Subscribe:
RSS feed
Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Malayalam«
The Great Indian Kitchen on Neestream, with Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramoodu: A powerful tale of emancipation
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/the-great-indian-kitchen-malayalam-movie-neestream-a-powerful-tale-of-emancipation-nimisha-sajayan-suraj-venjaramoodu-baradwaj-rangan/ The title can also be extrapolated to mean… The Great Indian Traditional Patriarchal Household. This is the kind of setup where the men retire after a certain age, but the women never do. Spoilers ahead… In The Great Indian Kitchen, written and directed by Jeo Baby, Nimisha Sajayan plays… I don’t remember her name. […]
Readers Write In #324: Maara is effervescent enough, but the filmmakers should have retained Parvathy Thiruvoth as Paaru
January 11, 2021
(by Alex John) We are witnessing an anomalous phenomenon. Maara, the remake of the 2015 Malayalam film Charlie is released on Amazon prime, and those who haven’t seen it must believe it, the film is, if only marginally, better than its original version! We all know how much remakes are hated, not just in our […]
300k subscribers
January 10, 2021
250k subscribers for Film Companion South. A big deal for a small team. Thank you SO much. Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Interview: Dhilip Kumar (On adapting Charlie as Maara)
January 6, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Interview: R Madhavan (Maara)
January 4, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Happy 2021 from me… and FC South!
January 1, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Film Companion South Round Table – 2020
December 31, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
#AskBR – Rewind 2020
December 24, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Interview: Sai Pallavi
December 21, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
The top 10 films of 2020: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema
December 21, 2020
https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-lists/best-movies-telugu-tamil-malayalam-2020-netflix-amazon-prime-video-hotstar-ala-vaikunthapurramuloo-trance-psycho-baradwaj-rangan/ It didn’t make sense to do individual “best-of” lists for each southern industry. There simply weren’t enough films to consider per language. So here goes. If 2020 will be remembered as anything, it’s as the worst year in recent movie history. Were there worse years? Debatable! Few people alive now probably remember how things […]
Interview: Urvashi (Mookuthi Amman, Soorarai Pottru)
November 10, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Interview: Will OTT Platforms penetrate the south , like in Bollywood?
October 26, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Halal Love Story on Amazon Prime Video: An entertaining mix of faith and filmmaking
October 24, 2020
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/halal-love-story-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-amazon-prime-video-parvathy-soubin-joju-an-entertaining-mix-of-faith-and-filmmaking-malayalam-movies/ This is a very funny film. And yet, the subtext is always serious, always linked to halal/haram, and what it means to be a Muslim. For a country where religion is such a part of the fabric, it’s surprising we don’t have what the Americans call the “faith-based film”. We’ve had the pure mythological. […]
Don Palathara’s ‘Shavam’, ‘Vith’ and ‘1956, Central Travancore’ are observational tracts filled with gorgeous “human landscapes”
October 13, 2020
https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/malayalam-features/malayalam-movies-don-palathara-moscow-international-film-festival-shavam-vith-and-1956-central-travancore-are-observational-tracts-filled-with-gorgeous-human-landscapes-baradwaj-rangan/ ‘1956, Central Travancore’ (2019) premiered on October 5, at the Moscow International Film Festival. It is about the power of stories and storytelling The Malayalam director Don Palathara has made three films: Shavam (2015), Vith (2017), and 1956, Central Travancore (2019), which premiered on October 5, at the Moscow International Film Festival. All these […]
Silencer on Amazon Prime Video, with Lal: There are good ideas, but this drama needed more depth
September 26, 2020
We are in a story that’s all Christian/Communist allegory. But it’s too talky. Director Priyanandan relies too much on exposition. Spoilers ahead… What’s the worst thing that could happen if your father were both a Gandhi-ian and a communist, and had raised you with those beliefs? You’d be lost today. That’s literally what happens to […]
The best scene in Drishyam, as performed by Mohanlal, Kamal Haasan, Ajay Devgn, Venkatesh and Ravichandran
September 25, 2020
With Jeethu Joseph’s sequel in progress, here’s a flashback to how five different actors tackled the emotional confrontation at the end of the story. When they announced Drishyam 2, with the same team from the blockbuster original (director Jeethu Joseph, actors Mohanlal and Meena), I wondered where it would take the story of Georgekutty. Because […]
Mammootty, Mohanlal and their long-delayed journey to ‘mass’
September 18, 2020
When did two award-winning performers turn mass heroes and what was the trigger? And, who among the younger lot will take their place? BR: We started this series about a Telugu star (Prabhas) and we went on to discuss Tamil stardom (the Vijay/Ajith phenomenon), so this time I thought it would be interesting to visit the big heroes […]
Interview: Mahesh Narayanan (a deep dive into the making of ‘c u soon’)
September 7, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
c u soon on Amazon Prime Video, with Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran: A solid mystery that unfolds entirely on a set of screens
September 1, 2020
The last half-hour is a cracker. The excitement is manufactured simply out of a man trying to get at the bottom of a mystery by staring at his computer screen. Spoilers ahead… It’s inevitable that c u soon takes you back to Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching, for the films share a USP. Both are a “missing-persons […]
Maniyarayile Ashokan, on Netflix: A sweet-natured romance that needed to be sharper, quirkier
August 31, 2020
In trying to make the proceedings “entertaining”, the film cheats its protagonist, who remains a flat line from start to finish. Spoilers ahead… Shamzu Zayba’s Maniyarayile Ashokan is set in a village where the scent of love fills the air. The opening credits appear over an object of love (Unnimaya, played by Anu Sithara), who […]
January 15, 2021
26