All these years, apparently, I’ve been living in a city that’s not the sweetly traditional home of filter coffee and mallipoo idli and the Music Season, but really Sodom and Gomorrah combined and quadrupled and relocated to the Ninth circle of Hell. At least, that’s what a certain stripe of directors in Tamil cinema, every… [Read more…]
May 7, 2012
The most notable aspect of Jannat 2 may be the numeral in its title, which suggests either a prequel or a reincarnation drama. After all, if Emraan Hashmi is the protagonist here, and his character perished in a hail of bullets at the end of Jannat (see review here), also directed by Kunal Deshmukh, then… [Read more…]
May 5, 2012
Transgenders from all over Tamil Nadu – and some from outside – dress up, dance, and compete in a beauty contest that’s not the one you usually hear about. Behind a marriage hall in Villupuram – named, somewhat ironically, Sri Anjaneya, after a deity who opted to remain wifeless – I run into Shakila, a… [Read more…]
May 5, 2012
Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is the story of the titular orphan (the gravely composed Asa Butterfield) beset by a life-altering mystery, but the first sounds that come at us are the ticking of clocks and the chugging of faraway trains, and even our first glimpse of Hugo is partial – he’s hidden behind a giant clock.… [Read more…]
May 4, 2012
Jack Nicholson turned 75 recently, to much slavering from the media. And why not? How many others performers are great actors as well as glorious stars? If there’s a reason Jack Nicholson is an indelible face on the Mount Rushmore of Hollywood, it’s his potential to tune performances all the way from 0 to 10… [Read more…]
May 4, 2012
Just finished reading this long and entertaining profile of Samuel L Jackson, and found myself lingering over this passage: William Friedkin, who directed Jackson in “Rules of Engagement,” told me: “Sam is a director’s dream. Some actors hope to find their character during shooting. He knows his character before shooting. Sam’s old-school. I just got… [Read more…]
April 29, 2012
What Farhan Akhtar did for upper-class Bombay, Dibakar Banerjee seems to have done for middle-class Delhi. As if following a fashion, the screens these days are filled with endearingly loud Punjabi types, who speak Hindi as if through a fractured mouth (every other syllable gets snipped) and who practically explode with colour. Take, for instance,… [Read more…]
April 28, 2012
Joss Whedon’s The Avengers – not to be confused with Jeremiah Chechik’s film of the same name, where Ralph Fiennes wielded an umbrella and saved the world from evildoers in candy-coloured teddy bear suits – is a mix of everything: of superheroes, of action and emotion and comedy, of staging that careens between prestige theatre… [Read more…]
April 28, 2012
Isn’t it strange that the directors competing for the Palme d’Or are always those of entrenched repute? Who makes the world’s best films, at least the ones fit enough to fight it out in the competition section of film festivals? If this year’s Cannes lineup is to be believed, it’s the same contenders. The festival… [Read more…]
April 28, 2012
Tamarind City: Where Modern India Began, the second book written by my colleague and friend Bishwanath Ghosh, will be launched on Monday, May 14, 2012, at Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers TTK Road, Chennai. But no, this is not an invitation to the event (God forbid all of you reading this land up and occupy… [Read more…]
 | Hari on Contact |
 | vijay on “The Grey”… … |
 | venkatesh on Lights, Camera, Conversation… |
| Ishaqzaade | The W14 on “Ishaqzaade”… | |
 | Abhirup. on “Vazhakku Enn 18/9.… |
 | KayKay on “The Grey”… … |
 | Govardhan Giridass on “Raattinam”…… |
 | DDK on “Vazhakku Enn 18/9.… |
| vijay on “The Grey”… … |
 | Ravi K on Lights, Camera, Conversation… |
| vijay on “Raattinam”…… |
| vijay on Lights, Camera, Conversation… |
| KayKay on “The Grey”… … |
 | Raj Balakrishnan on Lights, Camera, Conversation… |
| Raj Balakrishnan on “The Grey”… … |
May 9, 2012
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