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
I’ve always wondered why actors in Tamil cinema see the need to change names? Everyone from Rajinikath to Ganja Karuppu use pseudonyms, which later becomes their real names. Why would people do that? When I spent some time looking deeper into this, I realised there are various reasons for which people change names. The most…
I have half a mind to rubbish the whole film off. It was definitely rubbish. But there is more to the film that needs to be said. In the rest of the post, you are not going to find anything good about this film (barring a couple of things, perhaps). So, if that’s okay with…
It’s stand up comedy. So, obviously, it is racist, sexist and every other –ist in the world. If you are ready to deal with it, it is a laughter riot. The show begins with Monty Python’s always look on the bright side of life (which seemed quite like the actors were still doing their make…
When Bala made Sethu, he was perhaps one of the most celebrated directors of that era. He’s made 4 films since and Avan Ivan is his 5th film. With Bala having just made five films, it’s not tough for anyone to have watched all his films. I have. Most of you would have as well.…
This is probably the most favourable review I’ve ever given a film. Aaranya Kaandam (very interestingly named ‘Jungle Chapter’ with intriguing references to the Ramayana) is the collection of occurrences in a single day in the life of several people. The introduction of each of these characters sets the tone and pace of the film.…
Last week, I got a chance to meet and talk to youngsters, straight out of school, looking to become engineers at a prestigious university. The ones I spoke to were particularly students with top ranks in the entrance exam and with an academic record their parents would be proud of. Some conversations brought back a…
Of all the people in the world, I took my brother to the film. We both took comfortable seats in a practically empty theatre and the movie began without many advertisements. Just 5 minutes into the films, my brother slowly said “will this boy now grow up and fight with villains or not?” I immediately…
This post is long overdue. Really long! So long that the proof of this incident has lost its colour. Anyway, it was a Saturday morning when a friend and I went out to do some shopping. We were somewhere in the Malleswaram/ Seshadripuram area and we were obviously lost. Asked an auto-driver for directions and…
I don’t get to watch too many films as and when they release for various reasons. So, I don’t get to write about them all on this blog and I definitely regret it. Then one day, @ramblinggeek (Karthik Ragubathy) gave me this idea of writing about (old) films on this blog anyway and perhaps calling…
Meena Kandasamy’s Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics and English Language Teaching is what initially got me interested. As jealous as I was, I google a bit and bumped into a review of Ms. Militancy. I immediately ordered it and continued reading up. I watched a few videos on her blog and read a few posts. By then…
The film begins with a ‘stunt scene’. A bank robbery and a journalist’s heroic act to help catch the miscreants. This establishes that the ‘hero Ashwin’ played rather charmingly by Jiiva (it’s really sad that a possibly-good actor gets just roles like these), is a good guy all set to fight all the evil in…
By Me. Published on 19 Apr 2011, Citizen Matters From an engineering graduate to the owner of one of the most sought after second hand bookshops in Bengaluru. Read my article in Citizen Matters.
Hi all, I’ve posted my thoughts on Arundathi on my other blog! Please come back here for long detailed (mostly frustrated) reviews of new films. Now head to http://kranjani.tumblr.com/post/4496841433/arundati for some reading! 🙂 Ranjani.
A couple of days too late as this comes, it is indeed a Women’s day post. It is about a truly disappointing film by Sasikumar – Easan. After Subramaniapuram (though I thought it was pretty gory), one is not unjustified to expect a decent film from Sasikumar. He showed promise (and his face all over…
I kept wondering for the last few days if I should dare write this review for Yudham Sei. For all the dump that Mysskin gave us on TV, it is only fair that I say what I want to, I decided. Yudham Sei: One day on Star Vijay, Mysskin rather proudly claimed that Yudham Sei…
“Irene-u, I am lou you!” is one of those lines that will go down history books. And I mean it in a good way. Rooster fights (from the suburbs of Madurai) haven’t been seen like this in Tamil cinema in a long time. A joyous first half establishing Karuppu (rather convincingly played by Dhanush) as…
This thought occurred to me while watching ‘Castle’ last evening. It’s the 6th or the 7th episode in the 3rd season which I don’t think is aired in India yet. If you have watched Castle before, you’d know it’s about a female detective and a male fiction writer solving cases (mostly murders) together. There is…
This is one of the two allegedly up-market watch-this-film-if-you-want-to-be-known-as-intelligent films I watched last weekend (the other one is Dhobi Ghat and that’s coming very soon here). For now, it’s just Mannaar, MadanaGopal and Ambujaakshi! This is a Kamal Haasan film. Kamal Hassan has written the story, screenplay and dialogues for this film, making it for…