When the news first came out that 3 Idiots was going to be remade with Shankar at the helm and starring arguably the most mainstream actor working in Tamil cinema today, I was as apprehensive as anyone could be. 3 Idiots was a great entertainer striking almost all the right notes while also conveying a [...]
There has certainly been no dearth of masala directors over the past decade, most of whom have come and gone for the most part. For a while it looked like Dharani was going to be the best of the lot but that hope quickly fizzled out after just three great masala movies. Hari has always [...]
The best way to begin this blog will be to narrate a conversation I had with my mother and sister some time back (both feminists of the first order). As usual, they were opining about the difficulties of being the opposite gender in the superficial activities of day-to-day life with all the time taken to [...]
First of all, Happy New Year to everybody out there! After a few months where I was highly active, I’ve had quite a long gap for the past month or so. In case any of you have been wondering, it is because I’ve had to shift back from Dubai to Chennai. I’ve been largely busy [...]
After all the hype surrounding the Diwali releases, it is fair to say that the end-product was underwhelming. 7aum Arivu was entertaining but most definitely not worthy of the pre-release hype while Velayudham made no bones about what it was, an old-fashioned entertainer that at least proved to be better than Vijay’s recent fiascos. With [...]
The Five People You Meet Heaven is one of those books I’d been meaning to read for an eternity. I first came upon it when browsing Balaji’s blog a long time ago and was intrigued by the synopsis. I even rented it once but never was able to complete it. Determined to fix the oversight, [...]
Movies that are based on historically/culturally significant issues always need to walk a tightrope. If they end up being too melodramatic and manipulative, the significance of what they’re conveying will be lost because viewers will feel cheated. If they end up being too subtle and low-key, the message might never have the impact it was [...]
The news of Peter Roebuck’s death yesterday came as quite a shock to me and the cricketing world in general. Normally, disturbing news such as this about celebrities – if ex-cricketers and journalists can be termed as such – would not come as a surprise since, in some ways, you are prepared for it. (Case [...]
As a relative newcomer to ‘art cinema’, I must admit that my understanding/knowledge of the medium is vastly limited. Hence, in an attempt to expand my viewing horizons beyond the mainstream, I decided to watch Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which has to be one of the first arty films I have seen in theaters. Normally, watching such [...]
