“One is almost stoic, the other is sensitive to a fault. Later, during a moment of profound sadness and unimaginable pain, she still has the streetsmarts to notice a CCTV camera on the road. A CBI officer at work is one at home too.”
Category: Film Reviews
Kolamavu Kokila: An inconsistent, problematic dark comedy
“What’s Kolamavu Kokila really trying to say? There’s the likeable subtext that a woman — her superficial meekness and soft speech notwithstanding — can outwit dozens of powerful men, sure, and really, hurrah for it. Beyond it though, what else is the story saying? That illegal means are justified when your needs are legitimate?”
Vishwaroopam II: A satisfying sequel that fills gaps and does a bit more
“In a film about terrorism and espionage agents, these visuals are par for the course. This is less about romanticising violence than about establishing authenticity. In a scene, a bunch of children are lined up for rescue, and without warning, a man, of their own kind, suddenly pumps bullets into them. It truly drums in the tragedy of how faith-based propaganda has dehumanised communities.”
Junga: A stingy don goes to France to ruin the film
“Both are somewhere on an icy landscape in France, and the camera glides over them like a bird; you instantly realise with trepidation that a duet is about to be detonated. Sure enough, you get Koottippo Koodave, a song in which the hero stands and walks around, as Yazhini performs a mating ritual dance near him. I suppose it’s my fault that I thought this hero was above such filmmaking.”
Kadaikutty Singam: A likeable celebration of the rural life
“I wish someone somewhere in this film had problematised Ranasingam’s manic desire for a boy, but for lack of this, his smug, self-assured support for his son – even if justified by his son’s nobility – rankles a bit.”
Sudhir Srinivasan 