Recent Posts

• Sundar C’s ‘Aranmanai 3’ (Sundar C, Arya, Raashi Khanna, Andrea Jeremiah) is a noisy horror-comedy put together with little effort or imagination
• Era Saravanan’s ‘Udanpirappe’ (Jyothika, Sasikumar, Samuthirakani) is a bland family drama where not a single moment hits hard
• Despite some flab and a vague ending, Vineeth Varaprasad’s ‘Lift’ (Kavin, Amritha) is a well-made horror thriller that’s more a procedural than a jump-scare machine
• My interview on Galatta (with a typically provocative headline :-) )
• #AskBR – Doctor
• Interview: Akhil Akkineni (Most Eligible Bachelor)
• Readers Write In #414: Kuttipaapaakkal (Sirukadhai)
• Nelson Dilipkumar’s entertaining ‘Doctor’ (Sivakarthikeyan, Priyanka Arul Mohan) is a true original, though it could have used a little more energy
• Interview: Mohan G (Draupathi, Rudra Thandavam)
• Tanglish Talks: A samosa’s story
• In the entertaining ‘Bhramam’ (Prithviraj, Mamta Mohandas), Ravi K Chandran and his super cast redo ‘Andhadhun’ in a pacier, more ‘commercial’ manner
• Interview: Krish (Konda Polam, Hari Hara Veera Mallu)
• #AskBR – The End of the Craig Era
• Readers Write In #413: Why Gandhi?
• Interview: Panja Vaisshnav Tej (Uppena, Konda Polam)
• Mohan G’s ‘Rudra Thandavam’ (Richard Rishi, Gautham Menon) is a long, lethargic drama about drugs (and possibly a counter reaction to our Dalit filmmakers)
• Cary Joji Fukunaga’s ‘No Time to Die’ is a generic, entertaining farewell to Daniel Craig but it never becomes the epic it keeps trying to be
• Hiphop Tamizha Adhi’s underwhelming ‘Sivakumarin Sabadham’ takes a serious issue and tries to make an “entertainer” of it
• In Defence Of ‘Zero’ – kicking off a video series for Film Companion
• The fascinating ‘Kayattam’ (Manju Warrier) finds Sanal Kumar Sasidharan in an experimental mode, pursuing a woman of mystery
• BR blog-reader Zoom meet
• Interview: Mamta Mohandas / Prithviraj (‘Bhramam’)
• Aravind Kuplikar’s ‘Puksatte Lifu (Sanchari Vijay, Matangi Prasan, Achyut Kumar) is an existential dramedy with admirable tonal shifts that are utterly organic
• Jaikumar Sedhuraman’s ‘Sennai’ (Semmalar Annam, Bava Chelladurai) is a solid indie-Dalit film that uses a fable to make its points
• Tanglish Talks: Pond’s, circa 1985
• Readers Write In #412: Kaalathai thindra gadigaram
• Readers Write In #411: The six-sense monster
• Arisil Moorthy’s scattered ‘Raame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum’ (Mithun Manickam, Ramya Pandian, Vani Bhojan) equates good intentions with good filmmaking
• My interview on Scribble Arts Studio
• Ranjith Sankar’s ‘Sunny’ (Jayasurya) is a gently moving drama that equates COVID-related solitude with a man’s isolation from his own life
• Interview: Sekhar Kammula (‘Dollar Dreams’ to ‘Love Story’)
• Readers Write In #410: Pillaiyar Suzhi
• Interview: Naga Chaitanya (‘Love Story’)
• Readers Write In #409: Yuvan-ai Pol Oruvan
• Readers Write In #408: A story of a 90’s kid
• Deepak Sundarrajan’s ‘Annabelle Sethupathi’ (Vijay Sethupathi, Taapsee Pannu) is a ghost-comedy that’s truly ghastly
• Ananda Krishnan’s ‘Kodiyil Oruvan’ (Vijay Antony, Aathmika) has a promising story that’s let down by a disastrous screenplay
• Manu Ashokan’s ‘Kaanekkane’ (Suraj Venjaramoodu, Tovino Thomas, Aishwarya Lekshmi) is a lovely examination of human frailty in the guise of a detective thriller
• 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
• Interview: Vijay Antony (‘Kodiyil Oruvan’)
• Readers Write In #407: Emma Raducanu the ultimate fairytale tennis story
• Interview: Vijay (A spoilery deep dive into the art of dramatising JJ’s life)
• Readers Write In #406: Why Nehru was a horrible “founding father”
• Shiva Nirvana’s ‘Tuck Jagadish’, with Nani and Ritu Varma, is an underwhelming count-the-clichés exercise
• Karthik Yogi’s ‘Dikkiloona’, with Santhanam, is a time-travel comedy/drama that really tests your patience
• Delhi Prasad Deenadayal’s okayish ‘Tughlaq Durbar’, with Vijay Sethupathi and Parthiban, has a great premise that needed an equally great screenplay to exploit its potential
• SP Jananathan’s ‘Laabam’, with Vijay Sethupathi and Shruti Haasan, is a disappointing series of lectures disguised as a movie
• Tanglish Talks: Darkness
• In ‘Thalaivii’, writer KV Vijayendra Prasad and Vijay refashion the Jayalalithaa story into a solid mythical melodrama, starring Kangana Ranaut and Arvind Swami
• Interview: Vijay Sethupathi (‘Laabam’,’Annabelle Sethupathi’,’Tughlaq Durbar’)