“There is nothing more humbling than a body that doesn’t live up to your desires. What are we if not our bodies?”, quizzes a healer in Araceli Lemos’ fascinating debut fare Holy Emy (Agia Emy). This intriguing line exposes how powerful an element is the construct of the physical body […]
Read Time : 8 Minutes
‘#Home’ review – Malayalam family drama manipulates its way into your heart
Director Rojin Thomas’s Malayalam film #Home is an impressive case study. One that tells the story of a slightly dysfunctional family, the film cleverly masquerades as a neglected father’s tale while slyly guilt-tripping his children. In the early 2000s, Sheela-Jayaram starrer Manasinakkare managed a similar feat but the Sathyan Anthikad […]
Read Time : 3 Minutes
Locarno Review: ‘Secret Name’ is an intimate tale of three women during World War I
Directed by Aurelia Georges, La Place d’une autre (Secret Name) is a tale of poverty, war, identity theft, and deep, unexplained affection. Set amid World War I in France, the film tells the tale of Nelie (Lyna Khoudri) who, in an attempt to escape her life of misery, decides the […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
‘Shershaah’ review – Sidharth Malhotra headlines an utterly generic war drama
One of the reasons why mainstream Bollywood is losing the foothold it once enjoyed is easily the genericness of its content. It is no flash news that contemporary Hindi cinema churns out films as if they are generated out of a stencil and director Vishnuvardhan’s hugely hyped war drama Shershaah […]
Read Time : 4 Minutes
Locarno Review: ‘Shankar’s Fairies’ is a reflective journey to 1960s India
There is nothing that equates to the tenderness of childhood. Our growing-up years are filled with endless questions, dollops of curiosity, and many mesmerizing stories. Director Irfana Majumdar’s Hindi language film Shankar’s Fairies set in 1962 portrays a network where a bright little girl Anjana (Shreeja Mishra) forges a bond […]
Read Time : 4 Minutes
Locarno Review: ‘Atlas’ addresses trauma with remarkable empathy
Director Niccolò Castelli’s Atlas opens with a rock-climbing expedition. It is vertigo-inducing and, for a while, we assume that we are about to watch a thrilling chronicle of the sport. But no, Castelli has got other plans as Atlas soon transforms into an intense drama about a young woman struggling […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
Filmy Sasi To Cover The 74th Locarno Film Festival
Elated to announce that Filmy Sasi will be covering the 74th edition of the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. Founded in 1946, it is one of the longest-running film festivals, and is also known for being a platform for art house films. Held every year August in Locarno, Switzerland, the top prize of […]
Read Time : 5 Minutes
‘Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam’ review – a chatty, inventive take on relationships
Director Don Palathara’s Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam is a film set entirely in a car. No, the vehicle does not become an imposing prop that offers extra dramatic possibilities (not even an allegory) at any point. Palathara’s film, clearly, is no commercial potboiler belonging to the ilk of Titanic, Air Force […]
Read Time : 5 Minutes
‘Mimi’ review – Kriti Sanon packs a punch in an overlong surrogacy drama
In a tiny Rajasthani town called Shekhavati lives a beautiful dancer called Mimi (Kriti Sanon). She sways like a mermaid, smiles like a fairy. Mimi talks to cutouts of Bollywood starlets in her ultra-kitschy bedroom while harbouring dreams to dethrone them one day. However, like Vimmi of Bunty Aur Babli, […]
Read Time : 12 Minutes
‘Malik’ review – An immersive chronicle of survival & rise amid religious polarisation
In a stirring scene in Mahesh Narayanan’s Malik, the leading man Sulaiman alias Ali Ikka (Fahadh Faasil) engages in a quarrel around his father’s burial spot which is now a wasteyard. Badly assaulted by cops, a group of people later dumps him in the very same pile of waste. There […]