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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Malayalam«
Jude Anthany Joseph’s ‘Sara’s’, with Anna Ben and Sunny Wayne, is an entertaining, feel-good take on the “child vs. career” dilemma
Spoilers ahead… Text: Anna Ben debuted in Kumbalangi Nights, and the films that followed, Kappela and Helen, played on her innocence and charm. This is a girl we want to root for on screen. She’s a good girl to whom you don’t want bad things to happen. It’s interesting to see Anna Ben play with this persona with a role […]
‘Aanum Pennum’, with an all-star cast, is an uneven anthology, with Aashiq Abu’s short being the standout
June 30, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The theme of Aanum Pennum is that women are stronger than men. At least, she is more decisive, less hesitant, and loyal in love. It’s set in three different time periods: the first one just after independence, the second one is somewhere between the 50’s and the 60’s, and the third one is set in […]
Tanu Balak’s okayish ‘Cold Case’, with Prithviraj and Aditi Balan, needed better writing and a better ending
June 30, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The cleverest part about Cold Case is the title because the film is about a detective’s case that’s now gone cold; but it’s also a cold case because of an unexpected reason. The film opens with Medha (Aditi Balan), a television reporter in a big media house. In her first scene, she’s talking to […]
Interview: Prithviraj (‘Cold Case’)
June 24, 2021
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Interview: Aishwarya Lekshmi (‘Jagame Thandiram’, ‘Mayaanadhi’…)
June 16, 2021
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Jeeva KJ’s ‘Richter Scale 7.6’ is a superb debut that folds its man-vs-nature message into pure cinema
June 16, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The dramatic title, Richter Scale 7.6, reminds us of an earthquake. But the film is as peaceful and placid as the surface of a lake. It’s a two-character drama between a father (Ashok Kumar Peringode) and a son (Murugan Martin). The father is a folk theatre artist, a singer and a dancer […]
George Kora & Sam Xavier’s ‘Thirike’, is a heartwarming story about brothers, but it needed a little more gravity, a little less sugar-dusting
June 8, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: Thirike is the story of two brothers Thomas (George Kora) and Ismu, played by TikTok star Gopi Krishnan who has Down’s syndrome. Gopi Krishnan is the film’s rockstar. His performance is so endearing, real and without self-pity that he’s a natural film star. You, too, want to give him a big hug that Thomas […]
Interview: Rohith VS (a spoilery deep dive into the ideology and imagery of ‘Kala’)
June 8, 2021
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Interview: Malavika Mohanan
June 1, 2021
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Interview: Tovino Thomas (‘Kala’)
May 26, 2021
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Readers Write In #365: The Great Indian Kitchen Sink
May 20, 2021
(by Karthik Amarnath) The most fascinating fixture in Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen is a big metal sink that sits at the end of a granite kitchen counter. Its a fixture thats constantly in action, aided by a whole posse of accessories. There’s the tap delivering water from above, a leaky pipe transferring the returns below, […]
Rohith VS’s ‘Kala’ (Tovino Thomas, Sumesh Moor), on Amazon Prime, is a superbly stylized thriller about the animal in us beneath layers of civilization
May 20, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: Kala is set in the late 1990s but it’s actually very timeless, almost as timeless as nature which is a big part of the film’s texture. We see overhead shots of rugged terrain, a shot of a man’s face seen through leaves, bodies reflected in water. When two men fight the focus is […]
Tharun Moorthy’s ‘Operation Java’ (on ZEE5) is a beautifully written thriller woven around two newbie cyber-cell workers
May 20, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The spotlight of Operation Java is on Anthony George (Balu Varghese) and Vinaya Dasan (Lukman). They are youngsters with a fantastic education; and they are great with computers. Computers are their thing. But they have been unable to get a job and so they’re out to just prove something to the world (if not […]
Appu N. Bhattathiri’s ‘Nizhal’ (Kunchacko Boban, Nayanthara) is an underwhelming mystery-thriller with too many diversions
May 14, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: Nizhal didn’t work for me right from the first scene where we see a horrific accident and a horrific CGI bird. It shows that Baby (Kunchacko Boban) is a judge and he has a temper. But, he is also the sweetest person; you want to pinch his cheeks. The rest of the film […]
Readers Write In #361: Nayattu (The Hunt)
May 12, 2021
(by Sundar) Early into the film,the seasoned ASI Maniyan (Joju George), along with the rookie officer Praveen Michael (Kunchacko Boban), visits a house of an influential family and very casually goes about the task of planting evidence in the ‘crime scene’ – in order to fix an innocent chap at the behest of the powers […]
Cataract becomes a metaphor for patriarchy in Sivaram Mony’s ‘Thimiram’ (KK Sudhakaran, Vishak Nair), an okayish message movie with some lovely writing
May 10, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: Thimiram starts with a little boy getting two pieces of fish while a little girl gets only one. The mother herself says that’s enough for the girl. As the boy lazes around, the girl does the chores. As he grows up, he becomes a voyeur. This is sort of like a flashback and […]
Interview: Manju Warrier
May 6, 2021
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Santhosh Vishwanath’s ‘One’, with Mammootty, is a middling fantasy about a purer-than-white politician
April 28, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: In Shankar’s Mudhalvan, an ordinary man, Pugazhenthi, becomes the chief minister for one day. He does miraculous things that corrupt politicians in power wouldn’t do. One takes it to a whole new level by asking: what if the actual chief minister, Kadakkal Chandran played by Mammootty, was like Pugazhenthi? Till he makes an appearance at the […]
Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Salil V’s ‘Chathur Mukham’, with Manju Warrier, Sunny Wayne and Alencier Ley Lopez is a super-solid techno-horror thriller
April 17, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: I identified a lot with Chathur Mukham because I used to be like Manju Warrier’s Thejaswini. I used to wake up early in the morning and the first thing I would do is look at my phone and messages. That’s what she does, too. The film opens with a quote by Thoreau: […]
Martin Prakkat’s ‘Nayattu’, with Kunchacko Boban, Joju George and Nimisha Sajayan, is an excellent thriller that carries the punch of a hard-hitting social drama
April 16, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: Nayattu, directed by Martin Prakkat and written by Shahi Kabir, begins with a scene that I read as a metaphor: a tug of war between two teams of men. In the middle of this, there’s a smiling politician walking about the crowd, soliciting votes. This sets up what’s going to follow because […]
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Baradwaj Rangan 
July 5, 2021
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