Sudhir Srinivasan

Dorothy Movie Review: The Violence of Denying Yourself

Dorothy is almost a horror film, isn’t it? The setting of period Madurai feels like a ghost town, where anecdotes of murders and suicides are casually shared. “This is where my mother and sister’s bodies were found!” says young Subbu. Something about this young boy being so nonchalant about it broke me, just as it…

Enna Vilai Movie Review: When the Case Becomes Bigger than the Man

You know, I really, really dug the first half of Enna Vilai. I enjoyed how lived-in everything feels, how its characters seem to have lived long before the movie began and will continue to live long after it ends. We just happen to catch them during a particular time in their lives… especially Thavasi (Karunas),…

Sardar 2 Movie Review: A Moral Minefield Gets Reduced to a Hero Playfield

Like spies have dual identities, so too does Sardar 2. Pre-interval Sardar 2 feels like a very different film: a film that is energetic, alert, constantly on the move, with every piece of the puzzle organically seeming to lead to the next. In fact, for vast portions during this period, I remember thinking how cool…

Mandaadi Movie Review: A Spectacle Effort that Forgets to Breathe

There are interesting things happening in Mandaadi. Like the grace with which the protagonist, Kaali (Soori), and his former girlfriend, Angel (Mahima Nambiar), have moved on with their lives. Like the wonderfully easy relationship Kaali is able to have with her husband, Singaram (Ravindra Vijay), with no hint of any masculine insecurity from either man….

Toxic Movie Review: What Happened to a Man for Him to Become This?

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…