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“Aurangzeb”… Games of thrones
Something’s happened to Rishi Kapoor as he’s grown older, fleshier. He’s become a really terrific actor. When he was younger, he was always a competent performer, and sometimes even a good one, but the roles he was typecast in and the assembly-line filmmaking of the time rarely let him break out and deliver anything radically […]
“I Don’t Luv U”…
When a film spells its title I Don’t Luv U, it’s clear that its target audience doesn’t comprise adults but the generation that came of age with Facebook and Twitter (or as a character, here, hilariously puts it, “the burger generation”) – so what might a grown-up gain from a viewing? Perhaps an insight into how […]
“Neram”… A day in the life
Alphonse Putharen’s Neram begins with an unusual dedication, a thank-you to the director’s “ex-girlfriends (especially the last one).” Just what might a Freudian make of this, given that the heroine, here, is kidnapped, bound and gagged, and tossed into the boot of a black Ambassador? The opening scene is even more unconventional, a riff on the butterfly […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “The lost action heroes”
Why are stunt professionals so invisible in Hollywood? Is it because it’s the writers who dream up those action scenarios in the first place? The new Iron Man movie is, thankfully, less about Iron Man than Tony Stark, the man inside the metal. Choosing to showcase a human being over a superhero is always a […]
“Gippi”… Smells like teen spirit
Nothing’s going right for the eponymous 14-year-old heroine (Riya Vij) of Sonam Nair’s Gippi. She’s a klutz. She’s not as thin as the girls around her, and her dresses just won’t fit. (“Thoda full full” is how her classmate Ashish sweetly appraises her.) She doesn’t fit in either, which may be why she escapes – through old Hindi film […]
“Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA”… The party’s over
Going by the posters that screamed “Amaidhipadai – 2” and “Amavasai returns,” I was curious how Manivannan’s Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA would play out as a sequel. After all, when we left the earlier film almost two decades ago, the unscrupulous politician memorably portrayed by Sathyaraj (we first saw him as a leering bumpkin named […]
“Go Goa Gone”… The evil undead
The most impressive aspect of Go Goa Gone, the “zom-com” directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, may be its utter disdain for heroics. Even its ostensible hero – Saif Ali Khan, whose star wattage lit up the film’s promos, plays a blonde Russian named Boris (he calls himself Barees) – isn’t so much the […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… Taking a knife to a classic
Thoughts on Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho,” Gus Van Sant’s remake of ‘Psycho,” and the ruthlessly butchered ‘Psycho’ that’s shown on television. Psycho is widely seen as the progenitor of the modern-day slasher film, yet watching it today, I wonder if that credit shouldn’t actually go to the movie Hitchcock made immediately after – The Birds, where the […]
Death of a way of life
The Hindu’s Kerala bureaus have been covering the malnutrition deaths in the tribal villages of Palakkad. Here, Baradwaj Rangan writes about life in one such village In the tribal village of Thekke Kadambara, the air is thick with the odour of goat droppings. The animals are everywhere – inside the houses, in sheds just outside [...]
Death of a way of life
What is life like in a tribal village of the Palakkad district of Kerala, which has been in the news for malnutrition deaths? We try to find out. In the tribal village of Thekke Kadambara, the air is thick with the odour of goat droppings. The animals are everywhere – inside the houses, in sheds just [...]
“Soodhu Kavvum”… Crime does pay!
From the very beginning, from the minute a lowly MNC employee rolls off his bed in a tiny house whose walls bear a poster of T Rajendar, Nalan Kumarasamy’s Soodhu Kavvum is a demonstration of what’s possible when movies are made for the sheer joy of making movies. There isn’t a single calculated moment, something [...]
“Ethir Neechal”… Run culture
We’ve had many comic stars but, of late, few stars capable of comedy. Sivakarthikeyan looks like he’s getting there – he’s not yet a star, at least in the leading-man sense, but he was the best thing about Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga, and in RS Durai Senthilkumar’s Ethir Neechal, where he plays an amiable underachiever [...]
“Moondru Per Moondru Kadal”… In the mood for love
The three couples in SM Vasanth’s Moondru Per Moondru Kadal are Varun (Vemal) and Anjana (Lasini), Guna (Cheran) and Mallika (Muktha Bhanu), and Harris (Arjun) and Divya (Surveen Chawla) – and the film depicts their knotty love stories over three landscapes: the sea, the hills, and the flat terrains of a city. The film is [...]
“Shootout at Wadala”… Not-so-brief encounter
There’s something odd about gangsters with a six pack. How do they maintain it if they’re on the run from the police? Do they simply hide out at the nearest Talwalkar’s, doing bench presses as a henchman holds a gun to a trainer’s temple? And from where do they derive protein? Surely not from the [...]
“Bombay Talkies”… Calling the shorts
The quartet of shorts that make up Bombay Talkies train a zoom lens on cinema, starting on the outside and slowly drawing us in. In the first story, cinema is on the periphery, visible only as a contributor to the gossip-magazine industry and in a Hindi film music collector’s posters and albums. In the second, [...]
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and the state of Pritam's music
A while ago, I had reviewed the marquee career of Pritam. Here are some observations from that post: "... there is little doubt that behind AR Rahman, he is India's most prodigious hit maker. He is building name recognition - audiences seek out his music by reputation. Show More Summary
Lights, Camera, Conversation… Dreams die first
Can you believe QSQT is a quarter-century old? And can you believe that love, once, was so unattainable? I’m sorry if I’m turning this column into some sort of nostalgia machine, remembering movies simply because they turn a certain age – but there just wasn’t any way I was going to be able to resist [...]
‘What else can I do?’
AR Rahman isn’t in the mood to talk about his music for ‘Maryan,’ but about everything else he’s happy to hold forth. AR Rahman seems to like having his picture taken. He’s seated at the edge of a couch in one of the many small office rooms at his Kodambakkam studio, and the harsh lights [...]
