All the film reviews I’ve written so far.
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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.
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Serial Chiller: Zee5’s Fingertip is a highly relatable, acutely watchable series about modern Tamil lives
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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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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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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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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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‘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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‘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…
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‘K13’ Movie Review: This Thriller Shows Promise But Lets Down Its Viewers
‘K13’ Movie Review: This Thriller Shows Promise But Lets Down Its Viewers The Arulnithi-Shraddha Srinath starrer comes across as a vacuous idea that desperately wants to seem like a deep thought. K-13, Barath Neelakantan’s film starring Arulnithi and Shraddha Srinath, wants to be a writer’s soliloquy. Mathiyazhagan, the character played by Arulnithi, is an aspiring…
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‘Mehandi Circus’ Review: A Grandpa’s Tale That Leaves You Wanting More
The Ilaiyaraaja nostalgia and Shweta Tripathi’s acting are the highlights of this choppy tale of love and loss. Mehandi Circus opens with an animated folktale about a princess, her prince charming and some knives, perhaps hinting that this film would be a modern day reinterpretation of this tragic story. When we get to present day,…
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‘Super Deluxe’ Review: This Delightfully Layered Movie Is A Treat For All Your Senses
Samantha, Fahadh Faasil and Ashwanth shine in Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s colourful, intelligent film. If a spaceship landed some place in Tamil Nadu and aliens wandered into a theatre playing Super Deluxe, they would get a pretty accurate image of what passes for humanity in this part of the world these days. Thiagarajan Kumararaja, one of the…
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‘Airaa’ Review: Even Twice The Nayanthara Isn’t Enough To Save This Film
As a writer, my worst nightmare is the lede. How does one start writing something instantly hooking the reader into my world? I’ve not figured this out yet, but screenwriters these days seem to like the prologue-approach very much, especially when it’s a thriller/horror genre film. Airaa begins on a rainy night in a faraway…
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‘Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum’ Wants Us To Empathise With A Toxic, Violent Man
Ranjit Jeyakodi’s film is perfectly in line with recent ‘toxic male’ films like ‘Arjun Reddy’, ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ and ‘Taramani’. There is a scene in Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum (IRIR) where Gautham (Harish Kalyan), an angry, violent man, helps Tara (Shilpa Manjunath), a kind solemn woman, escape a scene of violence. He asks her, “eppo paathaalum…
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’90ML’ Review: This Is A Film I’m Glad Exists, But I Wouldn’t Recommend Anyone To Watch It
“Ambalainga panra ellaa ketta vishayathayum panradhillai penniyam” (Doing all bad things that men do is not feminism), they say. 90ML argues that, this is, in fact, feminism, if that’s what women want! At the outset, I must tell you that 90ML is a terrible film. In fact, it’s hardly a film: It’s a inebriated vomit…
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‘LKG’ Review: Kindergarten-Level Primer On Tamil Nadu Politics, Society, Cinema, And Youth
Is it satire? Is it serious? Or is it RJ Balaji’s stepping stone into politics? Nobody knows, not even the filmmakers, it would appear. LKG is the story of Lalgudi Karuppaiyya Gandhi, a small town politician with big political ambitions. Set in post-Jayalalithaa Tamilnadu, LKG traces the journey of a shrewd ward-councillor towards becoming the…