What might happen when a woman filmmaker gets the opportunity to make a film about violence and sex? What might happen when she gets access to all the familiar toys of the male-star vehicle: the punch dialogues, the star, the swagger, the slow-motion sequences, the sex, the violence… What might she bring to this cinema…
Author: Sudhir Srinivasan
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit Movie Review: The Forgotten Plains of Beauty
While watching Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, I kept thinking about one of my favourite quotes about love, by Victor Hugo: “The first symptom of true love in a young man is timidity; in a young girl, it is boldness.” You see the timidity when Justin (Nivin Pauly, who seems perfect for these characters) is entertaining feelings…
Vishwanath and Sons Movie Review: A Film That Won’t Stay With a Feeling
Things happen in Vishwanath & Sons. Lots of things, in fact, but you never learn about their weight. A young woman subjects her body to pregnancy just so she can fund her education. Later, almost on a whim, she decides to give up this hard-earned education. Meanwhile, a man who seems perfectly content being single…
DC Movie Review: The Shape of Wounded Souls
What pleasure it is to hear Anirudh in form inside a theatre. What pleasure it is to watch him dictate pace, to watch him orchestrate mass moments with his choice of music. It’s incredible that the very first strains of Raga of Revenge around the interval are enough to create such loud anticipation in the…
Jananayagan Movie Review: When a Farewell Becomes a Manifesto
I suppose the question always was: what’s so special about Bhagavanth Kesari that it needed to be repurposed as Vijay’s last film? Balakrishna’s film rides on moments, on his entertainingly over-the-top presence, on a kind of, shall-we-say, self-aware absurdity? When he yells, “Bro! I don’t care!”, you’re laughing even as you’re cheering. With Vijay, we…
Sudhir Srinivasan 