Noah’s Ark in God’s Own Country From Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s 1990 classic Mathilukal to the recently released Mahesh Narayanan’s Ariyippu, Malayalam cinema has always left its mark in the international film circuit. India too is finally waking up to this fact by choosing 2018: Everyone is a Hero, a disaster drama about the devastating 2018 Kerala … Continue reading
Kumararaja’s Ninaivo Oru Paravai, part of the Modern Love Chennai anthology, takes you on an avant-garde trip down memory lane reminding you of Kaufman’s and Wong Kar Wai’s movies like Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and 2046 respectively. And yet it has Kumararaja writ all over it, so much so that the lead character … Continue reading
How Late-Stage Capitalism Killed the Chef in The Menu Do you ever feel guilty about eating food at an expensive five-star hotel or fine dining restaurant? If not, you will after you watch chef Slowik (an intensely terrifying Ralph Fiennes) serve you a five-course meal in The Menu. Celebrity chef Julian Slowik invites a group … Continue reading
Kantara, Bhuta Kola, and the Collective Unconscious “Wait!”, warned my better half, “fold your hands before the Kshetrapala before you enter the divine precincts of our Daiva.” I complied, yet protested: “What for, it’s just a stone?” “It is He who protects this forest. Without His permission even the winds dare not pass,” she replied. … Continue reading
Once Upon a Time in Kollywood… & Hollywood (or) Vikram and Top Gun Have More in Common Than Meets the Eye Back in the day, 1986 to be precise, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) took the world’s collective breath away when he flew his F14A Tomcat. Back home in Madras, Commander Arun Kumar Vikram … Continue reading
talking talkies 