Reviews…

REVIEWS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

• A review by Sudhir Srinivasan, in The Hindu, is here. An excerpt:

While it may seem like a fairly plain statement to make, you catch yourself going back to it during the infrequent times that you disagree with his points. Whether you agree with the reviews or not, there’s little doubt that they are a whole lot of fun to read. He is the reviewer equivalent of that school teacher you loved, the one who taught you without ever making the art of instruction seem onerous.

• A review by Sidharth Bhatia, in Deccan Chronicle, is here. An excerpt:

[Rangan] is infatuated by [movies], by the scale, colour, stories and the sheer joy of being in the darkened hall, his mind working all the time, connecting the dots and casting back for references, not to trip up the director but to see the continuum. He doesn’t care if it’s trash — does it meet its objectives, is it true and honest to its intent and does it entertain. If it does, it must be taken seriously. There are some cinema fans who are obsessed with the titles, even staying back to see the last names in the smallest type — I suspect Rangan is one of those.

• A review by Sayandeb Chowdhury, in Biblio, is here. An excerpt:

Uneven in length and widely uneven in substance, Rangan’s essays are not to be read as a unitary work of insightful cinema analysis. Instead, this handsomely produced bulky book is to be read as a gathering of brief, often amusing reviews and reflections, as fluffy as its theme and as flippantly attractive as those who populate them.

• A review by Joginder Tuteja, at bollywoodhungama.com, is here. An excerpt:

It is nice to see a different kind of perspective from the critic as he writes like someone who truly loves cinema, and isn’t just putting together some words because it is either his job or he is waiting to rip apart his film.

REVIEWS IN BLOGS

• A review by Anuradha Warrier, in the blog ‘Conversations Over Chai’, is here. An excerpt:

I may or may not agree with everything that Baradwaj Rangan writes, but one thing that he does not do is bore me. Of all the books on cinema that I picked up on this trip, this has been the best written and the most entertaining. From a man who loves his films the way Rangan does, I expected no less.

Posted in: Books, Cinema: Hindi, Cinema: Tamil