Mari Selvaraj’s Bison starring Dhruv Vikram and Anupama Parameswaran in the lead roles was released in theatres on October 17th as a Diwali special and emerged as a hit film at the box office.
Since the release of Bison social media has been flooded with discussions and criticisms against the film’s core concept. Some feel that even though Bison is a technically brilliant film, Mari Selvaraj is not moving away from the oppression concept, and that Bison is yet another boring film based on oppression from the director.
On the other hand, some people have highly appreciated the film stating that Bison is a tremendous piece of art and is thus the second best film of Mari Selvaraj after Pariyerum Perumal.
However, apart from these discussions, many people on social media are now ranking Mari Selvaraj’s films based on their content and box office collections.
Let’s check the viral ranking of Mari Selvaraj’s films, from best to worst:
1) Pariyerum Perumal (2018)
Pariyan, a lower caste law student falls in love with an upper caste girl Jothi. This shakes Jothi’s family and they torture and harass Pariyan, which escalates into a huge conflict. With this hard hitting story, Mari Selvaraj debuted in the Kollywood industry with Pariyerum Perumal and it remains the best work of the director to date. Pariyerum Perumal is also celebrated as one of the iconic films of Kollywood.
2) Karnan (2021)
After the remarkable success of Pariyerum Perumal, actor Dhanush joined hands with Mari Selvaraj for Karnan. Despite the critically acclaimed content, Karnan was deeply affected due to the COVID lockdown, as it was released ten days before the second wave lockdown. But only with the ten day theatrical run and 50% restricted occupancy due to COVID, Karnan collected around 70 crores worldwide with solid positive word of mouth from the audiences and it was Dhanush’s career best opening during its release.
3) Bison (2025)
With just two hits, many directors might only collaborate with Star heroes, but Mari Selvaraj even after delivering four back to back successful ventures, collaborated with Vikram’s son, Dhruv Vikram for a small budget film Bison. It was released recently in theatres and has emerged as a hit venture at the box office. Even though many commented that Mari Selvaraj is saturating the oppression concept and thus everyone should boycott his films before Bison’s release, Mari Selvaraj delivered a fitting reply with the film’s box office success.
4) Vaazhai (2024)
Vaazhai was an unimaginable attempt from Mari Selvaraj after completing Karnan and Maamannan with a star studded cast. Featuring just two debutant child actors and inspired by a hard hitting true story based on plantation workers, Mari Selvaraj delivered a box office hit proving that the director himself has emerged as a brand in Kollywood. However, while the film acquired positive responses from theatrical audiences, it received mixed responses from OTT audiences and some even termed it an overrated film.
5) Maamannan (2023)
Four out of the five films of Mari Selvaraj are celebrated as the best socio-message films of Kollywood. Only his film Maamannan starring a studded cast such as Udhayanidhi Stalin, Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu is considered an average film from the director and holds the last position in this ranking. But it also performed well at the box office and completed its theatrical run with a Hit status.
Overall, despite the criticisms that his films will always have an oppression concept in them, all five of Mari Selvaraj’s films are either a blockbuster success or a decent hit at the box office and the director is still maintaining his winning streak since his debut film, Pariyerum Perumal.
Nonetheless, this ranking of Mari Selvaraj’s films is now going viral on social media and many people are sharing their responses to it.
