Readers Write In #578: Succession – A Saga of Kendall and Logan

May 23, 2023

28

By Kartik Iyer The things that stand out about Brian Cox, who plays the character of Logan Roy in Succession, are his nose, jaws, and eyes. The jaws get a helping from the white-grey beard, but his nose and eyes appear as they are: stark, sharp, and cold. Logan has the capacity to unnerve people with […]

Apoorv Singh Karki’s ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’ is an earnest, well-acted courtroom drama that needed more tension

May 22, 2023

4

Spoilers ahead… Manoj Bajpayee’s performance is both an incarnation as well as an acting lesson on how to mug up a big speech and deliver it as though the words are coming out of your mouth for the very first time. Apoorv Singh Karki’s Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai is based on the 2013 child […]

Yashowardhan Mishra’s ‘Kathal’, on Netflix, is  a gently amusing detective story-cum-social commentary that involves missing jackfruits 

May 22, 2023

9

Spoilers ahead… Not all jokes hit the mark, but if you catch the film’s vibe, there’s enough foolishness for a pleasant – if unremarkable – couple of hours.  Can you make comedy from “serious social issues” like caste discrimination and patriarchy? Vignesh Shivan proved that you could. In his delightful episode in the Tamil anthology […]

Readers Write In #577: The National Legacy of NTR

May 21, 2023

11

By ​Aman Basha Remembering the man who changed the history and cinema of a state and left an impact on a nation May 28 this year marks a special event for the Telugu states. What has been till now, an annual celebration for the Telugu Desam Party and their cadre, promises to be the grand […]

From the Web (FTW) #7: The Magic of K Vishwanath’s songs

May 21, 2023

4

Why do Indian movies have songs? Well that’s a question that is being increasingly asked now, but it was not the case earlier. Given that Indian movies had their base in the various forms of “stage” or “theatre” traditions, when sound came into movies, songs became integral. For a very long time, songs played a […]

Shamal Sulaiman’s entertaining ‘Jackson Bazaar Youth’ makes you think it’s a drama about the underprivileged before pulling the rug from under your feet

May 20, 2023

2

Spoilers ahead… This film understands that the System is too powerful to be overcome by a few angry young men. The most subversive thought is that, if you want revenge, you have to get it from inside the System. They live in a poramboke area called Jackson Bazaar. They wear yellow shirts and maroon pants. […]

Posted in: Cinema: Malayalam

Lights, Camera, Analysis: Ravi Varman (Ponniyin Selvan 1 & 2)

May 20, 2023

18

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.

Vijay Antony’s ‘Pichaikkaran 2’ is a sentimental, speech-heavy take on how the rich should help the poor

May 19, 2023

14

Spoilers ahead… Scene after scene is set up to portray Vijay Antony as a saviour named Anti Bikili. He even gets a fight like a mass-hero.  Vijay Antony has co-written, edited, directed, and composed the music for Pichaikkaran 2 – and he appears in a double role in this spiritual sequel to his 2016 hit. […]

‘Modern Love Chennai’, overseen by creative producer Thiagarajan Kumararaja and team, makes a strong case for what Tamil creators can do in the OTT space

May 18, 2023

58

Spoilers ahead… Every film has something (or things) going for it, but the standouts are the episodes by Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Akshay Sundher, and Thiagarajan Kumararaja. Modern Love Chennai is easily the best thing to come out of the Tamil OTT space. This is not to say that I liked every single short in this six-episode […]

Interview: Thiagarajan Kumararaja (Modern Love Chennai, and this man’s mind)

May 16, 2023

25

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.

Interview: Bharathiraja (Modern Love Chennai, and all other kinds of love)

May 15, 2023

12

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.

Interview: Siva Ananth (Ponniyin Selvan 1 & 2)

May 13, 2023

11

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.

Vinayak Chandrasekaran’s ‘Good Night’ is an easy watch with a few good laughs, but it struggles to hang on to a single tonality

May 12, 2023

3

Spoilers ahead… This is why the film never realises its potential: the central relationship starts off well enough, but it becomes very repetitive – and in the second half, it becomes extremely contrived. Good Night, written and directed by Vinayak Chandrasekaran, has been sold as a comedy about a man with a snoring problem – […]

Posted in: Cinema: Tamil

Nelson Venkatesan’s ‘Farhana’ gives Aishwarya Rajesh a fine chance to shine in the midst of a middling thriller

May 12, 2023

4

Spoilers ahead… The director focuses on his heroine’s face, her expressive eyes – and Aishwarya gives us everything from timidity to disgust to fear to controlled rage. With Oru Naal Koothu, Nelson Venkatesan showed us he could do drama. The film was a sobering look at modern-day marriage. His next film, the very entertaining Monster, […]

Posted in: Cinema: Tamil

Jude Anthany Joseph’s ‘2018: Everyone is a Hero’ is painted in very broad strokes but ends up a solid account of a tragic time

May 10, 2023

1

Spoilers ahead… Tovino Thomas gets the most fully fleshed-out character, and even a love interest – and later, he gets to do the biggest saving acts. He is both a star and a character actor here. There are two ways to make a movie about a large-scale disaster. One is to reduce the scale, like […]

Posted in: Cinema: Malayalam

Interview: Vijay Antony (Pichaikkaran 2)

May 10, 2023

3

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.

Readers Write In #576: Book Review: The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple

May 9, 2023

33

By ​Jeeva P aka G Waugh Surveying the so-called First War of Indian Independence that took place at Delhi through the eyes of historian William Dalrymple in his book The Last Mughal, I was led to revise many of my long-held assumptions. The rebellion that took place, also called the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, was […]

My interview with IIT Madras BS Film Society

May 7, 2023

18

Copyright ©2023 IIT Madras BS Film Society

Posted in: Cinema, Interview, Personal

My interview on Mindscape Matters

May 7, 2023

28

Copyright ©2023 Mindscape Matters

Posted in: Cinema, Interview, Personal

Interview: Sriram and Shridhar Raghavan

May 4, 2023

21

For more, subscribe to GALATTA PLUS: https://tinyurl.com/ysbkyrht Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.