Nostalgia in cinema has evolved into a formula. It sells easier than sanitizer in this COVID-struck planet as a good chunk of moviegoers being millennials who cultivate fond memories of the ‘90s and 2000s. Is there a thing around nostalgia from the ‘80s or ‘70s? Not many I am aware […]
Read Time : 11 Minutes
“Bunty Aur Babli”… High on energy, chemistry and delicious Bollywood spice!
Released in Summer 2005, it is a mystery how a Hindi feature like Shaad Ali Sahgal’s Bunty Aur Babli would become a major commercial success. Small town stories might be the toast of the town on this date but the early 2000s were known for NRI themes and urban coming-of-age […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
“Mammo”… Story of a mother torn between love and politics!
Shyam Benegal’s Mammo is a thought-provoking film to watch on Mother’s Day. The title character Mammo alias Mehmooda Begum is essayed by Farida Jalal, the epitome of motherhood in Hindi cinema. Not so unpredictably, motherly love is the projecting trait the character brings along. That aside, this quiet, affecting film […]
Read Time : 17 Minutes
The Immortal Appeal of Swarnalatha’s Golden Voice!
Back in the early ‘90s when I was slowly being enticed by the magic of film music, it was easy to observe K S Chithra‘s unparalleled reign across Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu languages. Chithra was the heroine’s voice and her name hogged the cassette inlay cards. For any other […]
Read Time : 7 Minutes
“Maska”… Manisha Koirala spreads sunshine in syrupy & predictable film!
There are films that examine ambitions and asks us to follow them with all our might. They confidently sell The Alchemist philosophy, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Clearly, fantasies do have a strong selling point. Those narratives talk about lives that […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
“Baaghi 3″… Tiger Shroff defying physics and logic for world peace is a recipe nobody asked for!
Let me put it in simple terms. All external artifices aside, Baaghi 3 is the most well-intentioned Hindi film of the year, so far. Clearly, if Panga had a heart of gold, this Tiger Shroff film has one handcrafted in platinum. Naysayers may allege the makers for their kindergarten level […]
Read Time : 12 Minutes
“Thappad”… A cinematic marvel that tells us to re-evaluate the way we treat our women!
By now, we are all aware that Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad has its turning point in a despicable act of impulse. A young man slaps his wife. As it rightly turns out, the film is not singularly about a slap that provokes a woman to ask her way out of the […]
Read Time : 9 Minutes
“Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan”… High on empathy, low on entertainment!
India is not yet ready for a Call Me By Your Name where queer folks would express love with gay abandon. But the country has also walked past the grotesque Dostana phase which shamelessly treated the LGBTQIA community as second-hand citizens. We are certainly over the insensitivity of Chanthupottu and […]
Read Time : 10 Minutes
“Trance”… Anwar Rasheed’s audacious film takes on the business of religion!
Anwar Rasheed is back after a hiatus of seven years. His bold, immersive style of filmmaking is original to an extent that it completely justifies the hype around his latest release Trance. As I planted myself in a cinema to experience his newest labour of love, flashes of his celebrated […]
Read Time : 9 Minutes
“Varane Avashyamund”… A relationship drama where the characters work, their equations do not!
Believe it or not, Malayali millennials are significantly lucky as far as cinema and culture are concerned. They have had the good fortune to grow up on some of the finest films from the ‘80s and ‘90s conceived by the likes of Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikkad, Padmarajan, Fazil, Sibi Malayil, Siddique-Lal […]