A Not So Suitable ‘Suitable Boy’ Vikram Seth’s magnum opus novel, A Suitable Boy, opens with a dedication in verse, followed briskly by the contents page, again in a rhyming couplet for each chapter. No such luck with the mini-series of the same novel. It opens with a lame placard: When India became independent in … Continue reading
Latest Entries
My Favorite Films of 2019
I know I’m a bit late. But, better late than never. Let’s bid farewell to the noughties (2010-2019) and welcome the twenty-twenties (2020s) with my personal favorite movies of 2019. I’ve based this list on a combination of factors like popularity, filmmaking, style, substance, direction, music, and storytelling. But most importantly, this is my personal … Continue reading
John Wick 3: Parabellum (2019)
What Makes You Tick, Mr Wick? Well … You’re Nostalgic, You’re Slick! After avenging his dog’s death (a final gift from his wife) in Chapter 1, assassinating a member of the High Table in Chapter 2, John Wick is now excommunicado with a bounty of $14 million on his head in Chapter 3: Parabellum. For … Continue reading
Merku Thodarchi Malai (2018)
The Seamless Western Ghats In a scene from Kamal Haasan’s Anbe Sivam, Madhavan’s character declares, “Love is a feeling,” to which Kamal retorts, “Communism too is a feeling.” If Anbe Sivam symbolized communism as a feeling, then Lenin Bharathi’s Merku Thodarchi Malai (MTM) epitomizes communism as an ideology and way of life for the landless … Continue reading
2016 / English / Movie Review
Westworld (2016)
In Ford We Trust No more a benchmark for Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Turing test in today’s times is more a hobbyist’s indulgence than a purist’s pursuit. To say the least, the test has become something of an anachronism. Yet, its usage in popular culture has anything but diminished. HBOs latest sci-fi TV series Westworld … Continue reading
