Interview: Baradwaj Rangan&nbsp;(FullyFilmy)

Such a beautiful interview 🙂

Some portions felt like your workshop sir. But wasn’t Satyajith Ray a film critic as well as Filmmaker?

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Kay

‘Idhu varaikum ennai yarum ketadillai’ 😂😂😂 You should have asked him to read the Bora Bora post.

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thupparivaalan

Listening to you speaking in Tamil was fun. A very good interview.

I was watchinng the interview on my laptop as my friend remarked, ‘Ivan ennada gandhiji pesura video ellam paathutu irukaan’. Lol.

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Ratish Ravindran

@BR – Interview soopara irrku sir 🙂

Khalid Mohammed is the only popular film critique in India who tried his hand at Film making but was not very successful.

Shekhar Kapoor once said that for making a film you don’t really need to go to a film school. All you need is the right sensibility. It seems he did not even know where to place the camera when he made his first film Masoom.

I think you have the right sensibility and should try your hand at film making……at least one Indie movie. And yes when it is released it should be reviewed by Mani Ratnam. Now that will something worth waiting for.

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"Original" venkatesh

@BR : Dude you are now going to be really popular. 🙂

Our BR has grown up (sniff, sniff)

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KP

Was it a conscious effort not to talk about Mani when asked about bias?

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GODZ

Did you ever get any Acting Role Offer BR? I guess you will someday. Why didn’t Mani Sir did not cast you in any roles..? You will definitely fit perfectly for his urban-centric characters

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Dhanda Soru

Nice interview, even if I didn’t find it as refreshing as some others, given that many of the answers you gave are ones that have been discussed a number of times on this blog. There were two things that gnawed at me though:

1.) You mentioned that you’ve liked most of Vikram’s films. But as far as I can tell, there have been only two films since 2008 that you seemed to have liked: “Raavanan” and, to a lesser extent, “David”.

2.) Another thing that gnawed at me: You mentioned that you never walked out of a film midway. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I remember you mentioning in the comments section of “Thuppakki” that you walked out of “Pizza” midway. Or was that answer w.r.t films you’ve reviewed?

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Amrita Ravimohan

I know this might be asking for too much but any chance of subs?

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Vidya

I paused fighting with the worse half and watched this Mr BR..best decision I made today! But the interview was more about you as a writer / critic than an interviewer /video/ critic on a visual medium which is your new avatar. Would love to know how you feel about that now.

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Vidya

I have always felt that it’s easier to express yourself in written form than actually saying it out loud. Most English reviewers read out what they would’ve written..and I have always felt that it’s artificial and not worth viewing. Like masand.. would rather read him than listen to him..I don’t quite know why that is! And I haven’t ever seen your video reviews only your interviews. I don’t know why either 🙂

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Tomasz

@BR waiting for the “must watch” movies list

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"Original" venkatesh

BR: I was surprised that you mentioned the KB period., till Sindhu Bhairavi and not Kamal from Nayagan to say Thevar Magan. Everything he did during that period was just Gold.

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Arjun

For someone who professionally reviews Tamil movies, your Tamil seems pretty stilted and ‘peter’ for lack of a better word, which makes me wonder if you can really appreciate the old classics, movie adaptation of novels etc – feel it in your bones, that is. I recall for example, that you missed that the protagonist in ‘Madras’ was a dalit which you wouldn’t have had you been familiar with contemporary tamil literature. Good interview nonetheless.

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sanjana

Would love to have transcript.

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Arjun

So here’s my question- have you every felt this self-admitted lack of familiarity with tamil literature to be a handicap? Of course it doesn’t matter for reviewing a Mani Ratnam or Gautam Menon movie or indeed 90% of movies and directors. But say you were to do a bitty rumination or longform on a Bharathi or Mogamul or Sila nerangalil sila manidhargal, surely the lack of familiarity with the written works and critical literature thereof would be a shortcoming? Mind, I’m not being snarky, just a genuine question. As you said rightly in that interview, a lot of decisions in our early formative years are not in our hands, so there is no question of judging or anything.

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sanjana

Cinema is technology cum story telling which appeals to a variety of audience. So familiarity with the written works will not be a shortcoming per se.

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Arjun: This is more about you than me, really. If, reading my reviews, you feel I am inadequate in some way, then you have to make the decision whether to continue to seek someone else who’s more ‘rooted’ or whatever.

My qualification is that I know CINEMA. That — to me — transcends language and culture. Sure, there are always going to be gaps, but there is NO ONE who will be 100% in tune with all aspects of Tamil culture or Malayalam culture or French culture or whatever. Because by the same yardstick, a person who is more ‘rooted’ may not necessarily be in tune with a Mani ratnam/Gautham movie (to take your example).

We cannot expect newspapers to hire one critic for Paris-centric films and another critic for films about the French countryside. We cannot expect a web site to hire one music critic to analyse Ilayaraja’s folk songs, another to analyse his Western Classical/Rock songs, a third to analyse his Carnatic songs.

There are always going to be gaps in knowledge. What’s important is whether the critic knows MUSIC, and whether he can “empathetically transport himself” into a world, and talk about it with some authority, despite these gaps.

If you feel this is lacking, then you should really try and find someone who is more on your wavelength.

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Venky

That was a nice interview, although I wished it was less “fanboyish” and delved deeper into that mysterious process inside your head which has been churning out reviews for the past fifteen years with such beauty and clockwork pace.

I also wished he had done more research and came to the interview more prepared than tossing off intelligent spur-of-the-moment questions. That said, I so wish you could answer these questions that I would ask, if I were to do an interview with you.

As someone who has been following your blog before good ol’ blogical conclusion days, I’ve always felt a sense of intimacy in these spaces, although I’ve been mostly a silent reader here.

1) In your early days, when you were forced to do technical writing to keep your passion of cinema going, I remember you once narrating an anecdote about how you thrashed someone by your sheer intellectual horsepower inside a car (my vague memory recalls it as Ooty or some hill station, not very sure though), when he asked you a naive question about cinema ( involving moondram pirai movie, I suppose). You talked in the interview about those early days in 2004 when very few people who wrote about movies the way you did in the Internet. Could you take us through some of those earliest days when you started off ( as you once narrated) writing emails containing movie reviews to your friends?

2) In one of your recent interviews, you talked about how Yoga has helped you calm down and take things slowly. Has Yoga and breathing influenced your relationship with cinema?

3) How has been your family’s relationship with cinema? What happens when you take them for a movie? Do you sense the need to drop the “reviewer’s hat” whenever you take them for a movie?

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Venky: I watch movies alone. Do you take your family to your cubicle at work? I didn’t think so 🙂 There are other entertainment avenues to explore with friends and family, but movies are strictly work (even if I end up having fun).

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BR : You’ve really touched a few chords and you’ve said what I’d have wanted to say.

We dont choose our formative years and as you’ve rightly pointed out there will always be shortcomings. This can be extended to beyond the world of cinema as well.

IMHO there’s nothing to be ashamed of about thinking in English because thats how one was formed and being culturally rooted here in Tamilnadu.

When we talk of a Global Village we can certainly aspire to being citizens of the world.

If THAT’s what we are aspiring for then we are in the right place…….MADRAS

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sanjana

I feel movies are the most loved entertainment avenue in India to be enjoyed with close ones once in a while. Appreciate for treating film viewing as work just the way travel writers, food writers feel!

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Nice to see you interviewed in Tamil, BR. And nice to see the respect that Fully Filmy Abishek has for what you do. That statement he made at the end of the interview, ‘உங்களை காண்பித்துதான் எங்க வீட்ல நாங்க பண்ற வேலைய justify பண்ணுவோம்’ (or something to that effect) should have been particularly sweet to hear for you.

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Lalala

Hi Bharadwaj , Off topic, but I do miss your reviews of hollywood films. You dont seem to write much about hollywood movies anymore. Could you sneak in some reviews when ever you can please?

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Arjun

“Sure, there are always going to be gaps, but there is NO ONE who will be 100% in tune with all aspects of Tamil culture or Malayalam culture or French culture or whatever. Because by the same yardstick, a person who is more ‘rooted’ may not necessarily be in tune with a Mani ratnam/Gautham movie (to take your example).”

“There are always going to be gaps in knowledge. What’s important is whether the critic knows MUSIC,”

Sure, but typically professionals have a “home base”, a domain in which they are an authority and have a significantly deeper insight compared to others. And in the field of film reviews, (at least in my view), that can come only from the vantage point of intimate familiarity with milieu, language, literature, socio-political currents and so on. So I was wondering what you would consider your home base. You seem to suggest that it is the MR, GVM type urban settings, but I find that to be a bit narrow. That’s all.

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Aman

Indian reviewers have made films, although there hasn’t been any break out film maker from their lot. Khalid Mohammed, Kunal Kohli, Suparn Sharma, Sudhish Kamath, Pratim D Gupta, Karan Anshuman all tried their hand at film making.

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An Jo

Rangan Saab: With so much talk of Sub-titling from you and other folks out here, it’s quite stunning to see an interview of yours with NO sub-titles…guess the Northies deserve it…😂😂

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olemisstarana

BR: Have you ever written anything on Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron? Every time one of the cast/crew passes away I feel as though I am getting older. Sort of like striking out a name in my personal phone book. I am a little sadder today.

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Arjun: Again, I think the kind of socio-culturo-political analysis you seek isn’t — in my opinion — necessarily the domain of the film critic. For me, it’s important to know where a critic comes from, and see the film through his/her lens. For me, a purely cinematic deconstruction of a film is as valuable as a socio-culturo-political analysis, and it doesn’t matter to me if I get these from the same critic or from two different critics.

The reason I read critics is to see what he/she brings to the table. I don’t, for instance, see any critic writing in English about Tamil films today as being the kind of domain expert you mention. (Tamil bloggers? Perhaps!) But if they can bring in a cinematic understanding and make an interesting case for/about the film, that is valuable to me.

That’s why I said this depends on you (or me) — what we expect in film analysis.

The reason I think I am “qualified” to write about Tamil cinema is that I have grown up with Kanni Paruvathile and Mann Vaasanai, and not because I know the milieu first-hand. So I am saying that this “second-hand” knowledge is a kind of knowledge too, because — through Balaguru and Bharathiraja — I am being imbued with a kind of world-view. And this has been happening right from childhood.

Which, I think, is why I was invited to contribute a chapter to the book on Subramaniyapuram — the fact that I write in a certain way about (and with a certain insight into) cinema.

The video of the release function is below, and the part where Sasikumar talks about me is around the 9.30 mark. It was very gratifying to get this public acknowledgement of the fact that I really got the movie, exactly the way he intended it.

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Vidya

Arjun it seems to me that you don’t find Mr BR “Tamil” enough to review Tamil movies..and I find that a lot of tamils feel that if you are not dark skinned and spout Tamil poetry or literature you don’t qualify an opinion on anything “Tamil”. I find that extremely narrow minded and if only such folks have to review Tamil movies only Vaali or thamarai will do..and they can’t really write a review can they or they are not so much in love with the movies to do so!!

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Vidya

And by that logic Rajeev masand or Anupam a Chopra can’t really review a a rooted movie like Bareilly ki Barfi?? I don’t think they are asked by anyone a if they are hindi enough to review a hindi movie! That was made by a Tamil Iyer married to a north indian! Should she not have made a hindi movie then?

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Vidya: Thank you for jumping in, but this is a question that has come up quite a few times in my career, and it’s good to address it, especially the “spoken Tamil” part.

When I read Tamil, or when I process lyrics, there’s no hitch at all (I mean, contemporary Tamil, not, say, Sangam-era literature) — it comes very easily. Even I write screenplays, it’s not a problem, because I have time to think it out and shape the sentence exactly the way I want it.

But a live interview is a different animal. It’s one thing to talk fluently in day-to-day situations (at the market, with an auto driver). But when talking about a slightly involved (and perhaps even “academic”) subject like this, I have to think quickly for words I do not use regularly in Tamil. It’s all a subconscious process, of course — still, a clause that forms easily in English is a bit tough to crack in Tamil spontaneously.

So yes, I do get where this is coming from. Where I differ is that this affects my “validity” as a critic.

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Arjun

@BR: Thanks for the detailed reply. To clarify, I am not at all suggesting that any of the points I raised affects your “validity” as a tamil movie critic. Not at all. I am just wondering if you have ever felt this lack of immersion in the milieu to be a limitation at all. And I think you’ve answered my question. Your point about growing up with these movies and second hand knowledge being a workable substitute to first hand exposure is quite reasonable, particularly if it has been happening since childhood. With that said, I do still think familiarity with intricate nuances of language, dialects adds an extra dimension to both filmmakers and reviewers (isn’t that one of the reasons we love Kamal?).

Vidya: Like some others in these parts, you seem to be a member of the “outrage first, think later” club. Suffice to say, I suggested none of that nonsense you implied I did.

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Doba

My understanding of Tamil is patchy but I enjoyed the interview a lot 🙂 Through your blog I am getting increasingly fascinated by the craft of filmmaking. Thank you for that.

Movie making seems to me a very interesting resource optimisation problem. The film makers have finite time, budgets, skills and man power to realise something abstract and (in some cases) unlimited vision or ideas. Unlike books, where the authors have to collaborate with just the editors, here the collaboration is an entire team. The successful films (based on my limited understanding) seem to be those which seem organic – as in they hide these very finite constraints and involve the viewer in a deep way like a book.

What I would love to know (if you can tell me) is –

One way to distinguish a reviewer from a critic is that the former seems to say that he likes the movie (or not). But the latter is able to cut through the seams of the movie and see the contributions of all the teams that create the movie – story, screenplay, cinematography etc. Is that true? Is that what you meant when you said a critic says “why the movie works or doesn’t work”?

Does the emotional engagement to a movie reduce or get enhanced by that deconstruction? In other words, is it possible to be able to immerse yourself in a movie? I wondered after hearing both you and MANK (in his article in this blog) hark back nostalgically to movies of your youth. I did feel a hearts pang during both those times because both of you seem such film lovers that it feels sort of heartbreaking to think that your most intense movie pleasures are behind you.

P.S. I am an ignoramus in a social space full of film lovers 🙂 But thank you for not making me feel unwelcome.

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Venky

Thank you BR for answering the third question, which I admit, was extremely personal.

But, given who you are, I cannot but imagine how your passion for cinema would have inevitably rubbed on your family/dear ones. In such a case, it feels surprising ( and if I may add, harsh) to hear that as a matter of work ethic you watch movies alone. Talking of which, I read recently that Raja Sen has written a children’s introductory book to cinema. Oh! I wonder, so wonder what your fecund imagination would do if you were to embark on such a project!!

Coming to the second question I asked earlier, I wanted to hear your thoughts in the light of your practice (and I am hoping you will indulge me here) because I’ve realized that in my Yoga practice over the years that it has opened a very different way of experiencing a movie.

Today, When I watch a movie like “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring” with its frames etched in silence, I am able to appreciate the movie in an ineffable level. It’s also fascinating to study the contrasts when I see how kinetic the frames have been set in a typical masala movie. It’s so intriguing to study especially the kineticism ( if I can use that phrase) of frames that is required to keep us engaged in a masala movie.

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Sifter

This was an unexpected pleasure…in the sense that your Tamil (typically brahminical :-)) was flowing. Didn’t know why I expected otherwise!

Felt that you hold KB much closer to your heart than what came in your blog post. Not complaining at all.

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Bee

Good interview. Half expected you to scream out ‘naanum madras kaaran dhaanda’ a la vishal when he asked you about your tamil.

I love your reviews. I never miss reading them after I watch a movie. You always have an unique insight to offer, that I never realize during my first watch, which later seems to unravel in my mind, then I end up feeling that it was inevitable. I mean, like how didn’t realize it when I watched it.

Have always wanted to ask you this. What was your favourite film as a child? One that you will still not be able to watch again without a smile?

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Vivek narain

Movies apart,’Tamil’ is the core of human civilization,and ‘aiyer’ knows the source code of this simulation we call ‘Earth’. T.N.Seshan claimed that he is a descendent of the masters of astrology,perhaps bhrigu muni. I have profusely mentioned the legacy of tamil elites in the website, mandelaeffect.com, and this site has become a raging meme in US, of which i used to be the most prolific member.

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Madan

October 9, 2017

Great interview. Regarding our ease in accepting larger than life heroes, the current generation of actors have more difficulty amassing mass following. Arguably nobody has quite done it on a superstar level since Vijay/Ajith in Tamil cinema. Does this have something to do with the multiplexisation of cinema, which, for instance, means no more building sized cut outs of actors (literally large than life, that is)?

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bart

October 9, 2017

Good answers, BR. In general, Abhishek has a tendency to overdo (being super humble, extremely fan-struck, in awe etc.) which he does in this as well. You single-handedly took the 2 star interview to 3.5 stars 😉

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snehal

October 9, 2017

This is amazing but I am completely missing out! I don’t understand Tamil. Is there a subtitled version or a translated written version?

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sachita

Annamalai is my favorite too. especially that vetri nichayam song and that escalator sequence. I realized baasha was crowd favorite only much later.

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Jeyashree

Loved it throughout..honest and from the brain.. .agreed the host sounded fanboyish at places..but when some of our onscreen celebrities with questionable expertise and iq get those praises heaped up in front of them , which they shamelessly acknowledge and beam in pride (imagine DD revel in joy on how she had found out that the heroine she is interviewing loved teddy bears as a kid and the person responding like it was a first-ever in history event….) I thought a person who knows his art could take some fan breeze once in a while, even it is just from fully filmy….I was expecting a more tongue in the cheek response for the question on knowledge about tamil..for once they found a question in common for hansika and brangan…

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sanjay2706

Nice Interview. I felt confirmation bias was not used in the correct context by the interviewer. What he was referring to probably was “Blind faith” on certain artists.

Discussion about Art and Commercial cinema could have gone into “nunukangal” 😛

Speaking of which, a bit of self promotion here but I think I addressed the difference with my own POV a few years back.

It features quite high in google search results and the article has pretty much been viewed by visitors all over the world. Do check out.

Art vs Commercial – What separates them?

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Jeyashree is BACK and HOW !

CARTOON : END OF BIGG BOSS (TAMIL) SEASON ONE

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Ananth Padmanaban

on the question on sub-conscious bias, have you noticed this about BR? I am not a regular reader but here is the list of people who he gives some benefit of doubt and the ones get relatively less of that.. 🙂

The “benefit of doubt” list–Dhanush, Mysskin, Maniratnam, Bala, Kamal, Gowtham Menon

Not so lucky–Shankar, KV Anand

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Just caught up with the interview today (after 3 days of heartbreakingly lousy connectivity at home).

Enjoyed it ! Even with the fan boy styleI thought some questions like the one on confirmation bias were really good.

Though I’m not sure its the right term to be used in this context.

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Watched it again – back to back…THIS time for the “Nunakkangal” :):)

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Ravi K

Baradwaj, didn’t you live in the US for a while? How did that shape your view of cinema?

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Rohit Sathish Nair

Speaking of Tom Cruise (which BR did), anyone who watched his new film ‘American Made’? I felt it was a good film that constantly reminded me of better films (Goodfellas, Wolf of Wall Street, for example).

What interested me more was, for a film that costs more than either of the Baahubali films, it ‘looks’ very modestly mounted (even though say, it has actual flight scenes), almost like it’s been a camcorder (not in a derogatory sense). Now, Tom Cruise, even if not the biggest star around, isn’t exactly the most ‘actorly’ of actors, and yet we see him surrrender to such a filmmaking style

Would any of our Indian stars (more-stars-than-actors to be specific) submit to such un-‘blockbuster film’-like filming procedures?

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Jeyashree

Sravishanker: .had to google up details of the oviya song given that I haven’t watched big boss…we are the under the rock- no TV gang.. killer sketch…also ran through all your previous sketches…what have I missed all these days…looking forward to the next …

Nunukangal lol…brangan got the ‘nn’ right though….

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Jeyashree : Ha Ha Thanks heaps for going through my space !

I am also under the aforementioned rock. My wife started Bigg Boss to keep her mind away from separation pangs of son battling it out alone in a PG in the shark called Delhi.
Whatever makes wife happy makes me also happy so I joined in the fun sporadically.

Then I woke up to the gag potential.

I’d worked out something on the lines of Mad magazine but it couldnt find time to execute that concept . Maybe later this year….

Do keep up the sarcastic humour – love it !

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sanjay2706 ; Just read your article. Very breezy read contrary to the subject of the article

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Added a graphic by Ramki Bellur, who continues to make me grateful for his generosity with his time. Thanks again, Ramki.

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Very Well Done Ramki !

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Anuja Chandramouli