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Interview: Murali Gopy
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Posted in: Cinema: Malayalam, Interview
On World Poetry Day, remembering the friendship between Pablo Neruda and a postman
March 21, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/on-world-poetry-day-remembering-the-friendship-between-pablo-neruda-and-a-postman-6301721.html Ardiente paciencia (Burning Patience), by the Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta, was published in 1985. The story, set in Chile, imagined a fictional friendship between Pablo Neruda and a shy postman named Mario. The #poetryRocks conceit was as Romantic as it gets. The entire village (fisherfolk, mostly) is […]
Posted in: Cinema: Foreign, Firstpost Column
Interview: Samantha
March 19, 2019
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
#AskBR – Is the age of the superstar director over?
March 19, 2019
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Posted in: #AskBR, Cinema: Tamil
‘Ispade Rajavum’… ‘July Kaatril’… and the modern-day Tamil-film romance
March 18, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/ispade-rajavum-idhaya-raniyum-july-kaatril-baradwaj-rangan-southern-lights/ Two movies go beyond the clichés in our love stories, but only one of them has real heart. Which was the first ‘can’t live with you, can’t live without you’ romance in Tamil cinema, the kind whose path was strewn as much with razors as roses? […]
Posted in: Cinema: Tamil, Southern Lights
Readers Write In #70: Why is everyone so impressed with Made in Heaven
March 18, 2019
Spoilers… Made in Heaven has somehow become the toast of the season. Almost everyone I know who watches Amazon Prime, has been raving about it; and a quick glance at the critics’ reviews across the gazillion media outlets across India, indicates that they too have been impressed. I scratch my head, and not because I […]
Posted in: Readers Write In, Television / Online
“Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum”… A misconceived romance that tries to be so hip and cool, it’s painful
March 15, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/ispade-rajavum-idhaya-raniyum-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-harish-kalyan/ TThe Arjun Reddy prototype roars into Tamil cinema with Ranjit Jeyakodi’s Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum. The first time we see Gautham (Harish Kalyan), he’s on a bike, zooming around… the hairpin bends of life. Or something. He has a big beard and bigger reserves […]
Posted in: Cinema: Tamil
As Xavier Dolan completes 10 years in cinema, a look at ‘Tom at the Farm’
March 15, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/as-xavier-dolan-completes-10-years-in-cinema-a-look-at-tom-at-the-farm-6259701.html In 2009, I Killed My Mother, a Canadian drama by a first-time filmmaker, premiered in the Director’s Fortnight programme of the Cannes Film Festival. It won three awards. Typically, this wouldn’t be major news — first films win awards all the time. But the director, Xavier Dolan, […]
Posted in: Cinema: Foreign, Firstpost Column
Interview: Madhan Karky
March 13, 2019
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
The ‘super deluxe’ expectations from the ‘Aaranya Kaandam’ filmmaker
March 13, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-the-super-deluxe-expectations-from-the-aaranya-kaandam-filmmaker-baradwaj-rangan-tk/ In which I attempt to get a grip on the huge buzz surrounding the second film from Thiagarajan Kumararaja. It’s only natural that the trailer of a film starring Vijay Sethupathi gets a lot of attention. As I write this, the Sindhubath teaser has just dropped, […]
Posted in: Cinema: Tamil, Southern Lights
#AskBR – Sathru, Boomerang
March 13, 2019
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Posted in: #AskBR, Cinema: Tamil
“Badla”… A tepid mystery that’s watchable, but with a huge casting problem
March 10, 2019
Spoilers ahead… In Sujoy Ghosh’s Badla, Amitabh Bachchan (solid as always) stars as one of those high-profile lawyers who has never lost a case. His latest assignment, in this official adaptation of the 2017 Spanish movie Contratiempo, involves Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu), a married woman who admits to adultery but says she’s innocent of murdering […]
Posted in: Cinema: Hindi
“Sathru”… A solid, focused ‘cat and mouse’ thriller that works despite shortcomings
March 8, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Looking at the trailer, Sathru seemed to be the case of yet another young actor trying to give his career a jump start by playing a cop. And indeed, the first time we see Kathir, he’s a bad-boy rock star in khaki attire. He’s hauled up by his superior (Marimuthu, wasted) for not […]
Posted in: Cinema: Tamil
“Boomerang”… A drama about a face transplant makes you wish for a screenplay transplant instead
March 8, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/boomerang-movie-review-atharvaa-murali-baradwaj-rangan-kannan/ Boomerang opens with Shiva being wheeled into a hospital. He has severe burns. His face is a mass of prosthetic goo. The doctor suggests a face transplant, courtesy a brain-dead patient who looks like Atharvaa. It works. The surgery takes place. The bandages come […]
Posted in: Cinema: Tamil
“Sonchiriya”… A diligently made ‘daku’-drama whose parts work better than the whole
March 7, 2019
Spoilers ahead… Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya opens with the image of flies swarming around a rotting snake carcass (seen in an extreme close-up) – and in the far distance, out of focus, we see a group of dacoits walking towards it. The visual weightage seems appropriate when we learn that a dead snake is bad luck. […]
Posted in: Cinema: Hindi
“Luka Chuppi”… A superb screwball premise results in a merely okayish comedy
March 7, 2019
Spoilers ahead… W hen I heard about the “live-in” premise of Luka Chuppi, directed by Laxman Utekar, I feared the worst. This is how I thought things would go: Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) and Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) would fall in love, move in together before marriage because, as the trailer puts it, “sab log karte hain”, […]
Posted in: Cinema: Hindi
For Women’s Day, an obvious “women’s film” versus a not-so-obvious one
March 7, 2019
Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/international-womens-day-2019-decoding-an-obvious-womens-film-versus-a-not-so-obvious-one-6213591.html The very term “women’s film” is a problematic one, though it has its uses. American film critic Molly Haskell wrote in her classic book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, “A film that focuses on male relationships is not pejoratively dubbed a […]
Posted in: Cinema: Foreign, Firstpost Column
#AskBR – 90ml, Thadam, Thirumanam
March 6, 2019
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Posted in: #AskBR, Cinema: Tamil
March 21, 2019
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