Sudhir Srinivasan

Ramayana Movie Review: Lavish spectacle, little feeling

First, credit where credit is due. The scale of Ramayana (the waterfalls, the forests, the palaces, the creatures)… it’s all quite decently realised. This isn’t a film you watch for three hours and fifteen minutes and come out complaining about the CG. That whole Pushpaka Vimanam sequence, especially, looked cool: the movement of the vehicle,…

Jailer 2 Movie Review: Nelson’s Magic Survives the Excess

There’s a character in Jailer 2 whom I’d become really fond of, to the point of genuinely worrying whether he would get killed. Strangely, I’m not talking about any of the good guys. Not even Rajinikanth’s Muthuvel Pandian. I’m talking about Moorthi (Namo Narayana), an annoying little villain who is hilariously convinced that the mere…

Anbil Avan Movie Review: How Much Can You Take Before You Fight Back?

Even early into Anbil Avan, it’s hard to shake off a sense of imminent danger, like dark clouds are gathering over the lives of Surya (Ashok Selvan) and Iyal (Preity Mukhundhan). You get small hints of this, like you would in genre films. Surya and Iyal are driving towards their homestay when they suddenly hit…

Meesaya Murukku 2 Review: Irreverent, Infectious, Incomplete

Given how my heart beats for underdog narratives and anti-system stories, it’s so hard not to praise Meesaya Murukku 2. This is, after all, a film about people trying to get through a door that generations of powerful people have guarded. Talent isn’t enough here. Generations pass, gaana changes, and yet, the struggle remains. That’s why…

Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai Review: A Strange Fable

There is a moment in Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai when a rat is given CPR. Yeah, you read this right. Someone presses its tiny chest, desperately trying to get it to breathe again. You see its tender chest compressing, expanding… In another film, this would be a ridiculous visual, a joke perhaps. In this film,…