Director Suseenthiran doesn’t know where to take the film once he’s established the characters.
Continue readingBhoomi movie review: Jayam Ravi’s film is a potpourri of ill-researched ideas punctuated with loud screams
Bhoomi doesn’t give you a moment to breathe or even feel what just hit you.
Continue readingMaster movie review: Lokesh Kanagaraj’s direction fades in this moderately entertaining Vijay film
Master is unfortunately the kind of film that concerns itself with too many things but can hardly focus on any of it beyond adorning the hero, Vijay.
Continue readingMaara movie review: R Madhavan’s film demands patience of a hopeless romantic to invest in the story
If you aren’t instinctively drawn to the mystical world creates, R Madhavan’s Maara is a drag
Continue readingOru Pakka Kadhai movie review: Balaji Tharaneetharan offers one of the sharpest critiques of modern Tamil society
The biggest success of Oru Pakka Kathai is the adamant normalcy with which it treats everything.
Continue readingPaava Kadhaigal movie review: Netflix Tamil anthology deftly explores why the regular is right and the different is sinful
Paava Kadhaigal is a call to reject the family that rejects equality.
Continue readingTriples review: All of Tamil cinema can’t save this bummer of a web series
The biggest shame with Triples is that it had potential. A sharper commentary on the world and a cleverer dialogue writer could have made Triples an absolute delight of a show.
Continue readingAndhagaaram movie review: An interesting thriller that is bogged down by tiresome self-actualisation
Soon enough, Andhagaaram gets tiresome. The details unravel painfully slowly, and in excruciating little bursts.
Continue readingMookuthi Amman movie review: Trite and meandering film that wastes its biggest boon in Urvashi
The best thing about Mookuthi Amman is the delicate understanding with which RJ Balaji writes a suffering family. The worst thing about Mookuthi Amman is that everything else is more like trite sketch comedy than a meaningful take on society that’s desperate enough to be voluntarily conned
Continue readingSoorarai Pottru movie review: Sudha Kongara, Suriya tell a moving, poetic biopic without deifying the leading man
I rooted for Suriya’s character Maaran when he took flight. But also for director Sudha Kongara as she solidified her position as a rare female filmmaker to narrate a solid mainstream Tamil film.
Continue readingAs Laxmii releases, revisiting Raghava Lawrence’s Kanchana franchise and how well it represents the marginalised
Raghava Lawrence’s franchise is successful because he normalises vulnerability. While we can debate if the representation is truly positive or a crude caricature, one would find it difficult to argue that he has any malice or is misguided.
Continue readingPutham Pudhu Kaalai movie review: A relatable, yet restrictive, collection of stories of hope in the coronavirus era
The five films in Amazon Prime Video India’s maiden Tamil anthology are not all equal, but they are different and thoughtful in interesting ways.
Continue readingVarmaa movie review: The insipid ghost of Arjun Reddy
Arjun Reddy made me angry. Varmaa is insipid because it is a half-hearted copy-paste of the original.
Continue readingKa Pae Ranasingam movie review: Aishwarya Rajesh, Vijay Sethupathi’s film is incisive commentary on state apathy
Ka Pae Ranasingam reminds us that resistance is an exhausting endeavour; they will not kill you, they will simply wear you down.
Continue readingTime Enna Boss: Tamil web series experiments with different forms, but fails to evoke a chuckle
It appears that the makers of the web series want to stay within their comfort zones, recycling gags and making inside jokes.
Continue readingPenguin movie review: Keerthy Suresh shoulders thrilling, though unconvincing, search for a lost child
Penguin draws a clear line — this is a story about a mother. Rhythm is only that. For her, and for the film, that is enough.
Continue readingMeera Chopra vs Jr NTR Fans: Why Does Love For A Male Film Star Often Manifest Itself As Hatred For Women?
“Telugu films r best agree or die (sic)”, someone told me early last month, promptly ending that tweet with a skull emoji.
Continue readingPonmagal Vandhal movie review: Jyotika doesn’t punch hard but sincerely delivers clarion call to believe women’s stories
In a sense, Ponmagal Vandhal fits perfectly into Jyotika’s pursuit: Every film is a milestone in her single-minded journey of women’s empowerment.
Continue readingKilling time: A murder mystery, a society on the brink — Death in Buenos Aires is Natalia Meta’s commentary on ’80s Argentina
What I love about Natalia Meta’s Death In Buenos Aires is how clever the writing and filmmaking is, even if the mystery itself is pretty straightforward.
Continue readingSerial chiller: Mr Family Man — Praveen Kumar’s comedy show is uncompelling, except for a short burst of multilingual wordplay
Praveen Kumar, whose Tamil stand-up comedy show titled Mr Family Man dropped on Amazon Prime last Friday, begins with his central argument: That a family man is an unsung superhero. He promises to demonstrate, through personal experience, why a he thinks so. Except, he doesn’t.
Continue readingKilling time: In 2011’s Baishe Srabon, literal proof that a satisfying detective story is always about the poetry of pursuit
Of all its pleasures, the one thing that makes the film linger in my mind is its almost naive-idealist approach to police procedure.
Continue readingSerial Chiller: Kannamoochi Review — An indifferent web series where the horror isn’t scary and the thriller has no mystery
In five episodes of about 25 minutes each, Kannamoochi is harried. The game of hide-and-seek as a thematic undercurrent is flimsy. Overall, it ends up being an indifferent effort devoted neither to the craft or the cause.
Continue readingSusi Ganesan’s Cross-Examination In His ‘MeToo’ Defamation Case Against Leena Manimekalai; Notes From The Court Room
Serial chiller: Topless Review — This absurdist action-drama is certainly not for everyone.
At a run-time of over 140 minutes, Topless is not an easy watch if you’re not a fan of the absurdist action genre.
Continue readingSillu Karupatti: An unsatisfying, even if noteworthy, collection of stories about love.
Sillu Karupatti, isn’t a bad anthology. It’s ambitious in form, style and content. But it is so restrained, that it ends up being unsatisfactory.
Continue readingSerial Chiller: Queen review — Slow and brooding, Ramya Krishnan stars in a craftily made, J Jayalalithaa-inspired hagiography
With over ten hours of content, Queen is certainly not for binge-watching. In that, it’s slow and brooding, making you invest more of yourself in it. It invites you to sit down and feel for the Shakti. “Oh, poor girl,” the show wants us to think, and condemn the injustices of her past.
Continue readingSerial Chiller: Karoline Kamakshi review — Meena, and Tamil audiences, deserve better than this hotchpotch of ineptitude
A reckless French intelligence agent in Pondicherry. A lazy disrespected CBI agent in Chennai. A missing treasure named Virgin Mary. Gruesome smugglers. International incidents. A looming war. What could possibly go wrong in this time-tested premise? Everything apparently.
Continue readingSerial Chiller: Police Diary 2.0 — Without skill or sense, the show is a mishmash of unnecessary sex, institutional violence and machoism
As institutional violence and police brutality rise at alarming rates in this country, I place Police Diary 2.0 within the context of Tamilnadu’s law enforcement history. And lament how creative folks repeatedly align themselves with the casteist, patriarchal, oppressing establishment.
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