Jail Movie Review: An exhausting experience

Jail isn’t exactly worried about infusing characters with strength or personality. Its fundamental purpose seems to be simply to manipulate you into feeling some connection Towards the end of Jail, the text on screen read, “Sila sambavangalukku piragu…” It caught me off-guard—wait, is that not why we are watching the film? Would you mind sharing with us…

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Bachelor Movie Review: A takedown of toxic masculinity that isn’t

Perhaps the only really interesting portion in Bachelor starring GV Prakash Kumar is when matters of a court come into focus, and a ‘domestic abuse’ case gets debated Darling (GV Prakash Kumar) in Bachelor is hardly a darling—the name, an evident attempt at a joke. He urinates on laptops, endangers friends with reckless riding, barely goes to work, lies…

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Venkat Prabhu: I wish our stars would encourage fresh ideas

The filmmaker, who has hit gold with Maanaadu, speaks of foreign film inspirations and unrealised dreams Filmmaker Venkat Prabhu has been shaped by his love for films—international films specifically. “I may not read much, but I watch a lot of films,” he says, and admits what everyone has always known about his work: “I’m influenced a…

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Maanaadu Movie Review: A riveting take on time loop underlined by clever writing   

This film, that mounts opposition to the vilification of Muslims, is a smart entertainer, devoid of ‘commercial compromises’ With Maanaadu, Venkat Prabhu imports a largely Western plot device—time loop—into our mainstream cinema. The director, ever self-aware, makes references in his latest film to Hollywood work like Groundhog Day (the mother of all time-loop films), Happy Death Day… and in…

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