Hello hello! Thank you for taking an interest in my work. In this page, you’ll see everything I’ve ever written. That might be a handful, so tread carefully. 🙂
-
Time 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.
-
Penguin 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.
-
Meera 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.
-
Ponmagal 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.
-
Killing 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.
-
Serial 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.
-
Killing 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.
-
Serial 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.
-
Susi 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.
-
Sillu 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.
-
Serial 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.
-
Serial 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.
-
Serial 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.
-
Saavat Review: Could have been a brilliant novel, makes for a terrible film
Language: Marathi | Genre: Crime fiction, Supernatural thriller | Streaming on: Netflix After a short prologue, Saurabh Sinha’s Saavat (2019) begins with a woman “penning her thoughts” which she claims “has been her only solace”. She questions her entire existence—am I a good woman? a good mother? a good daughter? who am I? When we…
-
Kaithi review: A near-perfect thriller with phenomenal performances, but something still nags me about it
In spite all the brilliance I saw on screen, there is something that still nags me: Lokesh Kanagaraj is building the quintessential man’s world. While he acknowledges the existence of women and has even developed an eye for their experiences, he’s involuntarily erasing their existence by making them the emotional anchor.
-
Dubbing, subtitles and clever casting: Is the web really creating pan-India content?
-
Kaappaan review: Dei!
On a scale of 1-10, Kaappaan is a minus 22. If you can laugh at it, you might be able to score a few points back. Otherwise, it’s truly unsahikkable.