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
Category Archives: English
Vikram & Top Gun Maverick (2022)
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
Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021) and Alpha (2018)
How Language Can Make or Break a Film Language (or the absence of it) is a very crucial element for storytelling. During the silent era, masters like Charlie Chaplin communicated with their acting, body language, and screenplay. But once Talkies (movies with dialogues) entered the fray everything changed and there was no looking back. Apart … Continue reading
A Suitable Boy (2020)
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
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
talking talkies 