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
Direction: Patricia Rozema It brings careers, sexuality, religion, theology, pedagogy, literature, performing arts, substance-abuse (okay, it’s p0t they talk about) etc. together through stark symbolism and bold imagery. Camille (played so naturally by Pascale Bussières) is a literature professor at a religious college dating a fellow professor (of theology). Martin, the lover, is chasing career opportunities while Camille is…
(Lack of) Direction: Shankar Dayal (Sharma – as Kalaignar TV just called him) Featuring: Karthi, Santhanam, Pranitha, Prakash Raj, Nasser, Roja, Radhika, Kiran, Kota Srinivasa Rao mattrum palar Political thriller (was it?) Our politics begins and ends with electoral politics. So, Boopathi is a cruel-mindless-evil politician (played rather convincingly by Prakash Raj) who doesn’t think…
T20 teamilirundhu neekka pattaar. Odinen. One-day teamilirundhu neekka pattaar. Odinen. Test teamilirundhu neekka pattaar. Odinen. Kadaseela CSKvilirundhum neekka pattaar. Odinen odinen vaazhkaiyin orathukke odinen. Ranji Trophyavaavadhu Star Cricketla kaattuvaangangara nambikkaila thirumbi vandhutten. Now that Vijay has been chased out of all corners he was occupying, as someone who has unending love for him, I…
My biggest crisis with Twitter is that I confuse between sets of people. Sometimes it’s similar handles, sometimes names, sometimes DPs and mostly just nothing realistic – but confusion prevails. Ignore it if you think I’m being narcissistic. If you can relate to it, please leave comments. @vetti and @kickassiyer How could someone confuse between…
Direction: Girish Kasaravalli Written by: Amaresh Nudgoni, Girish Kasaravalli Featuring: Vyjanath Biradar, Umashree, Sadashiv Brahmavar The film won National award for Best Feature Film in Kannada and for Best Screenplay. After college (at MIC, Manipal), I’ve not seen a Kannada film, that’s in over 5 years. Even in college, the only two Kannada films I remember watching were…
Director: Aishwarya R. Dhanush Featuring: Dhanush, Shruti Haasan, Siva Karthikeyan, Sunder Ramu (Prabhu, Bhanupriya and Rohini wasted!) This is a film by the next generation Tamil filmmakers (artists, music directors inclusive). Shruti Haasan, Dhanush, Aishwarya R Dhanush are all people who’ve seen cinema more closely than any of us would have in our lives. Yet, 3 is…
Director: Pablo Giorgelli Writers: Pablo Giorgelli, Salvador Roselli Featuring: Monica Coca, Germán de Silva and Hebe Duarte What struck me as strange even before I got to watch the film is that this was one of the few foreign language films that did not have an English title. Las Acacias it was and it is,…
The Europeans have an uncanny ability make magical films with children. The Kid With The Bike is one such film: the story of an eleven-year-old boy who is abandoned by his father and his struggle thereon! The film begins with a boy in foster care (Cyril) looking for his bicycle and his lost father. Cyril…
I was working at a retail store in the UK as a sales person. My job was to sell computers (sometimes to people who didn’t think a brown woman knew electronics) and make customers happy about giving us the money they did. That is the time I learnt to dissociate myself from the product I…
<The diary of a Twitter v0yeur – day three> If you don’t know what this means, you’ll probably have to read the previous posts tagged <the diary of a twitter v0yeur> Ayyo. Sunday. This is the time when the #knowledgeableChennaiCrowd is talking about the fantastic-ness of the Sunday coffee. Ayyo. I have no plans and…
<The diary of a Twitter v0yeur – day two> If you don’t know what this means, you’ll probably have to read the previous posts tagged <the diary of a twitter v0yeur> It was a Saturday and hell, what else to people do on Saturdays than tweet about it? I decided to take care of some…
It’s one of those hep hero introduction songs that the man sings in the bathroom while washing his hair. There are plenty like this in Tamil cinema. This gem popped out while my iPod was shuffling songs! This is such Whatte wow! Song: Ilamai vidugadhai Film: Varalaaru (Godfather) Music Director: A R Rahman (who also…
<The diary of a Twitter v0yeur – day one> If you don’t know what this means, you’ll probably have to read the previous posts tagged <the diary of a twitter v0yeur> Phew. This was a Friday. If normal Friday wasn’t bad enough, this was my first no-Twitter-Friday in ages. I went to office, uninstalled all…
If you’ve snapped out of denial, the obvious next step is to deal with it. #PudhiyaThathuvam My fulltu plan to stay away from Twitter and find the life I seem to have lost somewhere along the way! Throw the tools If you’ve ever quit smoking, you’d know the number of lighters you’d have to throw…
It’s that awkward moment when your insecurities and inadequacies suddenly stand up and do dappangoothu in front of our eyes. All the affection and lou on Twitter suddenly starts to * point and loff * at you. When that bird at the right hand top corner of your browser is always lit up. It’s that…
Nostalgia is a b!tch and Woody Allen knows exactly how to play it against you. A Hollywood scriptwriter wants to move to Paris and pursue his literary dreams. His fiancé on the other hand, wants to live in Malibu and sit on a $20K chair in the comforts of modern America. From there, the film…
Muppozhudhum un Karpanaigal is a horrible mishmash of a psycho thriller, romantic comedy and a sentimental mother-son drama.Having said that, I have to explain! Opening scene Atharva jumps off a wall wearing a hooded jacket and terrible makeup. He almost reminds us of Kandasamy and then we suddenly realise that Kandasamy was in fact better…
I was brought up in a family that had a budding cricketer. Even before that, we are a family of cricket lovers. Amma’s cousins were professional umpires and Thatha (who lived with us) was an ardent follower. As a young girl, my dream was to be the first woman cricket umpire to stand in an…