Cut…to the real story

Enter a Chennai theatre to be part of the unique experience of people laughing loudly or howling during the screening of a horror film and even passing inappropriate comments. It’s midnight. The lonely, timid woman hears an eerie rustle from behind the curtain. The camera zooms in on her face — you can see the…

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Tomorrowland

Too big to be beautiful For Tomorrowland to work without a strong story, the visuals had to be incredible. We aren’t talking normal-incredible here, but Avatar -incredible. The parallels between both films are quite natural. After all, both the main characters in the film, Frank Walker (George Clooney) and Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) get thrown…

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Demonte Colony

Much promise, but… It was always going to happen. With all the horror films being made recently in Tamil cinema — and so many of them doing well — De Monte Colony in Alwarpet, thanks to its creepy history, was always going to serve as fodder for a horror flick. Despite the ‘any resemblance to…

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Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai

Brave, even if a bit burdensome A word I kept going back to again and again as I was watching Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai was ‘interesting’. You can argue against many of the points the film subtly makes — and indeed you should — but Purampokku isn’t a lazily made film. Balu (Arya), a communist revolutionary…

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Chennai’s corny tradition

The popcorn, with colourful seasonings, at Sathyam Cinemas has become a phenomenon It makes bad films tolerable. It makes bad company manageable. It is enough reason for many to visit a popular movie theatre. Hear us tell you, amid trumpets roaring and cymbals crashing, of the phenomenon that the butter popcorn has become… A cult,…

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