Udanpirappe Movie Review: The characters cry a lot, we don’t

Jyothika’s character is near flawless in Udanpirappe too, but at least, she’s not dispensing long monologues, and she’s definitely not invincible Sometimes, we forget how far Jyothika has come. From playing hyper-excited, high-pitched women who existed to feature in duets and get rescued by the hero, this actor has truly come into her own, and in her…

Dune Movie Review: This beautiful epic sacrifices story for deeper pleasures

Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel is a meditative epic with unforgettable imagery One of my favourite games in the PlayStation universe is an experiential indie-adventure label called The Journey. As the title indicates, the game is about a journey… of an unnamed, faceless protagonist, who glides over long stretches of sand in a desert,…

Aranmanai 3 Movie Review: The horror-comedy genre is dead  

We have seen in multiple carbon copy films in this genre. Even still, it’s astonishing how little Aranmanai 3 seems to care about being novel. The truth is, they are not even trying anymore. I speak not just about this franchise but about the horror-comedy genre in general. In all of Aranmanai 3, I doubt there’s a single…

Rudra Thaandavam Movie Review: Better craft, better cast, and yet, similar problems

Ultimately, both Draupadi and Rudra Thaandavam, despite containing an interesting premise, feel simply like crafty arguments, mounted on exceptions, to defend the privileged and the powerful Director Mohan G is slowly perfecting the sinister art of turning the tables on the oppressor-oppressed relationship through some careful writing choices. His protagonists—on evidence of the two films…