Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Malayalam«

“Kammara Sambhavam”… An overlong, but cleverly written and entertaining meta-masala movie

April 15, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/kammara-sambhavam-movie-review-dileep-baradwaj-rangan/ Rathish Ambat’s Kammara Sambhavam (Kammara’s Event, a play on the title of the Kalidasa epic) begins and ends with a quote attributed to Napoléon: “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” Napoléon certainly popularised this adage, though he denied coining it — but […]

The contentious nature of the National Awards

April 14, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/the-contentious-nature-of-the-national-awards-baahubali-village-rockstars-sridevi/ Musings on the country’s most prestigious film awards – and this is not about whether X deserved to win over Y. Another year. Another set of arguments over the National Awards. For instance: Did Sridevi deserve Best Actress? Indeed, under normal circumstances, would her performance in […]

“S*** Durga”… A chilling, fascinating film about the games powerful people play

April 12, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/s-durga-movie-review/ It’s the middle of the night. A Hindi-speaking woman, clutching a bag, waits for a man. She looks at her phone, her face anxious. The man arrives on a bike. The driver, a friend, tells him, “Don’t waste time. Please leave.” He drives away, […]

“Sudani from Nigeria”… A beautifully narrated, heart-warmingly human story with just a few jarring notes

April 9, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/sudani-from-nigeria-malayalam-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Malayalis seem to have made a habit of welcoming sportspeople from outside Kerala. In Godha, we saw how the residents of a small town embraced a female wrestler from Chandigarh as one of their own. Now, in Sudani from Nigeria, set against the backdrop […]

Readers Write In #38: A fan’s birthday tribute to two captivating, classy actresses

April 7, 2018

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In 2006, two teenage actresses made their debut in South Indian cinema. They were not about glamour, but more about performance, making an impact, grabbing the audience’s attention with their acting. Today, 12 years after their debuts, they are still going strong, still able to captivate the audience and pushing themselves to excel even further […]

“Ira”… A completely underwhelming murder mystery

March 22, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/ira-movie-review/ Ira (Prey), directed by Saiju SS, opens on a dramatic note. A politician named Chandy (Alencier Ley Lopez) is wheeled into a hospital. A few minutes later, a doctor declares, “Minister is no more.” The news channels explode. There are allegations of corruption! There […]

“Poomaram”… This marvellous movie-mosaic is a tribute not just to the artistic process but to art itself

March 22, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/poomaram-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Abrid Shine makes star-studded (or at least, star son-studded) feature films, but he has the heart of an empathetic documentarian. In 1983, he deposited us in the midst of village cricket – though there was still the sense of a story, the sense of […]

Interview: Mahesh Narayanan

February 5, 2018

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Mahesh Narayanan is one of the most popular editors in Malayalam Cinema who has worked on a wide variety of films ranging from Traffic, Beautiful, Kanyaka Talkies, Pokkiri Raja, Ennu Ninte Moideen and Vishwaroopam. He has also edited varuous films and advertisements in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. He made his screenwriting debut with Mili in […]

“Hey Jude”… An unsurprising but warm, feel-good dramedy

February 3, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/hey-jude-nivin-pauly-movie-review/ Jude (Nivin Pauly) is in Goa. A great-aunt has died, and his Kochi-based family – father Dominic (Siddique), mother Maria (Neena Kurup) – have come to pay their last respects. Endings sometimes lead to new beginnings, and Jude meets Crystal (Trisha Krishnan, in one […]

“Aadhi”… Pranav Mohanlal makes a confident debut in a familiar, yet fun, thriller

January 29, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/aadhi-movie-review/ Before we get to the narrative of Aadhi, let’s dig into the meta-narrative. Aadhi (Pranav Mohanlal) dreams of becoming a music director, and in an early scene, his friends advise him to try the Telugu or Tamil film industries, because there just aren’t enough […]

Tamil cinema, English thoughts

January 25, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-tamil-cinema-english-thoughts/ In which I make a case that there needs to be more writing about non-Hindi cinema in English, if this cinema is to break through ghettos. I interviewed two authors at this year’s edition of the The Hindu’s Lit for Life. One of them was a […]

“Carbon”… A strange, fascinating, allegorical drama with a rich performance by Fahadh Faasil

January 22, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/carbon-movie-review/ Venu’s Carbon begins with Hydrogen and Oxygen: water, in other words. The credits appear over big, fat drops of what seems like rain. But where are we? Inside a car, watching a downpour through the windshield? Inside a house, perhaps, near a window? This […]

Readers Write In #31: Parvathy and the Mammookka trolls

January 19, 2018

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It all first began when a Malayalam actress was abducted and assaulted in her own car. Women in Malayalam cinema came together after this, and formed a group called Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). They began speaking out against a topic that was largely unspoken about until then : sexism in the Malayalam film industry. […]

Interview: Jayasurya

January 9, 2018

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Straight out of the huge success of his biggest hit in his career so far – Aadu 2 which is still running to packed houses, Jayasurya talks about how the team arrived at a decision to make a sequel to a film which was a theatrical flop. In a career spanning more than 15 years, […]

“Eeda”… An impressively distinct take on the world’s most well-known romance

January 9, 2018

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/eeda-movie-review Eeda (Here) is being sold as an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but the most defining scenes have little to do with star-crossed lovers. Take the stretch where Kannur boy Anand (Shane Nigam), who now works in an insurance firm in Mysore, […]

Happy new year

January 4, 2018

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/southern-lights-happy-new-year These are our pick of songs for the occasion from across south India. What are yours?? For the first column of 2018, I decided to do something simple: pick one song from Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam that celebrates the new year (or at least, contains […]

“Vimaanam”… An underwhelming melodrama about a man who wants to fly

December 27, 2017

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/vimaanam-movie-review Vibhu Puri’s 2015 drama, Hawaizaada, posited that a Maharashtrian took to the skies before the Wright brothers did.  Earlier this year, Srikant Murali’s Aby told the story of a boy from Kerala whose only dream was to fly. Now, Pradeep M Nair comes up […]

“Mayaanadhi”… A beautifully realised love story between a complicated woman and a simple man

December 26, 2017

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Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/mayaanadhi-movie-review In Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, a young criminal kills a cop, flees, falls in love, dreams of a future in a different country, and discovers that life has a way of messing up your plans. Each of these beats is referenced to some degree in […]

A reliably unreliable narrator

November 23, 2017

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/southern-lights-a-reliably-unreliable-narrator A look back at a scene from Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s ‘Anantaram’, which turned thirty this year. About the genesis of Anantaram (Thereafter), Adoor Gopalakrishnan had this to say: “When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, she came back from the hospital and told me this story […]

Star struck

November 16, 2017

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Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/amp/southern-lights-star-struck Should star ratings (terrible as they are) be absolute or relative? Let’s discuss. After I finished writing the review of Villain, a little more than a week ago, I felt a twinge of conscience. It was time for me to give the star rating, the most […]

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