While we keep getting catchy tunes and interesting compositions, not all songs have appreciative lyrics. We like the songs for combination of things – music, orchestration, melody, singer’s voice, emotion, and lyrics. Rarely all these come together in a song. One such song, which I keep going back to, is Life of Ram from 96. Music, lyrics, emotion come together. For me it is the lyrics that stand out. They
Official Trailer: [SPOILERS AHEAD…] The story is a simple, a father takes revenge on the guys who assaulted his daughter. What sets this movie apart is how the movie is built. It comes across as a picture puzzle where you have to put together the pieces to view the full picture. In Maharaja we get precision engineered segments like Lego blocks. They are given to us in a non-linear fashion.
2024 election outcome gave a mixed feeling. Happy because the alternate outcome of brutal majority would be worse. Happiness with disappointment because we need to survive these two, Modi and Shah for another 5 years. I was debating the caption for this writeup, It could have been worse, All is not lost….yet, A reprieve for democracy, A sliver of home amidst disappointment, Blessing in disguise for the functioning democracy. Couldn’t
As per Indian subcontinent mythology, there are seven worlds below our feet – அதலம், விதலம், தலம், கபஸ்திமல், மகாதலம், சுதலம், பாதாளம். We get our food and water from there. We can’t see them. Similar to those seven worlds below us, are there worlds within our society we are not aware of? We see different classes of people daily but never stopped to ask how their life would look like. We may
When I heard the news about Uma Ramanan, the first song that popped out of my memory is Aananda Raagam from the movie Panneer Pushpangal. Then the other songs flooded out. Songs make us remember events from our life. Songs from late 70s and 80s always take me to my hostel days at Guindy engineering college and bus rides between Madurai – Virudhunagar and Madurai – Chinnamanur. Our mess eating
After the news came out that Israel deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to pick their targets, we were bombarded with so many articles with blaring headlines with AI in it. Fighting for eyeballs media makes the headlines catchy and sensational. Many a times the headlines end up giving misleading information. If the reader is not savvy enough, they will walk away with wrong and problematic conclusions. Samples below:
Official Trailer: Director Rahul Sadasivan in his debut movie Bhoothakalam made us sit up and take notice of him. Bhoothakalam is a well-made horror genre movie that kept us guessing whether the protagonists are hallucinating because of their state of mind or encountering supernatural powers. Rahul Sadavisan scores another ace with his second outing Brahmayugam. I would say he is one of the handful of directors from Kollywood and Mollywood
Official Trailer: Malayalam film industry has kick started 2024 on a high. In span of two months, we have Malaikottai Vaaliban, Brahmayugam, and now Manjummel Boys. We can be lenient and add Kaathal – The Core (released November 2023) to the list. All different genre movies. What is common between them is the high confidence on the content, writing, and bold film making. Manjummel Boys is based on a true
Greatest night in pop: Check your ego at the door For those who love the pop songs and the singers from the 80s, Greatest night in pop, the documentary is a great trip down the memory lane. Nostalgic and emotional. Around 40 pop icons getting together to record a song is something out of ordinary, once in a lifetime opportunity like celestial event. IIRC, this is the first-time famous singers
Official Trailer: [SPOILERS AHEAD …] There are lots of similarities between The Great Indian Kitchen (TGIK) and Kaathal – The Core. Other than the fact that both are from the same director, Jeo Baby. Focus of these two movies is about love and freedom, but TGIK is an angrier version about lack of love and oppression in a marriage. There is more love in Kaathal, there is no anger, and