Sudhir Srinivasan

Maiem

Like a mediocre TV soap Imagine you’re stuck in an ATM, and are in mortal danger. You’ve just seen a man murder two people outside the ATM with a crowbar. He’s now sizing you up from outside, but is reluctant to walk up to you, lest he be captured by the CCTV camera. What do…

Where is the next Manorama?

The week saw the passing away of veteran actress Manorama. The condolences poured in, and the odes were deservingly conferred. “A legendary comedian.” “An acting stalwart.” “A peerless character artiste.” That last compliment, richly deserved no doubt, however, got me wondering. Why is she peerless? Where are all the female character artistes? Where are the…

Different courses, different horses

You know you like a movie but you can’t quite figure why. Your friend, who dislikes it, is meanwhile making all the perfect points. He’s talking about the flimsiness of the storyline, the subpar acting, the bad screenplay, but it’s all you can do to not get up and ask him to go shove it….

Unakkenna Venum Sollu

Another brick in the horror wall Science has proved the desensitising effects of over-exposure (to violence, usually). I understood this theory never more than when watching Unakkenna Venum Sollu … yet another horror film. I almost felt a palpable sense of frustration in the audience I was watching the film with, as everybody realised that…

Maya

Loyal to the horror genre When reviewing Strawberry last week, I wondered how long we’d have to wait to see an inventive horror film again. Well, the answer, it turns out, is just a week. Maya is an exercise in both horror and mise en abyme. It’s one of those rare Tamil films, like Uttama…