August 19, 2018 by Ajay
I had a gut feeling that this would be a great film. The trailers and promos were on a style of their own. With a premise that was not that common in Tamil cinema. I was betting on how good this would be. It did turn out to be great but for reasons I did not think of. With Nayanthara killing it with her solo streak in Tamil cinema, Kolamavu Kokila is that kind of film that has something to offer for all kinds of audiences.
Category English | Tags: , coming of age, gangter, kokila, kolamavu kokila, nayanthara, nelson, santhosh sivn, sivakarthikeyan | No Comments
June 7, 2018 by Ajay
I miss Ranjith, the filmmaker. I know it isn’t fair to compare someone’s previous works with their current one, but I really do miss the filmmaker who put more effort into story telling rather than using the medium to propagate his ideologies. Or maybe I’m not the right target audience for these kind of films. Kaala worked for me in parts but as a whole I felt it needed a little more effort into actually making a “film”.
Category English | Tags: , dhanush, easwari rao, kaala, nana patekar, pa ranjith, rajini, rajinikanth, ranjith, samuthirakani, santhosh narayanan | No Comments
May 13, 2018 by Guest Author
This review is written after hearing the Kaala Jukebox that starts oddly with a Std Electricals ad.
Having broken the stereotypes of a typical Rajini album in his previous outing, SaNa (Santhosh Narayanan) gave us a musically pleasing Kabali. Will Kaala have ground breaking themes or genre defining tracks or a simple acoustic ballad? The answer is here. The album consists of SaNa’s typical singers, rappers and lyricists, and a new band (dopeadelicz) to create the local sound of Dharavi.
Category English | Tags: , dopeadelicz, kaala, kaala music, music review, pa ranjith, pradeep kumar, rajnikanth, ranjith, santhosh narayanan, stop the paatu | No Comments
March 21, 2018 by Guest Author
சமீபத்தில் எழுத்தாளர் திரு சுஜாதா அவர்களின் “விவாதங்கள் விமர்சனங்கள்” (முதல் பாதிப்பு 1985) என்ற புத்தகத்தை படித்து முடித்தேன். அந்த புத்தகக்கத்தில் பல தரப்பட்ட விஷயங்கள் இருந்தன. திரு சுஜாதா பிற பத்திரிகைகளுக்கு அளித்த பேட்டிகள், பிரபலங்களுடன் (திரு கமலஹாசன் – நடிகர், திரு சிவகுமார் – நடிகர், திருமதி சுஜாதா – நடிகை) நடத்திய உரையாடல்கள், திரைப்பட விழாவில் வெளியிடப்பட்ட திரைப்படங்கள் மற்றும் தமிழ், ஹிந்தி திரைப்படங்களுக்கு திரு சுஜாதா எழுதிய விமரிசனங்கள் ஆகியவை எல்லாம் அந்த புத்தகத்தில் உள்ளடக்கி இருந்தன. அதில் ஒரு விமரிசனத்தை பற்றி மட்டும் இங்கு குறிப்பிட விரும்புகிறேன். இனி சுஜாதா வரிகளில்
Category Tamil | Tags: , amitabh bachchan, Arth, Balu Mahendra, mahesh batt, marubadiyum, shabana asmi, Sujatha, Vivathangal vimarsanangal | No Comments
March 13, 2018 by Guest Author
‘Chithram’ is at surface the story of Purushothaman Kaimal (a superb Nedumudi Venu) hiring Vishnu (Mohanlal) to act as the husband of Kalyani (played by Ranjini), in order to please her father Ramachandra Menon (Poornam Viswanathan). Kalyani has recently had a heartbreak but doesn’t want her dad to know about it since he is on his last vacation. The result is a screwball comedy for most part, thanks to the antics of Vishnu, Kalyani’s cousin Bhaskaran Nambiar (Sreenivasan) and his sidekick. Towards the end, it becomes a gut-wrenching tragedy but the transformation is entirely convincing.
Category English | Tags: | No Comments
February 21, 2018 by Ajay
Bala prepares us for the nasty journey that we are about to witness by filling the whole screen with garbage for the most part of the opening credits. This merges on to what seems to be agricultural land, which then merges on to apartments in Pallikaranai(?). We get a deja vu of a similar auteur’s film Taramani that released last year but this auteur is rawer. A sea of metaphors run in our mind on what this movie might be about but Bala surprises us with something that not many would have guessed.
Category English | Tags: , bala, gv prakash, gv prakash kumar, Ilayaraja, jyothika, Naachiyaar | No Comments
January 1, 2018 by Ajay
Ajay: Sounds a little ironical that we want to do a conversation about a movie that is filled with just conversations right?
Sai: Well, yes. After Visu’s movies, this is probably the one with most dialogues I believe :). What is your overall feeling about it though?
A: I kind of liked it. It kept me entertained. But the filmmaking was lazy. He had a good story to tell but just didn’t tell it the right way, I felt. What about you?
S: I see. I thought even the story went haphazard which is quite surprising because Subha are credited as co-writers. I loved some directorial touches actually – especially the mirror scenes with Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) and Adi (Fahaadh Faasil), where they explain their ideologies for their audience.
A: As BR said in his recent video, Mohan Raja has definitely evolved as a filmmaker. Or should I say, he gets his inspirations from the right place now?
Category English | Tags: , anirudh, fahadh fassil, mohan raja, nayanthara, prakash raj, rj balaji, rohini, sivakarthikeyan, sneha, Velaikkaran | No Comments
December 29, 2017 by Ajay
Selvaraghavan once said in an interview promoting his new film that he was going to show us what real love was because, in his opinion, all other Tamil films deceive us with filmy love stories. Then he went on to release Irandam Ulagam.
Maybe for Selva, voyeurism is the real form of love and he feels every other form is deceptive. But his take on romance is what makes a Selva film unique. Tamil filmmakers have a weird habit of including romance in their films, regardless of necessity, for the sake of reaching out to a wider audience. Maybe a part of the audience comes to watch a film only if there is some version of love involved in the story. But apart from it being a business, is there any reason why there are so many versions of unwanted romance we see in our films?
Category English | Tags: , alaipayuthey, dheeran, gautham menon, Mani Ratnam, OK Kanmani, polladhavan, remo, romance, tamil cinema, vettaiyadu veilayadu, vettrimaaran | No Comments
December 23, 2017 by Guest Author
A Tamil movie these days is often a template that writers/directors cling to for comfort. You expect a song to ‘introduce’ you to the hero. You wait for the leery introduction to the heroine (even in 2017), demand it even, and after that it is all fan service. So when a director comes up with art on a blank canvas, it is often refreshing.
Enter Aruvi, Arun Prabhu Purushothaman’s seemingly unfiltered debut take on society as a whole. I say seemingly because the director is awfully intent on upending all our expectations. This is not a movie with a message, but by the end of it, it opens our eyes not by touching our hearts as much as shining a bright, well-intentioned torch in our direction.
Category English | Tags: , aditi balan, Arun Prabhu Purushottam, Aruvi, black comedy, satire, waterfalls | No Comments
November 13, 2017 by Ajay
I was glad this didn’t turn out to be another Thanneer Thanner or Kathi (apologies for mentioning both these films in the same sentence). I understand that movies are a mass medium and having political commentary and criticizing the people in power are important but the problem with cinema is that something is considered a cliche so soon. It’s the writers’ responsibility to put forth their message in as non-cliched manner as possible so that the target audience both get the message and are also able to enjoy the film. Very few films get this balance right. And Aram isn’t one of them.
Category English | Tags: , Aram, Gopi Nayinar, kaaka muttai, kathi, message film, nayanthara, thanneer thanneer, water | No Comments
