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Browsing All Posts filed under »Cinema: Telugu«
Interview: The heroines of the ‘Queen’ remakes
#Tamannaah Bhatia, #KajalAggarwal & #ParulYadav who star in the South remakes of Kangana Ranaut’s #Queen, Paris Paris in Tamil, That is Mahalakshmi in Telugu & Butterfly in Kannada speak to Anupama Chopra about the process and challenges involved with simultaneously shooting four films in different languages, the cultural nuisances they had to factor in while […]
#AskBR – 2.0
December 5, 2018
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Interview: PC Sreeram
December 4, 2018
My conversation with PC Sreeram in the “Journeys” series. (Ravi Varman featured in the previous – and first – episode). For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #61: Metacriticism – The difficulty of reviewing a movie in the digital age
December 2, 2018
I watched the Rajnikanth starrer “2.0” yesterday and now I’m faced with a very difficult question. What do I say when a friend asks me: “How was the film?” No one’s going to look for a detailed analysis of the visual effects or the strength of the screenplay or whether there was a focal character […]
The complicated moral universe of ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ and Shankar’s ‘2.0’
December 1, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/2.0-moral-universe-thugs-of-hindustan-shankar-aamir-khan-rajinikanth/ Or why films that attempt to deviate from the formula of the masala movie need much better writing. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen ‘2.0’… During the intermission of Shankar’s 2.0, I made a note: “complicated moral universe.” I didn’t talk much about it in my review, […]
Interview: Resul Pookutty
November 28, 2018
“The hardest sound @shankarshanmugh asked me to create in #2point0 was that of a sparrow dying. We know how humans die, but not birds.” “In Endhiran, we were scared to alter Rajini sir’s voice” My interview with sound wizard @resulp on @fcompanionsouth For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Every Shankar film, ranked
November 22, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/every-shankar-film-ranked-baradwaj-rangan-2.0-enthiran-arrahman-rajinikanth-mudhalvan-indian/ Shankar wasn’t the first Tamil filmmaker to mix animation and live action in a song sequence. SP Muthuraman got there with the Rajinikanth-starrer Raja Chinna Roja, in 1989. But see the two music videos today, and you see the difference between a safe, efficient filmmaker and […]
Interview: Karan Johar
November 20, 2018
Karan Johar talks to Baradwaj Rangan about how Aditya Chopra introduced him to the cinema of Mani Ratnam. He talks about how different things would have been had he presented SS Rajamouli’s Ega in the North. Talking about 2.0, he says it’s going to have one of the biggest openings of Indian cinema and why […]
“Taxiwaala”… A fun horror-thriller that juggles high concept and low comedy
November 19, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/taxiwaala-movie-review-vijay-deverakonda-baradwaj-rangan/ Had Taxiwaala been a new — as opposed to long-in-the-making — Vijay Deverakonda movie, it would burnish the halo around the actor so much more. (He signed the film before Arjun Reddy released and shot him into the stratosphere.) For we would have then […]
The man behind the Superstar
November 15, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-baradwaj-rangan-rajini-interview-zee-tamil-2.0/ A few thoughts on Rajinikanth’s Deepavali-day interview on Zee Tamil, an “event” that possibly rivals 2.0 because the Superstar so rarely meets the media. As he walks in, he looks like a benevolent family elder, bald and smiling and with kind eyes. He looks like he […]
She Says She Says: The Women in Chekka Chivantha Vaanam
October 3, 2018
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Interview: Anand Shankar
October 2, 2018
Anand Shankar, director of NOTA, talks about his learnings as an Assistant Director in Bollywood and in Tamil cinema. (He assisted Siddharth Anand in Anjaana Anjaani, and AR Murugadoss in Thuppakki and 7aum Arivu.) He talks about his sensibility and why his second film (Iru Mugan) was less “Hollywoody” than his first (Arima Nambi). He […]
Interview: Vijay Deverakonda
September 27, 2018
Vijay Deverakonda, the star of NOTA, talks about being called the the biggest star in south Indian cinema. After Pelli Choopulu, Arjun Reddy and Geetha Govindam, he assesses his position, his female fan base, and the perceived change in his attitude and behaviour. He talks about the dynastic system of the Telugu film industry and […]
She Says She Says: The Women in Mani Ratnam’s Cinema
September 26, 2018
Namita is going to be doing a fortnighly, female POV show for us. This is the first episode. Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #50: Why the Baahubali movies failed in China
September 24, 2018
Vamsi: Your insight about wrong marketing seems very credible. That’s what i thought was the right takeaway from all that you said. I still don’t think Baahubali 2 had bad special effects, it just didn’t have grand stuff on a scale compared to LoTR or Avengers. I feel it’s about Scale than Quality. Ant-man won’t […]
Every Mani Ratnam film, ranked
September 20, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/every-mani-ratnam-film-ranked-baradwaj-rangan/ To call Mani Ratnam a mainstream filmmaker is a bit redundant, because every (primarily) Tamil filmmaker is a mainstream filmmaker: Tamil cinema does not have an “art film” tradition, the way Malayalam or Bengali cinema has. But even within the mainstream, there are two ways to […]
50k subscribers
September 15, 2018
Almost exactly a year ago, we made the decision to branch off into a separate South channel. Today, we’ve crossed the 50,000 subscribers mark. A small milestone. A big thank-you.
“U Turn”… A focused, heroine-oriented mystery that’s mostly engaging
September 14, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/u-turn-movie-review/ Pawan Kumar’s U Turn is a remake of his Kannada PSA-disguised-as-a-horror movie, and it contains many… U-turns. Let’s begin with the ostensible leading man, crime reporter Aditya (Rahul Ravindran). He has a thing for Rachana (Samantha), the intern at his office. But she’s the […]
“Care/of Kancharapalem”… A slow-burn romance with a twist that’s not just clever but also deeply moving
September 5, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/co-kancharapalem-telugu-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Erich Segal’s Love Story probably defined for all eternity that love means… never having to say you’re sorry. It sounds pretty, and it looks great on a greeting card — but does it really capture the depths of this emotion? I’d rather buy the […]
“Geetha Govindam”… Overlong and over-dramatic, but this entertaining romance more or less works
August 18, 2018
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/geetha-govindam-telugu-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan An early scene by a bus stop perfectly sets up the protagonist of Geetha Govindam. Vijay (Vijay Deverakonda) is doing one of those stalkery wooing numbers, trying to catch the eye of a pretty woman (Anu Emmanuel). He’s been trying to catch her eye […]
January 20, 2019
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