A tale of two halves The setting is the true hero of Madras . Small apartments with colourful plastic water pots and old TV sets, a dusty playground lit up with yellow lights, streets swarming with people … you can almost be forgiven for imagining that you sense the teasing aroma of meats as the…

Scared by the clichés What’s truly scary about Aranmanai is how it brings nothing new to the horror genre. A creaky door opening slowly is a cue to the audience that they are to be startled with garish music. In another scene, a person moves but her reflection does not. Yet another scene has the…

Not quite funny In an early scene, police inspector Bhoominathan (Bobby Simha) is asked by the police commissioner (K. S. Ravikumar) to use his famous interrogation technique to get an accused to spill the beans. When you learn that it involves some serious tickling, you know what to expect from the film. Of course, the…

Siamese torture Vanavarayan Vallavarayan borrows its name from the memorable characters played by Rajinikanth and Napoleon in Ejamaan (1993). Unfortunately, all similarities with that film end with this fact. Sure, this is a rural film, but while Rajini and Napoleon were arch enemies, the brothers Vanavarayan (Kreshna) and Vallavarayan (Ma Ka Pa Anand) are thick…

Teen ache trauma Amara Kaaviyam , director Jeeva Shankar’s second film after Naan , is a teenage love story set in the 80s. Jeeva (Sathya), a boy with a father complex, and Karthika (Mia George), an archetypal schoolgirl, are the teenagers in love. Efforts to authenticate the film’s setting include a not-so-subtle placement of old…