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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Malayalam«
Interview: Murali Gopy
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Readers Write In #69: The Brothers Napoleon
March 3, 2019
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Kumbalangi Nights is a beautifully crafted cinema. Each character in the story is well-etched. The movie takes us on an emotional roller-coaster from laughter to sadness to the joy of first love to the depth […]
Men, maleness, masculinity and family in ‘Kumbalangi Nights’
February 25, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-men-maleness-masculinity-and-family-in-kumbalangi-nights-baradwaj-rangan-soubin-shahir-fahadh-faasil-syam-pushkaran/ The many facets of an intricate drama from director Madhu C Narayanan and writer Syam Pushkaran. (Be warned. Spoilers ahead.) If we were still in the days of video libraries, this is how you’d find the classiest entertainers. Head to the Malayalam section. Look for films […]
She Says She Says: “Oru Adaar Love” – Does it live up to the hype?
February 18, 2019
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Interview: The heroines of the ‘Queen’ remakes
January 20, 2019
#Tamannaah Bhatia, #KajalAggarwal & #ParulYadav who star in the South remakes of Kangana Ranaut’s #Queen, Paris Paris in Tamil, That is Mahalakshmi in Telugu & Butterfly in Kannada speak to Anupama Chopra about the process and challenges involved with simultaneously shooting four films in different languages, the cultural nuisances they had to factor in while […]
Readers Write In #64: Gods & Demons: 25 Glorious years of Devasuram and Manichitrathazhu
December 26, 2018
Devasuram and Manichitrathazhu, two of the most popular and iconic films in Malayalam film history were both released in the year 1993. In the years preceding their release, they have achieved mythic status in pop culture and solidified forever Mohanlal’s reputation of being one of of the greatest and most versatile star actors in the […]
“Odiyan”… A superb conceit botched by flabby writing and a frustrating lack of focus
December 17, 2018
Spoilers ahead… How do you reveal a man of mystery? In Odiyan, director VA Shrikumar Menon plunges us into the waters of Benares. A woman has had an accident, and is in danger of drowning. Cut to a portly male on a boat, who dives in and stages a rescue. As he rises from the […]
She Says She Says: Who says women can’t be funny on screen
December 3, 2018
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“Ranam”… An existential thriller that needed more individuality, fewer Hollywood-isms
September 24, 2018
Spoilers ahead… R anam, written and directed by Nirmal Sahadev, is the latest entry in the subgenre called Prithviraj Makes a Hollywood Movie in Malayalam. The plot beats are pure Hollywood, beginning with a man (Aadhi, played by Prithviraj) whose nondescript day job (as an auto mechanic) hides the fact that he is affiliated to […]
Every Mani Ratnam film, ranked
September 20, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/every-mani-ratnam-film-ranked-baradwaj-rangan/ To call Mani Ratnam a mainstream filmmaker is a bit redundant, because every (primarily) Tamil filmmaker is a mainstream filmmaker: Tamil cinema does not have an “art film” tradition, the way Malayalam or Bengali cinema has. But even within the mainstream, there are two ways to […]
50k subscribers
September 15, 2018
Almost exactly a year ago, we made the decision to branch off into a separate South channel. Today, we’ve crossed the 50,000 subscribers mark. A small milestone. A big thank-you.
“Maradona”… After ‘Koode’, Malayalam cinema gives us another beautifully directed story of ‘healing’
July 31, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/maradona-movie-review-tovino-thomas-baradwaj-rangan/ In case you were wondering about the title of Vishnu Narayan’s Maradona (written by Krishna Moorthy, and starring Tovino Thomas), the film has nothing to do with football, or the legendary footballer. The closest we get to the latter is a No. 10 jersey […]
“Koode”… Prithviraj is superb in a beautifully directed drama that’s too self-consciously serious
July 21, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/koode-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-anjali-menon-prithviraj/ When we first see Joshua (Prithviraj) in Anjali Menon’s Koode (Together), his face is covered by a safety mask. He is in the midst of cleaning up something that looks like chemical waste in some kind of industrial plant in the Middle East. Soon, […]
“Neerali”… A terrible ‘survival drama’, where Mohanlal practices Jedi mind tricks on a monkey
July 17, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/neerali-malayalam-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-mohanlal-nadhiya-moidu-parvatii-nair Neerali (Octopus), directed by Ajoy Varma and starring Mohanlal, is one of those films where a middle-aged man finds himself staring into the abyss. This is not a metaphor for an existential crisis. Thanks to his pickup truck that veered off the road and […]
The Prithviraj-Parvathy starrer ‘My Story’ is a meh story
July 12, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/prithviraj-parvathy-my-story-movie-southern-lights-baradwaj-rangan/ Plus, thoughts on this unnamed genre, which finds new ways to embadden an already bad movie. There’s a genre of Indian cinema I’ve come to dread. It hasn’t got a name (and truth be told, there haven’t been that many representative films), but it’s basically about […]
Interview: Anjali Menon
July 11, 2018
Anjali Menon — director of Koode, Bangalore Days and Manjadikkuru, and writer of Ustad Hotel — talks about what Bangalore means to Malayalis, and explains the new-gen phase of Malayalam cinema. (She singles out Ranjith’s Kaiyoppu and Sameer Thahir’s Chaappa Kurishu.) She talks about Padmarajan, Bharathan, Fasil, MT Vasudevan Nair, KG George, about the improved technique […]
March 21, 2019
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