go that extra mile in to naming them effectively to make the "sticky note", note worthy. Movies like "Auto", "Kuruthipunal", "Anbe Sivam", "Quarter Cutting" however bad they perform at the box office will be remembered and recollected easily FOREVER.
Now, how easy is it to talk for hours about Thalapathy (Title that suits the story) compared to Naatukku Oru Nallavan (an example of Naming for the sake of it) or Dharma Durai (Naming after the Hero's name). All three movies were Hits that released in 1991.