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The fascinating ‘Kayattam’ (Manju Warrier) finds Sanal Kumar Sasidharan in an experimental mode, pursuing a woman of mystery
Spoilers ahead… If transcribed, you can read the text here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/ Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Nithin Lukose’s powerful ‘Paka’, world-premiering at Toronto Intl. Film Festival, pushes Romeo and Juliet to the background and brings the violence to the fore
September 15, 2021
Spoilers ahead… The English title of Paka is River Of Blood and it’s evident from the very first scene. An old man dives into a river to retrieve the body of a young man and nobody knows how he died. One of the many, many jokes in this movie is that all the expert divers are old men — […]
Leena Manimekalai’s ‘Maadathy’, on Neestream, is a powerful social-horror story about a Dalit girl
June 24, 2021
Spoilers ahead… Text: The story of Leena Manimekalai’s Maadathy is almost folkloric in its simplicity, but if the final scenes remind you of The Shining, it may be no accident. The film, billed “an unfairy tale”, is really a horror story — about a subsection of Dalits in southern Tamil Nadu, called Puthirai Vannaar. As the name suggests, they are […]
Hasyam: Jayaraj fashions a comic masterpiece that revolves around death
March 22, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/hasyam-malayalam-movie-review-jayaraj-fashions-a-comic-masterpiece-that-revolves-around-death-harisree-ashokan-kpac-lalitha-baradwaj-rangan/ This is a very funny film, and the “humour” rests on a couple of existential questions. One is that life is absurd. We have to laugh if we want to get through it. Spoilers ahead… The amusingly named Japan (Harisree Ashokan) has a very matter-of-fact approach to death. In an early scene, he says […]
Céline Sciamma, Jacqueline Lentzou, and the other women with films at the Berlinale
March 6, 2021
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/berlinale-2021-celine-sciamma-jacqueline-lentzou-and-the-other-women-who-competed-for-the-golden-bear-9384711.html Five of the eighteen titles that will compete for the Golden Bear, are directed or co-directed by women. A look at ‘Petite Maman’, ‘Moon, 66 Questions’, ‘Ballad of a White Cow’. Spoilers ahead… I’ll begin with a shout-out to the web site womenandhollywood.com. It was founded in 2007, and it “educates, advocates, and agitates […]
Luiz Bolognesi’s ‘The Last Forest’, playing at the Berlinale, takes us to the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon basin
March 5, 2021
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/luiz-bolognesis-the-last-forest-playing-at-berlinale-2021-takes-us-to-the-yanomami-tribe-in-the-amazon-basin-9381571.html This is a record of a rapidly vanishing home. In 1986, the discovery of gold deposits led to an invasion by 45000 prospectors and the death of 1500-1800 natives. Spoilers ahead… In Ex Pajé (2018), filmmaker and anthropologist Luiz Bolognesi captured the spirit, the essence, the modern-day conflicts of the Paiter Suruí, an indigenous […]
Hong Sangsoo’s ‘Introduction’ is at once wispy and profound, like eavesdropping on the universe
March 5, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/film-festivals/berlin-film-festival/berlinale-2021-introduction-hong-sangsoo-brothers-keepers-bad-luck-banging-or-loopy-porn/ Plus, the boarding-school mystery, ‘Brother’s Keeper’. And the marvellously titled ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’. Spoilers ahead… In the opening scene of Hong Sangsoo’s Introduction, a man is praying. He says he will do anything. He will give up half his wealth, give it to an orphanage even, if God gives him one […]
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 […]
Berlinale Talents participant Tathagata Ghosh: ‘Through my films I try to freeze the rapidly changing corners of rural Bengal’
March 3, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/film-festivals/berlinale-talents-participant-tathagata-ghosh-through-my-films-i-try-to-freeze-the-rapidly-changing-corners-of-rural-bengal/ 113 women, 84 men and 8 who preferred to not state their gender — 205 film professionals in all, from 65 countries — have been chosen for Berlinale Talents. An interview with Tathagata Ghosh from Kolkata, one of the nine Indian talents selected for the programme. Spoilers ahead… Tathagata Ghosh, director and screenwriter, gained […]
Berlinale 2021: Ted K tells the story of the Unabomber as a demented eco-activist
March 3, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/film-festivals/berlin-film-festival/berlinale-2021-ted-k-tells-the-story-of-the-unabomber-as-a-demented-eco-activist-taste/ If someone told you what ‘Taste’ was about, you may think of Zakariya Mohammed’s ‘Sudani from Nigeria’: a footballer from the African nation ends up in Asia… Spoilers ahead… While watching Tony Stone’s Ted K – as in, Ted Kaczynski, as in, the Unabomber (played by an excellent Sharlto Copley) – I kept thinking […]
Berlinale 2021: A lament for a lost festival experience
March 1, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/film-festivals/berlin-film-festival/berlinale-2021-a-lament-for-a-lost-festival-experience-a-cop-movie-petite-maman/amp/ Cannes has the Riviera and Venice has the water scooters. But Berlin has the cold that someone from Chennai so desperately craves. Spoilers ahead… A fter that rather dramatic headline, let me clarify that the lament is not about Berlinale 2021 going online. The pandemic has opened up something akin to what social media […]
Dekel Berenson’s superb short film ‘Anna’ sheds light on the “love tours” industry in Ukraine
February 27, 2021
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/dekel-berensons-superb-short-film-anna-sheds-light-on-the-love-tours-industry-in-ukraine-9344531.html This 15-minute film is about: meat. Rather, women treated as meat, ready to be picked up by American men who want someone to cook and clean. Spoilers ahead… The first scene of Anna, a 2019 short film written and directed by Dekel Berenson, is about two people inside a meat fridge. One’s a man, a […]
Nilanadukkam, by Balaji Vembu Chelli: A fascinatingly original take on our scoop-addicted media era
February 27, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/nilanadukkam-tamil-movie-review-a-fascinatingly-original-take-on-our-scoop-addicted-media-era-arthouse-asia-film-festival-kolkata-baradwaj-rangan/ The hallucinatory film has its India premiere at the Arthouse Asia Film Festival in Kolkata. The earthquake of the title is both a metaphor as well as an actual calamity. Spoilers ahead… Nilanadukkam! An earthquake! How sensational the term sounds! What a scoop it could be for a journalist who happens to be in […]
Seththumaan: Thamizh makes an impressive directorial debut with a quietly shattering drama, produced by Pa Ranjith
February 16, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/tamil-review/iff-kerala-2021-seththumaan-thamizh-makes-an-impressive-directorial-debut-with-a-quietly-shattering-drama-produced-by-pa-ranjith-baradwaj-rangan/ The nuanced writing in ‘Seththumaan’ (meaning “pig”, like the title of Nagraj Manjule’s ‘Fandry’) weaves in a lot, from Ramnath Kovind to the caste-politics of food. Spoilers ahead… The time is 2017. The place is a village in western Tamil Nadu. Through newspapers and radio, a victorious and empowering Dalit story plays out: the […]
Don Palathara’s fascinating Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam, with Rima Kallingal and Jitin Puthanchery, is both familiar and new
February 13, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/iff-kerala-2021-don-palatharas-fascinating-santhoshathinte-onnam-rahasyam-with-rima-kallingal-and-jitin-puthenchery-is-both-familiar-and-new-baradwaj-rangan/ This time, we have a “plot”, and characters who talk a lot. But the aesthetic is as rigorous as in the director’s earlier work. The camera, for instance, is “locked in” throughout Spoilers ahead… When speaking of a filmmaker as distinctive as Don Palathara, the latest work becomes a part of a continuum — […]
Uberto Pasolini’s ‘Nowhere Special’ is having its Indian premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala
February 13, 2021
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/uberto-pasolinis-nowhere-special-screening-at-iffk-2021-is-moving-without-being-melodramatic-9299521.html This tale of a dying father trying to get his little boy adopted is moving without being melodramatic. Spoilers ahead… At some level, John (James Norton) is the bestest dad ever. That’s what his four-year-old, Michael (Daniel Lamont), might say. John combs Michael’s hair for lice. John reads Michael a bedtime story, very patiently, […]
Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Churuli makes us walk the tightrope between mind-blown and mind-fucked
February 12, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/churuli-malayalam-movie-review-makes-us-walk-the-tightrope-between-mind-blown-and-mind-fucked-lijo-jose-pellissery-iffk-baradwaj-rangan/ Usually films come full-circle. But here, it’s like a hypnotist’s wheel. From the centre-point of the inciting incident, the narrative (and your head) spins further and further away into an unending whirlpool. Spoilers ahead… The one thing you can say for sure about Lijo Jose Pellissery: he doesn’t do ordinary. The closest he came […]
Senna Hegde’s winning Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam, with Manoj KU and Ajisha Prabhakaran
February 11, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/malayalam-review/thinkalazhcha-nishchayam-malayalam-movie-review-senna-hegde-iffk-winning-film-with-manoj-ku-ajisha-prabhakaran-baradwaj-rangan/ This beautifully written and acted film exists in a zone between a broad Priyadarshan entertainer and the nuanced New Age Malayalam dramedy. Spoilers ahead… Based on the two films I’ve seen, the broad beats of Senna Hegde’s cinema are quite… broad. The director’s second film, Katheyondu Shuruvagide (in Kannada) was about a US-returned yuppie […]
Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu is out of the Oscar race, but it was always a long shot
February 10, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/opinion/hollywood-opinion/oscars-2021-nominations-jallikattu-india-entry-lijo-jose-pellisserys-jallikattu-is-out-of-the-oscar-race-but-it-was-always-a-long-shot-malayalam-movies/ The only way to hope for a shot at the Academy Awards is to make India matter in the eyes of Uncle Oscar as a “country that makes good movies”. As always, there was this dim hope that we’d make it to the shortlist, at least. After all, we’d picked a really deserving film, […]
Indranil Roychowdhury’s moving, minimalistic Mayar Jonjal (Debris of Desire), with Ritwick Chakraborty, Aupee Karim, Chandrayee Ghosh, Sohel Mondol
February 9, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/bengali-review/international-film-festival-of-kerala-indranil-roychowdhury-moving-minimalistic-mayar-jonjal-debris-of-desire-bengali-movies-baradwaj-rangan/ In this drama playing at the International Film Festival of Kerala, the women aren’t afraid of hard work. The men, on the other hand, are losers. Spoilers ahead… Indranil Roychowdhury’s Mayar Jonjal (the international title is Debris of Desire) opens with the sight of a powerful man called Joga da (Joydeep Mukherjee). So powerful […]
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Baradwaj Rangan 
September 29, 2021
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