Sudhir Srinivasan

Will Visaaranai do the trick?

Visaaranai, the first Tamil film to be submitted at the Oscars this millennium, stands a strong chance because it is devoid of the frills of Indian commercial cinema. Of course, the Oscar panel also generally laps up stark ethnic tales. It has been 16 long years since a Tamil film was chosen as India’s submission…

The Magnificent Seven: Competent, but lacks firepower

What he does do though is portray the beauty inherent in the languor of life in a Western movie… in its enviable, now-obsolete simplicity.

Where have the heroines gone?

Unlike heroines of the 80s, those of the last two decades haven’t really returned as character artistes. I talk to people in the industry to find out why… The spotlights on heroes in Tamil cinema remain aglow even as they age, bald, lose their voice and go frail. The ones trained on heroines, however, don’t last…

Robinson Crusoe: Cast Away

It must be incredibly tough to wreck some premises—the premise of a shipwrecked man getting marooned in an island, for instance. I am convinced that it must have involved long nights of hard work to make a film as dull as Robinson Crusoe from a story that bursts with adventure, and draws on the time-tested man…