TamilDhool

From channels to apps

The old TamilDhool, as the Wayback Machine kept it, called itself a cool collection of Tamil serials and shows, and its menu was a list of television channels: Sun TV, Vijay TV, Zee Tamil, Colors Tamil, Kalaignar TV. The site was organised by channel, the way television schedules are. Today those families of channels also run streaming apps: Sun NXT belongs to the Sun TV group, JioHotstar carries the Star Vijay channel and ZEE5 belongs to Zee, while Netflix, Prime Video and SonyLIV also hold many Tamil films.

TamilDhool sorts Tamil cinema the way its menu once sorted television: by home. Each of its 179 Tamil films and series sits on the shelf of the first subscription service that TMDB, the community film database, lists for it in India, using data from JustWatch. The big services are split by era, so that the board on the home page, Thirteen streaming shelves, can show at a glance which app holds the classics, which holds the films of the 2000s and which holds the newest releases.

Streaming rights change all the time, and a guide like this one is a snapshot. The shelves describe where each title was listed on 25 October 2026. The Watch now button on every title page always checks the current offers on JustWatch, so you can see where a film streams today in your own country.

How a title finds its home

TamilDhool starts from the Tamil-language titles on TMDB with an English synopsis, a poster and at least ten votes for films or one vote for series, leaving out reality and talk shows. For each title it reads the list of subscription services that TMDB shows for India, in the order TMDB gives them, and takes the first. That service is the title's home. Titles whose first service is one of the smaller ones, such as ManoramaMax, VI movies and tv, aha, Goldmines Play or GuideDoc, share a shelf called Other services.

The big services are then split by era. Sun NXT has three shelves, to 2004, 2005 to 2012 and 2013 to 2019; Prime Video three, to 2012, 2013 to 2019 and 2020 to 2026; Netflix two, to 2021 and 2022 to 2026; ZEE5 two, to 2018 and 2019 to 2026. JioHotstar, SonyLIV and Other services have one shelf each. Each shelf keeps its twelve to sixteen most voted titles.

Of the 817 Tamil titles in the starting pool, 186 were listed for India only for rent or purchase, or with an empty list. Among the rest, Prime Video was the first service for 200 titles and Sun NXT for 179, far ahead of Netflix with 73, ZEE5 with 63 and JioHotstar with 33. Those numbers explain the shape of the board: three shelves each for Prime Video and Sun NXT, two each for Netflix and ZEE5, one for the others.

TamilDhool in figures

The 179 titles, 176 films and three series, span 1987 to 2026. One comes from the 1980s, six from the 1990s, 28 from the 2000s, 74 from the 2010s and 70 from the 2020s. Together they hold 12,443 votes on TMDB, and the average rating is 6.66. Thirty-two titles are rated 7.5 or more with at least ten votes and form the list Rated 7.5 or more.

By home, Sun NXT and Prime Video hold 42 titles each, Netflix 27, ZEE5 26, JioHotstar 16, Other services 14 and SonyLIV 12. The most voted title of the guide is Enthiran, on Sun NXT, with 274 votes, followed by Maharaja and Amaran on Netflix, Jai Bhim on Prime Video and Vikram Vedha on ManoramaMax. The best rated title with at least ten votes is Kadaisi Vivasayi, M. Manikandan's film of 2022 about the last farmer of his village, on SonyLIV, at 8.6.

Sun NXT

Sun NXT is the streaming app of the Sun TV group, and in this guide it is the home of the 2000s. Its three shelves hold 42 titles: fourteen from before 2005, fourteen from 2005 to 2012 and fourteen from 2013 to 2019. Of the 178 Sun NXT titles in the starting pool, only six come from 2020 or later, so its newest shelf ends in 2019.

Sun NXT: to 2004

The oldest Sun NXT shelf holds fourteen films from 1995 to 2004, and thirteen of them come from the four years 2001 to 2004. Baasha, from 1995, with Rajinikanth as an auto-rickshaw driver with a hidden past, is the oldest and the best rated after Kadhal Konden, at 7.6. Ghilli, from 2004, with Vijay, is the most voted with 78 votes. Kadhal Konden, Selvaraghavan's drama of 2003 about a shy, gifted orphan who arrives at college, has the best rating, 7.8, and Selvaraghavan also made 7G Rainbow Colony, from 2004, about a restless young man in love with his new neighbour.

The shelf is a short history of the early 2000s star film. Vikram leads Pithamagan, Bala's drama with Suriya, rated 7.5, and the action films Dhool and Dhill; Ajith Kumar leads Citizen and Dheena; Suriya leads Mounam Pesiyadhe, a love story about a man who falls for his friend's cousin; and Kamal Haasan leads two comedies, Panchatanthiram and Vasool Raja MBBS. Shankar's Boys, about six young friends, and M. Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi, about a kickboxer and his mother, complete the fourteen.

Sun NXT: 2005 to 2012

The middle Sun NXT shelf holds 1,270 votes, the most of the three Sun NXT shelves. It is led by Enthiran, Shankar's robot film of 2010 with Rajinikanth, the most voted title of the whole guide with 274 votes, followed by A. R. Murugadoss's Thuppakki with 132 and his Ghajini with 111. Murugadoss has a third film here, 7Aum Arivu, and Suriya leads four: Ghajini, Ayan, Singam and 7Aum Arivu.

The best rated film of the shelf is Aadukalam, Vetrimaaran's drama of rooster fighting, at 7.7, ahead of Thuppakki at 7.3. Pizza, Karthik Subbaraj's horror thriller, Mankatha, Pokkiri, Dasavatharam with Kamal Haasan in ten roles, Aayirathil Oruvan, Velayudham and Kaavalan complete a shelf that holds four films with Vijay and one with Ajith Kumar.

Sun NXT: 2013 to 2019

The newest Sun NXT shelf holds fourteen films from 2013 to 2019. It is led by Ratsasan, the serial-killer thriller of 2018, with 212 votes, followed by Thani Oruvan, Petta and Sarkar. Its best rated film is Papanasam, Kamal Haasan's family thriller of 2015, at 7.8, followed by Velaiyilla Pattathari at 7.5 and Ratsasan and Thani Oruvan at 7.4.

It has the lowest average rating of the three Sun NXT shelves, 6.22, and holds several star films with low ratings: Puli, from 2015, at 4.1, Vivegam at 4.9 and Bairavaa at 5.5. Vijay appears in four films of the shelf, Sarkar, Bairavaa, Puli and Jilla, the story of a policeman and his godfather with Mohanlal; Suriya leads Singam 2 and Anjaan; Dhanush leads Velaiyilla Pattathari and Kodi.

Prime Video

Prime Video is the largest home in the starting pool, the first subscription service for 200 Tamil titles, and its three shelves in this guide hold 42 films from 1987 to 2025. They are also the best rated shelves of the board: the oldest averages 7.28, the highest of all thirteen, and twelve of its fourteen films are rated 7.0 or more.

Prime Video: to 2012

The oldest Prime Video shelf is the classic shelf of the guide. Five of its fourteen films are by Mani Ratnam: Roja, Bombay, Iruvar, Alaipayuthey and Kannathil Muthamittal. Nayakan, his crime epic of 1987, is the oldest film in the guide, rated 7.9 from 100 votes, and the best rated film of the shelf. Sivaji: The Boss, Shankar's film of 2007 with Rajinikanth, is the most voted, with 156 votes.

Kamal Haasan leads four films here, Nayakan, Anbe Sivam, Hey Ram and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, and Anbe Sivam and Kannathil Muthamittal are both rated 7.7. The horror film Yavarum Nalam and the horror comedy Chandramukhi, K. V. Anand's Ko and Selvaraghavan's Pudhupettai complete the shelf. If you want one service for the Tamil classics of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s in this guide, this is the shelf.

Prime Video: 2013 to 2019

The middle Prime Video shelf holds fourteen films from 2015 to 2019. It is led by Shankar's 2.0, the sequel to Enthiran, with 194 votes, and his I, with 145. Its best rated film is Pariyerum Perumal, Mari Selvaraj's drama of 2018 about a law student from a lower caste, at 8.2, followed by Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru at 7.8, Asuran at 7.6 and Aruvi, about a young woman who finds it hard to fit into society and takes it on, at 7.5.

The shelf also holds the big star films of those years, Rajinikanth's Kabali and Kaala by Pa. Ranjith, and Vijay's Theri and Bigil by Atlee, along with O Kadhal Kanmani, Mani Ratnam's love story of 2015, Imaikkaa Nodigal, U Turn and Maanagaram, Lokesh Kanagaraj's first film in the guide.

Prime Video: 2020 to 2026

The newest Prime Video shelf holds fourteen films from 2020 to 2025 and is the most voted of the three, with 1,495 votes. Jai Bhim, from 2021, with Suriya as a lawyer who takes up the case of a tribal woman whose husband disappears in custody, leads with 262 votes, followed by Soorarai Pottru, also with Suriya, with 148. Both Suriya films are among the best rated of the shelf, 7.4 and 7.7, alongside Rocketry: The Nambi Effect at 7.7.

Rajinikanth appears in three films of the shelf, Jailer, Coolie and Darbar; Dhanush in three, Captain Miller, Thiruchitrambalam and Karnan; and Mani Ratnam's two-part epic Ponniyin Selvan: Part I and Ponniyin Selvan: Part II sits here too. Vijay's Master and Varisu and the drama Star, about a young man who dreams of becoming a film star, complete the fourteen.

Netflix

Netflix holds 27 titles in two shelves, and it is above all the home of the 2020s. Of its 73 Tamil titles in the starting pool, 67 come from 2020 or later. Its newest shelf holds two of the three most voted films of the guide, Maharaja and Amaran, while its older shelf collects the Netflix titles of 2017 to 2021 and one older classic.

Netflix: to 2021

The older Netflix shelf holds fourteen titles. The oldest is Shankar's Indian, from 1996, with Kamal Haasan as an old freedom fighter who takes on corruption, the most voted title of the shelf with 89 votes. The rest come from 2017 to 2021. Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal, a romantic comedy about two online scammers with Dulquer Salmaan, follows with 88, and Nelson's Doctor, with Sivakarthikeyan, with 67.

The shelf holds some of the guide's most unusual films. Mandela, from 2021, rated 7.3, follows a barber who becomes the deciding vote in a village election ruled by caste; Andhaghaaram, also rated 7.3, braids together a blind librarian, a cricketer and a psychiatrist under eerie influences; Sometimes, from 2017, follows seven strangers waiting for the results of an AIDS test. It also holds the anthology series Paava Kadhaigal, rated 7.6, four short films about those who dare to dream and those who stand in their way, and Sillu Karuppatti, an anthology of four love stories across four ages.

Netflix: 2022 to 2026

The newer Netflix shelf holds thirteen films from 2022 to 2026 and 1,360 votes. Maharaja, from 2024, leads with 273 votes, followed by Amaran with 271 and Lokesh Kanagaraj's Leo with 156. Its best rated film is Meiyazhagan, C. Prem Kumar's film of 2024 about a man who returns to Thanjavur for a wedding, at 8.2, followed by Blast, from 2026, at 7.8, and Maharaja and Jigarthanda DoubleX at 7.7.

It is also a shelf of comedies. Pradeep Ranganathan appears in three of its films, Love Today, which he also directed, Dragon and Dude; Vadivelu leads Naai Sekar Returns; and Nelson's Beast, with Vijay as a former spy among the hostages of a mall, mixes comedy with action. Karthik Subbaraj has two films here, Jigarthanda DoubleX and Retro, with Suriya.

ZEE5

ZEE5 belongs to the Zee family, whose Zee Tamil channel stood in the old TamilDhool menu, and it holds 26 titles in two shelves. The older shelf, to 2018, holds thirteen films from 2005 to 2018 and is led by Shankar's Anniyan, with 128 votes, and A. R. Murugadoss's Kaththi, with 124. Its best rated film is Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, Karthick Naren's police thriller of 2016, at 7.8, followed by Kurangu Bommai and 8 Thottakkal, both crime films of 2017, at 7.3.

The newer ZEE5 shelf, from 2019 to 2026, is the least voted shelf of the board, with 306 votes, and the lowest rated, 5.81 on average, but it also holds one of the best rated comedies of the guide: Oh My Kadavule, from 2020, about a young husband given a second chance at his life, rated 7.9. It holds three films by H. Vinoth, Nerkonda Paarvai, Valimai and Jana Nayagan, from 2026, with Vijay. Three of its films come from 2026: Jana Nayagan, the dark comedy Parimala and Co and a new Parasakthi, Sudha Kongara's action drama with Sivakarthikeyan, which shares only its title with the Sivaji Ganesan classic of 1952.

JioHotstar

JioHotstar carries the Star Vijay family, the Vijay TV of the old TamilDhool menu, and its single shelf holds sixteen titles from 2018 to 2025. It is led by two of the best known crime films of the guide, Lokesh Kanagaraj's Kaithi, with 178 votes, and Vetrimaaran's Vada Chennai, with 118, and Vada Chennai shares the best rating of the shelf, 7.8, with Tourist Family, the 2025 comedy about a Sri Lankan family who start again in India.

The rest of the shelf favours smaller films. Parking, from 2023, rated 7.5, turns a quarrel over a parking space between an older man and a youngster into a battle of egos; Vaazhai, Mari Selvaraj's film of 2024, follows a schoolboy who spends his holidays carrying banana bunches; Mookuthi Amman is a comedy about a reporter helped by a goddess. The shelf also holds the series November Story, rated 7.4, with Tamannaah Bhatia, and Nayanthara's thriller Netrikann.

SonyLIV

SonyLIV holds twelve titles from 2018 to 2023, and its shelf has the second best average rating of the board, 7.00, with eight of its titles rated 7.0 or more. 96, C. Prem Kumar's love story of 2018, leads with 169 votes. The best rated title with at least ten votes in the whole guide sits here too: Kadaisi Vivasayi, from 2022, about the only farmer left in a village that has given up farming, rated 8.6 from 29 votes.

SonyLIV's shelf leans towards serious drama. Gargi, with Sai Pallavi, is about a schoolteacher whose father is arrested in a crime case; Pebbles follows a boy and his violent father on the road; Kanam sends a young musician back in time to save his mother. Venkat Prabhu's time-loop thriller Maanaadu, the police thriller Por Thozhil and the series Iru Dhuruvam, rated 8.2 from five votes, add suspense.

Other services

Fourteen titles in the guide have a smaller service as their first subscription home in India: ManoramaMax for six, VI movies and tv for three, Goldmines Play for three, and aha and GuideDoc for one each. This shelf, surprisingly, is the most voted of the whole board, with 1,504 votes, because it holds big films: Vikram Vedha with 247 votes, Vikram with 196, 24 with 149, Super Deluxe with 148 and Mersal with 141.

It also holds the oldest film outside Prime Video's classic shelf, Mani Ratnam's Thalapathi, from 1991, the best rated title of the shelf at 8.0, and his Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, from 2018. Irudhi Suttru, Sudha Kongara's boxing drama of 2016 about a coach and his rebellious pupil, is rated 7.4, and Shankar's Nanban, Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam and Ajith Kumar's Yennai Arindhaal and Vedalam complete the shelf.

Titles on more than one service

The shelves record the first subscription service that TMDB lists for each title, but many titles appear on several. In this guide, 120 of the 179 titles are listed with two or more subscription services in India, and 54 can also be rented. Enthiran, Jai Bhim, Vikram Vedha, Ratsasan, 2.0, Kaithi and 96 are among the titles with more than one home. That is one more reason the Watch now button matters: it shows every current offer, beyond the first.

The order of the services also changes. A film that sits on the Sun NXT shelf today may move to another app next year, or appear on a new one beside it. TamilDhool's shelves are a dated picture of one day, 25 October 2026, and a useful way to see which service holds which part of Tamil cinema history, rather than a promise about tomorrow.

Each service and its era

Read by year, the thirteen shelves show that each service holds a different slice of Tamil cinema. Sun NXT is strongest in the 2000s and early 2010s: 27 of its 42 titles in the guide come from 2001 to 2012. Prime Video holds most of the older classics, with three of Mani Ratnam's four films of the 1990s and the oldest film of all, Nayakan, and also the big films of 2020 to 2025. Netflix is the home of the 2020s, with 23 of its 27 titles from 2020 on. ZEE5 spans 2005 to 2026, JioHotstar and SonyLIV the years since 2018.

The same pattern appears in the starting pool. Of the 178 Sun NXT titles there, 97 come from 2012 or earlier; of the 73 Netflix titles, 67 come from 2020 or later; and of the 32 JioHotstar titles, 29 come from 2020 or later. Prime Video is the most balanced, with 57 titles from before 2013, 72 from 2013 to 2019 and 70 from 2020 on.

Where the stars live

Following a star across the shelves shows how the services split their careers. Vijay appears in nineteen titles of the guide, and nine of them live on Sun NXT, from Ghilli and Pokkiri to Thuppakki, Velayudham, Kaavalan, Jilla, Bairavaa, Puli and Sarkar; four live on Prime Video, two each on Netflix and ZEE5 and two on the smaller services. Suriya's twelve titles are even more concentrated: eight on Sun NXT, from Pithamagan and Mounam Pesiyadhe to Ghajini, Singam and Anjaan.

Rajinikanth's fourteen titles lean the other way, with eight on Prime Video, from Sivaji: The Boss and Chandramukhi to Kabali, Kaala, Jailer, Coolie and Darbar, three on Sun NXT, two on smaller services and Annaatthe on Netflix. Dhanush's thirteen titles are spread over six services, the widest spread of any star in the guide, and Vijay Sethupathi's eleven over five. Kamal Haasan's eleven titles sit on Sun NXT and Prime Video, four each, with two on smaller services and Indian on Netflix.

The best rated shelves

Ratings differ across the board as much as eras do. The oldest Prime Video shelf has the highest average, 7.28, followed by SonyLIV at 7.00 and the middle Prime Video shelf at 6.95. The newer Netflix shelf averages 6.92 and Other services 6.89. At the other end come the newer ZEE5 shelf at 5.81, the newest Sun NXT shelf at 6.22 and the older Netflix shelf at 6.29.

The list Rated 7.5 or more gathers 32 titles with a rating of at least 7.5 and ten votes or more, and it crosses every service. Kadaisi Vivasayi leads at 8.6, on SonyLIV, followed by Pariyerum Perumal and Meiyazhagan at 8.2, on Prime Video and Netflix, Thalapathi at 8.0 on ManoramaMax, and Nayakan and Oh My Kadavule at 7.9 on Prime Video and ZEE5.

The three series

Only three series made it onto the shelves, because each shelf keeps its most voted titles and films hold far more votes; each of the three lives on a different service. Paava Kadhaigal, from 2020, on Netflix, is an anthology of four short films about people who dare to dream and those who try to stop them, rated 7.6 from 24 votes. November Story, from 2021, on JioHotstar, is a seven-episode mystery with Tamannaah Bhatia about a crime novelist found at the scene of a murder. Iru Dhuruvam, from 2019, on SonyLIV, is a police series of two seasons and nineteen episodes.

In this guide, series are a small part of the collection next to films. The series pages list every season and episode with air dates, and each of the three can be found through the search box or the A–Z page, or on the shelf of its service: Netflix for Paava Kadhaigal, JioHotstar for November Story and SonyLIV for Iru Dhuruvam.

The old menu and the new apps

The capture of TamilDhool from January 2020 shows a menu built around five television channels: Sun TV, Vijay TV, Zee Tamil, Colors Tamil and Kalaignar TV, each with its serials, shows and programmes. This guide keeps that idea of a channel family and follows it into the apps. The Sun TV family is Sun NXT, with three shelves; the Zee family is ZEE5, with two; and the Star Vijay family is JioHotstar, with one. Colors Tamil and Kalaignar TV are absent from the board, because the guide's titles list other services first.

Beside those families stand the services that stand apart from Tamil television channels: Prime Video, with three shelves, Netflix, with two, and SonyLIV, with one, together holding 81 of the guide's 179 titles. On the board, their tiles carry the names Amazon, Netflix and Sony in place of a channel family.

Directors across the apps

The work of a single director is often spread across several services. Mani Ratnam's eleven titles in the guide are the most concentrated: nine live on Prime Video, from Nayakan, Roja, Bombay and Iruvar to Alaipayuthey, Kannathil Muthamittal, O Kadhal Kanmani and the two Ponniyin Selvan films, and the other two, Thalapathi and Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, on ManoramaMax. If you want to follow Mani Ratnam, one subscription takes you a long way.

Other directors are scattered. Shankar's eight titles sit on five services: Enthiran and Boys on Sun NXT, Sivaji: The Boss, 2.0 and I on Prime Video, Anniyan on ZEE5, Indian on Netflix and Nanban on a smaller service. Lokesh Kanagaraj's six sit on four: Maanagaram, Master and Coolie on Prime Video, Kaithi on JioHotstar, Leo on Netflix and Vikram on VI movies and tv. A. R. Murugadoss is a Sun NXT director, with five of his eight titles there; Karthik Subbaraj splits between Sun NXT, with Pizza and Petta, and Netflix, with Jagame Thandhiram, Jigarthanda DoubleX and Retro; and three of H. Vinoth's four titles are on ZEE5.

Length and genre by service

The services also differ in the kind of film they hold. Sun NXT's films are the longest, 162 minutes on average, and 26 of its 42 titles list Action as their first genre, a sign that it holds many star films of the 2000s and 2010s. Prime Video's average is 157 minutes, Netflix's 148 and ZEE5's 147. JioHotstar's shelf is the shortest, 127 minutes on average, and the only one where Comedy is the most common first genre, with five of its sixteen titles.

SonyLIV's shelf leans towards drama, with Drama first for four of its twelve titles and Crime for three. Prime Video holds the most votes of any service in the guide, 3,927 across its three shelves, and the highest average rating, 7.01, while Sun NXT holds 2,910 votes and averages 6.55.

A week across the apps

For a week with TamilDhool, pick one title from each service. Begin on Prime Video with Nayakan, and continue on Sun NXT with Kadhal Konden. On Netflix, watch Meiyazhagan; on ZEE5, Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru; on JioHotstar, Kaithi; on SonyLIV, Kadaisi Vivasayi; and close the week with Super Deluxe on aha or Thalapathi on ManoramaMax.

Seven evenings, seven services and almost forty years of Tamil cinema, from 1987 to 2024. Before you start, press Watch now on each title to check that it is still on the service you expect: the shelves are a snapshot of one day, and the button always shows what streams today.

The best rated title of every shelf

Each of the thirteen shelves has its own best rated title among those with at least ten votes, and together they make a short list of the guide's strongest films. On Sun NXT they are Kadhal Konden, at 7.8, on the shelf to 2004; Aadukalam, at 7.7, on the shelf of 2005 to 2012; and Papanasam, at 7.8, on the shelf of 2013 to 2019. On Prime Video they are Nayakan, at 7.9, on the classic shelf; Pariyerum Perumal, at 8.2, on the middle shelf; and Soorarai Pottru, at 7.7, on the newest.

On Netflix they are the anthology Paava Kadhaigal, at 7.6, on the older shelf, and Meiyazhagan, at 8.2, on the newer one. On ZEE5 they are Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, at 7.8, and Oh My Kadavule, at 7.9. Vada Chennai and Tourist Family share the top of the JioHotstar shelf at 7.8, Kadaisi Vivasayi leads SonyLIV at 8.6, and Thalapathi leads the smaller services at 8.0. Thirteen shelves, thirteen evenings, and every decade of the guide from the 1980s to the 2020s is represented.

Heroines at the centre

Counting the first name on each cast list, thirteen titles in the guide are led by women, and they are spread across the services. Nayanthara leads four: Imaikkaa Nodigal on Prime Video, Kolamavu Kokila on ZEE5, a dark comedy about a young woman who enters the drug trade to pay for her mother's treatment, and Mookuthi Amman and Netrikann on JioHotstar. Aishwarya Rajesh leads two, Boomika on Netflix and Soppana Sundari on JioHotstar.

The others are Jyothika in Chandramukhi and P. S. Keerthana, the child star of Kannathil Muthamittal, both on Prime Video; Aditi Balan in Aruvi and Samantha Ruth Prabhu in U Turn, also on Prime Video; Sai Pallavi in Gargi on SonyLIV; Kangana Ranaut in Thalaivii, the biopic of the actor and chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, on Netflix; and Tamannaah Bhatia in the series November Story on JioHotstar.

The newest titles

The guide reaches 2026 with four titles. Blast, an action thriller about an ordinary family with hidden martial-arts skills, sits on Netflix and is rated 7.8 from 77 votes. The other three sit on ZEE5: Jana Nayagan, H. Vinoth's film with Vijay; Parimala and Co, Pandiraj's dark comedy about a chaotic family; and the new Parasakthi, Sudha Kongara's drama of civil disobedience in the old Madras State, with Sivakarthikeyan.

The year before brought eight titles to the board: Coolie on Prime Video; Dragon, Dude and Retro on Netflix; Sirai and Kudumbasthan on ZEE5; and Tourist Family and Aaromaley on JioHotstar. Kudumbasthan, rated 7.2, is a family comedy about a young man whose marriage strains his relationship with his parents, and Aaromaley a romance set in a matchmaking agency.

Caste, land and justice on the apps

Some of the best rated films of the guide are about caste, land and justice, and they are spread across the services in a telling way. Prime Video holds four of them: Pariyerum Perumal, about a law student from a lower caste whose friendship with a classmate brings him trouble from her family; Asuran, about a family on the run after a killing; Karnan, about a young man who fights for his oppressed village; and Jai Bhim, about a lawyer who takes up the case of a tribal woman. Three of the four are by Mari Selvaraj and Vetrimaaran, and all four are rated 7.3 or more.

The other services hold their own. Netflix has Mandela, about a barber who becomes the deciding vote in a caste-ruled village election; SonyLIV has Kadaisi Vivasayi, about the last farmer of his village; ZEE5 has Kudumbasthan, about a young man whose marriage to a woman from an oppressed caste strains his family; and JioHotstar has Vaazhai, Mari Selvaraj's film about a schoolboy who carries banana bunches in the holidays. Followed across the apps, these films make one of the clearest threads in the guide.

Pairs and sequels across the apps

Some stories are split between services. Enthiran, from 2010, lives on Sun NXT, while its sequel 2.0, from 2018, lives on Prime Video. Singam and Singam 2 are both on Sun NXT, three years apart, and the two Ponniyin Selvan films are both on Prime Video. Shankar's Indian, from 1996, lives on Netflix, and the horror comedies Kanchana 3 and Aranmanai 3 both on ZEE5.

If you want to watch a pair in order, check both titles with Watch now before you start, because the first and second parts of a story can easily sit on different services, as Enthiran and 2.0 do here.

Reading ratings and votes

The ratings on TamilDhool come from TMDB, and they are worth reading with their vote counts. Thirty-one titles in the guide have a hundred votes or more, from Enthiran, Maharaja and Amaran at the top to Coolie and Nayakan; their ratings are the most settled. Many smaller titles have between ten and thirty votes, and a single new rating can move them noticeably. That is why the list Rated 7.5 or more asks for at least ten votes, and why every shelf is ordered by votes rather than by rating.

The two measures often pull apart. Puli, on Sun NXT, has 51 votes and a rating of 4.1; Kadaisi Vivasayi, on SonyLIV, has 29 votes and a rating of 8.6. Enthiran, the most voted title of the guide, is rated 6.6, while Meiyazhagan, with 70 votes, is rated 8.2. Use both numbers together, and use the shelves to find the service and the era that suit your evening.

Using the shelves with JustWatch

The best way to use TamilDhool is in two steps. First, use the shelves to see what a service holds and to choose a film by era, star or rating. Then press Watch now on the title page, which opens the title on JustWatch for your country and shows every service that offers it today, with the option to stream, rent or buy.

The second step matters most outside India. The shelves describe India, where the guide's data was read, but the same film may sit on a different service in Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Gulf, Britain or North America. JustWatch's page for your own country is always the final word.

Comedies across the apps

Every service has its comedies, and each has a different flavour. Netflix holds the newest: Love Today, Pradeep Ranganathan's story of a couple who swap phones for a day, Dragon, about a school topper turned con man, Dude and Naai Sekar Returns with Vadivelu. ZEE5 holds Oh My Kadavule, rated 7.9, Comali, about a man who wakes from a coma after sixteen years, RajiniMurugan with Sivakarthikeyan, and Nelson's dark comedy Kolamavu Kokila.

JioHotstar holds the most comedies for its size: Tourist Family, Mookuthi Amman, Aaromaley and Prince. Sun NXT holds the comedies of the 2000s, Kamal Haasan's Panchatanthiram and Vasool Raja MBBS, and Prime Video the gentle Thiruchitrambalam with Dhanush, rated 7.4. On the smaller services, Shankar's Nanban waits for a night with friends. If you want to laugh, the board is as useful as it is for thrillers: pick the service you have, then the comedy that suits the evening.

The look of the guide

TamilDhool's look follows the site as the Wayback Machine kept it on 1 January 2020. The page sits in a grey frame, the body is a warm cream, and the text is set in a serif face, as the old site set its text in Libre Baskerville. The site title stands centred at the top, with the old tagline adapted to this guide: Cool Collection of Tamil Films and Series. The menu uses a clean sans-serif, and its current item turns the same blue that the old menu used.

The tiles of the board borrow from the featured tiles of the old home page, which captioned each picture on a dark slate bar. Here each tile carries the name of a streaming shelf on that bar, with the family of the service above it. The colours, the cream search field with its thin border and the slate buttons are measured from the capture, so a visitor who knew the old site will recognise its warmth, now in the service of a legal guide.

Choosing a shelf for the evening

If you already pay for one service, TamilDhool's shelves are a quick way to see what it holds. On Prime Video, start with the classic shelf: Nayakan, Bombay, Anbe Sivam or Kannathil Muthamittal. On Sun NXT, start with Aadukalam, Kadhal Konden or Papanasam, three of its best rated films. On Netflix, start with Meiyazhagan or Maharaja, and for a lighter night Love Today or Dragon. On SonyLIV, start with Kadaisi Vivasayi, the best rated film of the guide, or with 96.

If you want a particular kind of film, the shelves help too. For the big star films of the 2000s, go to Sun NXT's middle shelf; for the new realist dramas, go to Prime Video's middle shelf, with Pariyerum Perumal, Asuran and Aruvi, or to SonyLIV; for comedies of the 2020s, go to Netflix's newer shelf and to Oh My Kadavule on ZEE5. And whatever you choose, press Watch now to confirm where it is streaming before you settle in.

How to read the board

The board on the home page, Thirteen streaming shelves, shows every shelf as a dark tile, in the manner of the featured tiles of the old site. At the top of each tile, a small cream line names the family of the service: The Sun TV family, Amazon, Netflix, The Zee family, The Star Vijay family, Sony or Smaller services. Below it, the name of the shelf sits on a slate caption bar, with the number of titles underneath. Point at a tile and it turns blue; click it to jump to its row of posters on the same page.

Each poster card shows the rating at the top right, the year in a blue tag at the top left and the service along the bottom edge of the poster. Below the title come the first genre and the running time for a film, or the number of episodes for a series. The View all button at the end of each row opens the full shelf on its own page.

Searching TamilDhool

The search box in the header looks through titles, alternative titles and cast names. Type Nayakan to go straight to the film, Suriya to see his titles, or 96 for the love story. Tamil titles are often written in several ways in English, and familiar short forms such as PS1 for Ponniyin Selvan: Part I, PS2 for Part II and Robot for Enthiran also work. The A–Z page lists all 179 titles in alphabetical order.

Watch now on TamilDhool

Every title page has a Watch now button. It opens the title on JustWatch for the country you choose, where you can see which official services offer it to stream, rent or buy. Because the shelves describe one day, the button is the place to check where a title is available now. TamilDhool itself is a guide; the watching happens on the official services.

My list on TamilDhool

The My list button on every title page saves that title to a personal list kept in your browser, on the device you use. A good way to use it is to save the titles from the service you already have, so that your list becomes a ready-made watchlist for that app, or to save one title from each shelf for a tour of all thirteen.

TamilDhool on a phone

On a small screen the menu moves behind the slate button in the top corner, the board folds into two columns and each row of posters arranges itself in fewer columns. Title pages, lists and the A–Z page all read comfortably on a phone.

Where the data comes from

Titles, synopses, cast, directors, genres, ratings, vote counts, running times, seasons and episodes come from TMDB, the community film and television database, and the streaming services from TMDB's watch provider lists for India, which use JustWatch data, as listed on 25 October 2026. Ratings, votes and services keep changing; the shelves follow the rules described above.

Short guides on TamilDhool

Every part of the guide has a short help page. Begin with Start with TamilDhool, then read The streaming homes. The services have their own guides: Sun NXT, Prime Video, Netflix, ZEE5 and JioHotstar and SonyLIV. The numbers are in The figures, the stars in The stars, and the design in The look of TamilDhool.

For practical help there are Search tips, Watch now, My list, On your phone and Where the data comes from.

Frequently asked questions

For a first visit to TamilDhool, take one title from each of four services. Nayakan from Prime Video, Aadukalam from Sun NXT, Meiyazhagan from Netflix and Kadaisi Vivasayi from SonyLIV: four evenings, four apps, and a first map of where Tamil cinema lives today.

Questions