Sudhir Srinivasan

Kadaram Kondan Movie Review: This technically excellent remake lacks emotional strength

“He’s a master manipulator, a skilled fighter who can bend situations to his will. In a poetically exaggerated sense, you could say he has the measure of Malaysia. Hence the film’s title, a reference to the Chola conquest of Kadaram (as the capital city of the country was once called). “

Aadai charmed and confused me in equal measure

“There’s a lovely top angle shot as she finally steps out into freedom, while it is raining buckets. It feels like an ode to The Shawshank Redemption, with Andy Dufresne stepping out of his prison of decades. It’s a different sort of prison for Kamini, with her single day inside her office, feeling like Dufresne’s decades.”

Gorilla: A strange mish-mash of genres in this preachy dud

“The heroine does a sudden turn and falls in love. And you learn this barely a scene after she seems thoroughly annoyed by his existence. This time, she stands with a vague expression on her face, when something like a blush passes on her face.”

Raatchasi: This well-intentioned Jyotika film is tedious and preachy

“Remember that last scene in Baasha when a defeated Mark Antony sees Manickam striding towards him, and can’t help but see flashes of Baasha, as he once knew him? As Jyotika, playing the role of Geetharani in Raatchasi, delivers supposedly rousing monologues and walks towards the camera, I found myself seeing flashes of Samuthirakani.”

Sindhubaadh: Some opening warmth gets waylaid in this half-hearted thriller

“The problem, rather ironically, is how good Arunkumar is with the everyday aspects of life. When you are as good with the localising, it’s hard to suddenly get your audience atop the mass bandwagon (unless it’s a Sethupathi, in which the villain and the conflicts are localised too).”