Thought-provoking commentary and bold perspectives on cinema
Director Manoj Kumar’s film has a lot of red flags and yet, it is being hailed as a ‘relatable’ rural love story.
At the Ramayana pre-release event in Hyderabad, Yash, who plays Ravana in the film and is credited as co-producer, urged audiences not to find fault with its visual effects. Mind you, this is a big production venture, helmed by an academy-award winning VFX firm.
Modha Rathri: Ultimately, Modha Rathri works because it uses the familiar backdrop of an arranged marriage to explore relationships, family expectations, social prejudices and individual choices
Rajinikanth isn’t where he is just because he was lucky with the people he worked with and the content he had to work with. Rajinikanth stands because what he brings to a screen cannot be explained, cannot be bottled, cannot be done by someone else. Rajinikanth was, and still is magic on screen
Rajinikanth returns as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian in a sequel that delivers mass moments, dark humour and star-studded cameos. However, a few questionable jokes and the reported trimming of cameo appearances remain concerns.
Drishyam: The Conclusion had an opportunity to take the hugely popular franchise in a fresh direction, but the Hindi version instead remains trapped in the formula established by its predecessor
Sigma draws inspiration from several Hollywood-style crime thrillers, but the execution never reaches that level. The storytelling feels outdated, and the screenplay lacks the freshness expected from a debut filmmaker
Dorothy is a raw, rustic and unconventional story about identity, masculinity, sexuality and the social pressures of growing up in a conservative 1990s village
Director Jude Anthany Joseph’s survival thriller is a tedious watch with a weak screenplay and weaker performances
Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj’s anthology explores female desire, infidelity, lust and intimacy through four distinct stories, but its stylish packaging often compensates for writing that stops short of its potential.
There are remakes that successfully reinterpret the original and there are those that make you constantly think about the film they are based on. Haiwaan belongs to the latter category
Mirzapur: The Movie had to offer more than a longer episode of the popular series. The film appears to understand this challenge and attempts to give the world of Mirzapur a different rhythm and identity for the big screen
Nivin doesn't need to recreate George, Vinod or Giri. What audiences seem to have responded to is the return of the qualities that made those characters work in the first place: warmth, humour, vulnerability, charm and an ability to make romance feel attainable.
That Yash chose to play yet another unruly, trigger-happy gangster is hardly surprising given how the environment for Indian male superstars today is voluntarily restricted to such roles. The surprise element lies in the fact that the two characters - Raya and Rocky Bhai, namely - are indistinguishable.
Mamitha Baiju is the leading lady of both films, paired with Suriya and Nivin Pauly respectively.
Self-aggrandisement has become the thumb rule in a race that considers the box office and nothing else, and the days of a mainstream hero prioritising the story and assimilating himself into a specific world as a character seem well behind us.
Gone are the days when the YRF Spy Universe could make an Indian and a Pakistani sit across a table and eat tangadi kebab possible on Indian screens