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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Telugu«
The Amateur’s Art #24- “Mirror” (Telugu, with English subs)
See here for what this series is about. This short film — horror, for a change — is by Prashanth Mittapelli.
A tale of two rejections
June 22, 2017
A flashback to moments from the 2001 Telugu drama ‘Tiladaanam’, the story of a priest who’s fallen on hard times. Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/article/southern-lights-tiladaanam KNT Sastry’s Tiladaanam (The Rite… A Passion) can be seen as a companion piece to Vamsha Vriksha, the Kannada drama discussed in this column last week. […]
The Ramya Krishnan interview
May 14, 2017
My video interview with Ramya Krishnan for Film Companion. Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.
Two shots, two songs
May 4, 2017
A flashback to moments from the 1986 Telugu drama ‘Swathi Muthyam’, the story of a man who’s also a child. Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/article/southern-lights-two-shots-two-songs K Viswanath, this year’s recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, made three films with Kamal Haasan. Sagara Sangamam is the best, Subha Sankalpam the weakest – and […]
“Baahubali 2: The Conclusion”… Less intriguing than Part I, but still a rousing, astonishing achievement
April 28, 2017
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/article/baahubali-2-the-conclusion-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan The war is over. Mahishmati awaits the coronation of its new king, Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas). But while peace may good for the country, it’s bad news for the screenwriter. For a while Baahubali: The Conclusion plods along a predictable path. It’s never boring. SS […]
Law and disorder
April 20, 2017
A deep dive into moments from the 2010 Telugu political drama ‘Leader’, where an idealist becomes Chief Minister and sets out to eliminate corruption. I have a thing for idealistic dramas in which a newbie-politician changes the corrupt System. Shankar’s Mudhalvan (Tamil; Nayak in Hindi) is one. Sekhar Kammula’s Leader is another. The former (which […]
“Katamarayudu”… Pawan Kalyan anchors a masala movie where he might know how to speak “bird language”
March 30, 2017
Spoilers ahead… In the first scene of Kishore Kumar Pardasani’s Katamarayudu, named after the character played by ‘Power Star’ Pawan Kalyan, we see four cars speeding through rugged Rayalaseema terrain. Suddenly, the shot is inverted. The sky is at the bottom of the screen, the speeding cars on top. You’re probably wondering “Why?” But hardened […]
Matchmaking
March 23, 2017
A deep dive into moments from the 2016 Telugu rom-com ‘Pelli Choopulu’, which is as much about finding a life partner as finding oneself. Among the happier trends in movie-watching down south is the release of films with subtitles. Speaking as someone from Chennai, this is how it used to be. The majority of releases […]
“Ghazi”… A comfortingly old-fashioned (and entertaining) war movie
February 19, 2017
Spoilers ahead… Kay Kay Menon rarely finds roles worthy of his talent, but in Ghazi, he lucks out. He plays Rann Vijay Singh, a naval captain entrusted with a submarine and a mission. It’s 1971. News has trickled down that Pakistan is preparing to strike the eastern coast. Singh and his crew are asked to […]
“Khaidi No 150.”… Less self-important and more palatable than ‘Kaththi’
January 11, 2017
Spoilers ahead… The Tamil film Kaththi opens in the middle of a chase outside a prison. We see a group of policemen, apparently firing at will. We see the back of a fleeing convict – the whistles in the theatre tell us it is the film’s star, Vijay. An instant later, this is confirmed with a […]
The Amateur’s Art #11 – “Roses” (Telugu)
December 15, 2016
See here for what this series is about. This short is by Prashanth Karthik.
The invisible man
October 10, 2015
Thoughts on the often-overlooked producer of a film, occasioned by the passing of Edida Nageswara Rao. When I heard that Edida Nageswara Rao had died, my first thoughts were about the three films – Shankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam (Salangai Oli in Tamil), Swati Muthyam (Sippikkul Muthu in Tamil, Eeshwar in Hindi) – that defined him as […]
Wide-angle cinema
September 19, 2015
On ‘Swades’ versus ‘Srimanthudu.’ And the idea of the socially relevant ‘mass’ movie. A few weeks ago, Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu had a subtitled release in Chennai. I must say it was a brave move. Not because it was a Telugu film – these Telugu ‘mass’ films (or wide-appeal masala movies) are practically identical to the […]
Common men, uncommon stories
August 15, 2015
On the eve of the release of ‘Manjhi – The Mountain Man’, Baradwaj Rangan traces the journey of our biopics, which are no longer just about larger-than-life achievers. It all began in 1959, when a landless Bihari from the Musahar community, a scheduled caste that traditionally made a living as rat catchers, decided to make […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “All the world’s a screen…”
September 12, 2014
In light of the upcoming ‘Haider’, a look at a 60-year-old Hindi version of ‘Hamlet’. Plus, ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan and Uttam Kumar as Othello. When we think of non-Western (and non-Vishal Bhardwaj) adaptations of Shakespeare, the mind settles, instantly, on Kursosawa. Throne of Blood. Ran. But a quick Google search reveals some fascinating Indian productions. A […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Kerala days”
June 20, 2014
Is the Malayalam film industry making the best mainstream cinema today? Once upon a time, I used to watch cinema from all over India – every Sunday afternoon, on Doordarshan. I remember, especially, the Malayalam films like Koodevide and Alicinte Anveshanam, which were neither all-out arty nor fully commercial – it was the middle-of-the-road-style that […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A small tribute to a big legend”
May 9, 2014
A slim compilation of B Nagi Reddi’s memories is a welcome addition to the increasing number of books on Indian cinema. In the introduction to Many Shades Make a Rainbow: Reminiscences of B Nagi Reddi, the publisher (and Nagi Reddi’s son), Viswam, lays out what the book is about. He says that his father’s birth […]
The natural
February 14, 2014
Balu Mahendra, who died yesterday of cardiac arrest, was one of the handful of filmmakers who, in the 1970s, changed the face of Tamil cinema. He was also one of the handful who could be termed an auteur. Every film he made was distinctly his. Part of this was, of course, due to his roots […]
Interview: Ram Gopal Varma
August 14, 2008
FACTORY TALK Ram Gopal Varma opens up about being a certain kind of director, about why Contract didn’t work, and about why the upcoming Phoonk is more than just a horror film. AUG 15, 2008 – ABOUT FIVE MINUTES AFTER SITTING DOWN across Ram Gopal Varma, I’m beginning to realise he’s hijacked the interview. There’s […]
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