Subscribe:
RSS feed
Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Tamil«
Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy’s ’99 Songs’, with Ehan Bhat and Edilsy Vargas, is an experimental, music video-styled dive into AR Rahman’s mind
April 16, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: 99 Songs has been directed by Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, but the speciality is that the story and music are by AR Rahman. We’re introduced to Jay (Ehan Bhat) and Sofia (Edilsy Vargas). Jay is a struggling musician and Sofia is a super-rich woman with a super-rich dad (Ranjit Barot). We think this is going to […]
Readers Write In #354: On the caste origins of Karna
April 13, 2021
(by Sudharshan Garg) Loved the movie and the review, but a few…mythological and historical quibbles. Karna’s foster parents were not from the ‘oppressed’ classes. If anything Adhi his dad was from the lineage of the mighty king Jayadrata of Anga. Ratha was a suffix this line took, Jaya + Rata > DhratvaRata > Satkarma > […]
Readers Write In #353: Karnan: An Essay on the Radical
April 13, 2021
Hemanth Bharatha Chakravarthy I read Mari Selvaraj’s stunning Karnan as an essay on the radical, as a story of radical movements and radicalism within political struggles. There is a lot else in the movie: visually rich screenwriting with stunning landscapes and aerial shots, previously unsaid ethnography of the “lifestyle” of oppressed communities from their customs […]
#AskBR – Karnan
April 13, 2021
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 ©2021 Film Companion.
Interview: AR Rahman, the writer (99 Songs)
April 10, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Review: Mari Selvaraj’s ‘Karnan’, with Dhanush, Lal, Rajisha Vijayan
April 9, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The best of screenwriters cannot imagine writing something like the Mahabharata because there are so many plots, subplots, and characters. And oOne of the most fascinating characters is Karna, who is born a demi-god. He is the son of a queen (Kunti) and a god (Surya). But he’s abandoned by his mother […]
Interview: Rajisha Vijayan (‘Karnan’, ‘Kho Kho’)
April 6, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Review: Madonne Ashwin’s ‘Mandela’, with Yogi Babu and Sheela Rajkumar
April 5, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Bakkiyaraj Kannan’s Sulthan: Karthi and Rashmika Mandanna star in a generic ‘mass movie’ that could have been so much more
April 2, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/sulthan-movie-tamil-review-karthi-and-rashmika-mandanna-star-in-a-generic-mass-movie-that-could-have-been-so-much-more-lal-yogi-babu/ In a very ordinary film, you’d sigh and accept all this without batting an eyelid because it’s just another excuse for hero-worship. But when you see potential not being exploited… Spoilers ahead… The first half-hour of Bakkiyaraj Kannan’s Sulthan – starring Karthi and Rashmika Mandanna – is pretty promising. (Let’s ignore the mandatory hero-intro […]
Interview: Kalaipuli Thanu (‘Karnan’, ‘Asuran’)
April 2, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Review: Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan’s ‘The Mosquito Philosophy’
March 23, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #347: NenjamMarappathillai is a smashing return to form for Selvaraghavan
March 18, 2021
(by N Madhusudhan) If you have followed his work to a reasonable degree, you know by now that Selva films, even his best ones, can get a tad indulgent at times. There are certain visible aspects you identify in his films– the performances are on a different pitch altogether, realism is something he seems to […]
Readers Write In #346: How did Tamil and Malayalam cinema treat its stars in the 80s-90s?
March 16, 2021
(by G Waugh) I am actually not a big fan of the late eighties/nineties cinema that came out in Tamil. Whenever I come across a blockbuster of that era like Rajnikanth’s Velaikkaran or Rajadhi Raja or Prabhu’s Chinna Thambi on the television, I immediately succumb to an impulse to reach out for the remote controller. […]
Interview: Gautham Menon @ 20 (20 films, 20 moments)
March 15, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Teddy on Disney+ Hotstar: Arya and Sayyeshaa star in a bearly-adequate thriller
March 12, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/teddy-movie-review-tamil-disney-hotstar-arya-sayyeshaa-star-in-a-bearly-adequate-thriller-shakti-soundar-rajan-sakshi-agarwal-baradwaj-rangan/ Tamil cinema’s high-concept king, Shakti Soundar Rajan, takes a tumble with this story about a giant talking bear Spoilers ahead… Shakti Soundar Rajan likes the high concept. He likes to say “I made the first zombie thriller in Tamil cinema”. (That was Miruthan.) He likes to say “I made the first space adventure in […]
Interview: Selvaraghavan (a spoilery deep dive into the philosophies of ‘Nenjam Marappathillai’)
March 8, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
SJ Suryah is gloriously OTT in Selvaraghavan’s equally OTT (in a good way) ‘Nenjam Marappathillai’
March 5, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/nenjam-marappathillai-review-tamil-movies-selvaraghavan-sj-suryah-regina-cassandra-sj-suryah-is-gloriously-ott-in-selvaraghavans-equally-ott-film-baradwaj-rangan/ In a “straight” movie like ‘NGK’, the outrageous flourishes stick out. But in a genre piece like this, they crack open a window and make the clichés breathe again. Spoilers ahead… There’s a scene in Nenjam Marappathillai where Selvaraghavan (almost) steps into another Tamil auteur’s territory. There’s a blind man with black glasses, so […]
Kuthiraivaal, directed by Manoj Jahson and Shyam Sunder: A surreal experience about the multiple selves we inhabit, with Kalaiyarasan and Anjali Patil
March 4, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/kuthiraivaal-movie-review-tamil-directed-by-manoj-jahson-and-shyam-sunder-a-surreal-experience-about-the-multiple-selves-we-inhabit-with-kalaiyarasan-and-anjali-patil-pa-ranjith-berlinale-2021/ This Pa Ranjith production, being screened at the Berlin Critics’ Week, is too literal. It’s also a fascinating attempt to put psychoanalytic theory on film. Spoilers ahead… In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, a man wakes up to find that he’s transformed into a giant bug. There are echoes of this classic story in Kuthiraivaal, a Pa […]
Recent Comments
 | Kay on Vivekh |
 | brangan on Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Sali… |
 | Anand Raghavan on Vivekh |
 | Anish Ravi on Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Sali… |
 | Satya on Vivekh |
 | filmarcher on Vivekh |
 | An Jo on Vivekh |
 | krishna prasad on Vivekh |
 | therag on Vivekh |
 | Anu Warrier on Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Sali… |
| Anu Warrier on Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Sali… |
 | sanjay2706 on Vivekh |
 | Macaulay Perapulla on Vivekh |
| Anu Warrier on Ranjeet Kamala Sankar and Sali… |
 | tirukumar on Vivekh |
April 18, 2021
16