Spoilers ahead… The first half works quite well in a low-key mode, but the second half could have used a lot more bite. There’s something utterly endearing about a big, burly man like Lal playing someone whose dream is to become a fashion designer. (The character’s name is Basheer.) This is a stereotype, of course […]

Spoilers ahead… This is not a film about cruel children. This is a film about busy people who still carve out time to do their duty. Vignesh Kumulai was one of the cinematographers of Pebbles (Koozhangal), which won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. His first film as director, Karparaa, premiered […]

I have blogged on this before but find it very useful in teaching Price Elasticity of Demand (see also mindmap at end of post) with my class. Tom Wainwright’s book “Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel”is a useful source… Continue reading →

By Bharath Vijayakumar Is Venky Atluri’s Vaathi (Sir in Telugu) supposed to be a bilingual? Or is it a Telugu movie dubbed in Tamil or vice versa? From whatever I could make of it, it looked like a film that was shot with most actors mouthing Telugu dialogues with few exceptions. This is usually a […]

By Bharath Vijayakumar The year is 2007 and we are in Poovar, a small town in Kerala. Roy (Mathew Thomas), a teenager is possibly having the best of times with his friends. They play all day, have a dance group called the ‘Poovar Boys’ and watch Pokkiri (the Tamil version, in case it is important […]

By Krishna (aka Caesium) If the wiki article is to be believed, GVM’s 50th birthday is next week. Using that as a chance to have some fun, here is a crossword puzzle created with his movies. 1. Answers are words in GVM movie titles (or parts of it). Thanks to his naming style, there’s plenty to […]

By Krishna (aka Caesium) If the wiki article is to be believed, GVM’s 50th birthday is next week. Using that as a chance to write this article (mostly from memory) – a collection of memorable mini-moments from our Menon’s movies. Minnale (2001): Poopol Poopol song freeze-framing to Pepsi sponsored Minnale! (I’d equally credit HJ and […]

‘Pattukaran’ is a podcast by Sudhir Viyas D. He called me to share some thoughts on Raja in the first episode of Season 2. If you want to support this podcast, here’s the link: https://anchor.fm/pattukkaaran/support And here is the podcast:

Spoilers ahead… The director is also the writer, and he demonstrates a great instinct for masala-movie writing. One of the film’s most goosefleshy touches is in the way it merges cinema and education. It’s the 1990s. Thanks to liberalisation and privatisation, education has become a booming business. There’s a statue of Saraswathi in the premises […]

Spoilers ahead… Decoding the messaging is probably more interesting than anything else in this randomly written, unimaginatively directed movie. There are three narratives buried in the convoluted screenplay of G Mohan’s Bakasuran. One is from the Shankar playbook, where a wronged man turns into a vigilante and kills those who wronged him by means of […]

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By S Srivatsan, freelance critic It is not every Friday that you come across the work of a passionate filmmaker. Okay, let me rephrase that statement a bit: it is not everyday that you get to see the passion a debut filmmaker has for their baby. Ganesh K Babu’s Dada, funnily, involves a baby too, is a movie […]

By Kartik Iyer Anupama Chopra sat down with actors for a discussion. She brought up a comment shared with her by a tradesman: testosterone filled movies will work in the future. Unsurprisingly, Ayushman Khurrana was first to call it out as a ‘patriarchal’ statement. Fellow actors followed in tandem with Vidya Balan rounding up the […]

Spoilers ahead… The director’s earlier work, Attention Please, was an angry film about art being the ultimate weapon. Rekha is more about the heart. The pre-interval stretch of Rekha gives no idea about what lies later. What we get at first is a beautiful depiction of a family and the small, sleepy community that surrounds […]

Spoilers ahead… Ingmar Bergman famously struggled with “the silence of God,” and the still camera appears to extend that mute-witness aspect of God, someone who watches over this tranquil community but neither helps the good nor punishes the bad The title of Don Palathara’s new film, which had its world premiere at the International Film […]

Spoilers ahead… The director trusts his lead actors to convey feelings through micro-gestures – and both Kavin and Aparna Das are superb. Right from the opening stretch of Dada, Ganesh K Babu announces that he is a real filmmaker. What we’re watching is basically an “I love you” scene, but rendered without the words being […]

With the global economy experiencing supply chain pressures, inflationary problems, higher interest and geopolitical tensions are we seeing what the IMF call ‘slowbalisation’? Part of this change has come about from the decoupling of the American, European and Japanese economies… Continue reading →

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Spoilers ahead… Even after a tragic backstory, Mammootty is asked to do so little that he powers along solely on the basis of his charisma. No means no. That’s what Christopher (Mammootty) wants for women. But very often, toxic and powerful men do not take no for an answer – and the women end […]