I write reviews, profiles, essays, interviews, yearly round-ups and the like. You may have seen my work on Film Companion, Firstpost, Huffington Post, News9, Scroll, The Hindu Thread and Indian Express. If you’ve read my work at PopMatters or The South Asianist Journal, well, you must be a fan, <3
Amanda Marcotte on slate.com (Feb 22, 2013) It’s the reason some stand-up comedians exist. It’s been the premise on which plenty of films have been made. Personally, I’ve been told several times that I talk too much. In this piece, Amanda argues that the general belief that women on an average speak more than men…
Kafila | Feb 11, 2013 Feminists have always held that language plays a very important role perpetuating in gender-based oppression. In this piece on Kafila.org, Anupama Mohan writes about phallogocentrism and the impact of language on societal values. In English, the word seminal, which means something important and path-breaking, derives from “semen” and in contrast, the word hysterical or hysteria, which…
Kafila.org | Feb 11, 2013 In a piece about female sexual desire, Veena Venugopal talks about a woman’s desire, the need for it to be acknowledged in society and several pop culture references highly relevant. In an early episode of Girls, one of the characters reads from a dating manual. “Sex from behind is degrading.…
From the Paris Review: Virginia Woolf, on Pancakes and Porridge. (February 7, 2013) “When in a good and merry mood Trisy would seize a dozen eggs, and a bucket of flour, coerce a cow to milk itself, and then mixing the ingredients toss them 20 times high up over the skyline, and catch them as they…
I got called a female chauvinist last evening (actually my writing was called a female equivalent of chauvinism – the assumption that chauvinism is male by default was curious). While I do not respond to all accusations/ name-calling towards me, this one gave the final nudge publish the post I’ve left lying in my drafts…
The story of a mentally disturbed mother is rather personal to me – something that is close to my heart and the words that flow below may be highly biased from that perspective. Aarohanam is the story of a mother who leaves home or the story of two children in search of their lost mother…
<Spoiler alert. You’ll be able to put the whole story together at the end of this post.> For an action thriller about terrorism arising out of Afghanistan, Viswaroopam is tad too rooted in Tamil (the language) Nadu (the place) – for its own good. Kamal Haasan is a master story teller – he tells you…
You’ve read my disclaimer before, haven’t you? Also, please look up at the headline of the blog before you continue reading. Thank you. Good v. Evil Essentially in the film, there are a few good people (the Gods – like Father Sam) and a few evil people (the Satan – Bergmans). The film is about…
#AlexPandiyan #pch — Ranjani K (@_tharkuri) January 12, 2013 When I tweeted this from the theatre after watching the film, someone I know asked me “why do you watch these movies in the first place?” #NyaayamaanaKelvi Now that I’ve watched the film, I must say that much of the criticism the film has been getting…
I had the same feeling at the end of Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kannum that I had after watching Pizza (I chose not to review Pizza because I was quite undecided). It’s a combination of an admiration of the simplicity of the story, a blur line that differentiates the characters from the actors and a generous…
Please read disclaimer before reading this post – if you haven’t already. Thuppaakki is the story of a Tamil speaking army man on a holiday saving Mumbai from Islamic terrorists from the north west of India (while he also is looking to be married). Army > Police For comic value or otherwise, the film talks…
Over the last two days, I was part of a conversation that can be seen as a metaphor for the way ‘the privileged’ look at reservation. (Read this one about privilege – some interesting points made). I’ll leave the metaphorical interpretations to you and make a few points that I wish to strictly about reserving…
When a film is bad, I generally have a *lot* to say about it, this that and the other complaint I come up with. About Mugamoodi though, I have very little to say. Where is the inspiration? The most important aspect of a superhero film is (arguably) the inspiration. What makes one a superhero? Why…
I’ve been a lot of things in the last 25 years I’ve spent on the planet – a daughter, a sister, a friend, a dude, an enemy, and a fool among other things. The one thing that was most troublesome of them all is being a feminist. Being a feminist is obviously not like being…
It is one of those days when you had an avalanche of emotions and feel drained even before the workday ends. From happiness to pride, satisfaction, love, freedom, revenge, anger, disgust, pain, insult, you’ve experienced a range of emotions that half the human population hasn’t even begun to feel. At 6 PM, you grab your…
Direction: Joseph Cedar Featuring: Shlomo Bar-Aba and Lior Ashkenazi Footnote is an Israeli film about a father and a son – both in the Talmud department of the Hebrew University. The father is a researcher following traditional research methods – hard-working, meticulous and perseverant. The son, on the other hand, is modern, publishes without being entirely sure, is sociable…
These are the three DPs that @blahkumaran made for me. This post is long overdue. Thanks so much, Bala. Appreciate it muchly. 😀 [slideshow]