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. 🙂
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Serial Chiller: Zee5’s Fingertip is a highly relatable, acutely watchable series about modern Tamil lives
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Ms. En Scene: Call Me A Hypocrite, But Jyotika Should Do ‘Mass’ And Ajith Should Stop
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Ajith-Shraddha Srinath’s ‘Nerkonda Paarvai’ Wins Big By Focusing On Consent
Nerkonda Paarvai begins with three young women in a cab, all of whom look either distracted or distraught, it is too soon to tell. The cab they are in nearly crashes into a lorry coming toward them. Their driver wisens up at the last moment and they miss death by a whisker. One of the…
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How Vadivelu’s comedy gave Tamil people a language of mockery and memes
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Serial Chiller: Marmadesam—Tamil’s truly captivating nostalgia TV is coming episode-by-episode to YouTube
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Aadai review: Dear male filmmakers, please don’t misuse your freedom to make feminist films.
‘Aadai’ begins 200 years ago, with the story of Nangeli and her fight to wear what she wants. After the animated prologue and the moral science lesson (“all freedoms we live today have claimed many lives in the past”), we move to the present. We meet Kamini. Kamani — given name: Suthanthira Kodi, literally, freedom…
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‘Kadaram Kondan’ Review: Vikram Holds Up This Plain Yet Fairly Engrossing Film
If you’ve watched director Rajesh M Selva’s previous endeavour Thoongavanam (2015), you’ll find his recent film, Kadaram Kondan very familiar. There is a lot that’s common among the two films: They are both remakes of French films, action thrillers, about corrupt cops and revolve around the rescue of someone who has been kidnapped. Unlike Thoongavanam,…
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Ms. En Scene: When Seven Tamil Cinema Women Turn Superheroes
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Raatchasi review: A watchable message-padam
An invincible hero, easily solvable problems, short lectures and people with heart of gold make Raatchasi a watchable, if not enjoyable film.
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Serial chiller: Tamizha Tamizha—A comfortably centrist talk show where the personal doesn’t get political enough
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Vellai Pookal review: A good enough mystery for Sunday home video.
Rudhran has a (not-so) unique investigation technique. He stands in the crime scene, plays the possibilities back in his mind and deducts/detects the crime. When the answer doesn’t fall into his lap, he interrogates suspects in his imagination too. In Vellai Pookal (2019), this is treated somewhat like a cut-away dream sequence — bright lights,…
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‘Game Over’ Review: Taapsee Pannu’s Genre-Bending Tamil Film Is On Point
Pannu turns in a spectacular performance as Swapna, a gamer suffering from PTSD after what seems to be a sexual assault. Standing up as the end credits for Game Over rolled, I recognised that I had a rather visceral reaction to the genre-bending film featuring Taapsee Pannu and Vinodhini — even as my heart was…
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Remembering Crazy Mohan: A breath of fresh laughs
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Ms. En Scene: ‘Ayogya’ – ‘Anniyan’ For The Era Of #NotAllMen
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‘Kolaigaran’ Movie Review: Vijay Antony Still Can’t Act But Thankfully That Doesn’t Matter Here
Ignore the weird duets and the weakly developed characters, and you’re left with a watchable thriller When director Andrew Louis tweeted on Thursday night that his latest film Kolaigaran is “loosely based on the Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X, he was grossly understating the level of his inspiration (he later deleted the tweet). …
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Serial Chiller: Thiravam is an earnest but mediocre and unsatisfying attempt at multi-genre fiction
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‘NGK’ Movie Review: Suriya Is Wasted In This Incoherent Film
And why, why is Sai Pallavi reduced to, bizarrely, a sniffer in this movie? Nandha Gopalan Kumaran (NGK), an extremely committed Suriya, is drenched in rain, climbing up pipes and entering his own house sheepishly. His wife, Geetha (Sai Pallavi) looks at him admiringly, as if she knows all his tricks, and loves him especially…
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‘Mr Local’ Review: A 155-Minute Primer On Everything Wrong With Tamil Cinema
This Sivakarthikeyan-Nayanthara starrer is a sexist, misogynistic, transphobic cesspool of abuse passing for love. Mr. Local, Sivakarthikeyan and Nayanthara’s summer release directed by Rajesh M, begins with the hero playing football in a French prison. He hits a goal. A cop comes up to him and asks him how he managed to do that when…