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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Review (Tamil)«
“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 […]
“Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA”… The party’s over
May 11, 2013
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 […]
“Soodhu Kavvum”… Crime does pay!
May 4, 2013
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
May 4, 2013
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
May 4, 2013
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 […]
“Yaaruda Mahesh”… Gag orders
April 27, 2013
Over a dark screen, we hear a man’s whisper, a plea to a woman to “show” him something. The leering sexual connotation is quickly dispelled when it’s revealed that the display being sought is that of an exam answer sheet. The man – if you can call him that; he’s really just an overgrown child […]
“Udhayam NH4.”… Road warrior
April 20, 2013
Exiting Manimaran’s Udhayam NH4, you feel some gratitude is in order. Thank you for the roving camerawork, which captures moody atmospherics instead of staring stupidly at the goings-on, like a village idiot frozen in fear as the king’s retinue passes by. Thank you for finding a context for a heroine who doesn’t speak good Tamil. […]
“Gouravam”… Caste away
April 20, 2013
How much you take to Radhamohan’s Gouravam may depend on your tolerance for earnestness, the kind often displayed by filmmakers who aim not merely to entertain but to leave the world – or at least, its Tamil-speaking terrains – a better place. In the very first scene, Arjun (Sirish) says he will remain in India […]
“Settai”… Belling the scat
April 6, 2013
Seeing a “family friendly” version of Delhi Belly feels like watching a plot-only adaptation of an opera, after someone threw out all the music on the assumption that our audiences don’t understand Italian and don’t care for full-throated melodic lines that are suspended in air for far too long. The reason the Hindi film worked […]
“Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga”… The joke’s on us
March 30, 2013
Had a first-time filmmaker made Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga, we may have smiled indulgently at the handful of scenes and lines that worked (thanks largely to the genial Sivakarthikeyan, who has a sly way with the one-liner), and dismissed the bloat elsewhere. In other words, we may have slapped the label “time-pass” on it, deciding […]
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May 18, 2013
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