One of my favorite thought experiments is to replay a famous movie with genders flipped and wonder how the movie would have been received. For example, take a movie like Chinna Veedu. Flip the gender of the lead characters. Or movies like Sindhu Bairavi or Mudhal Mariadhai? All these 3 famous Tamil movies are about a guy falling in love with other women while being married. Now that you get
Official Trailer: In the hands of a good director, even a generic serial killer story can become an engaging thriller drama. Por Thozhil is one of those movies. With a clear vision, directors, Vignesh Raja and T.Senthil Paramasivam, narrate the story crisply, don’t digress with unnecessary scenes, and maintain a good momentum building to the tense climax. Movie opens with two cops on night patrol. The topic of conversation between
Official Trailer: In Pariyerum Perumal, Maari Selvaraj explored the struggles of an individual, a college going student, who faced discrimination from the oppressor castes. The writing was organic with interesting characters. The antagonist, the girl’s father, was one of the well-developed characters in Kollywood movies. We got a peek into his state of mind, the peer pressure he faces, the need to conform to the community, oscillating between the caste
Official Trailer: What kind of story one can build with a doll? Toys crossover to the real world and writers toyed with ideas of friendship, family, separation, and existential crisis in Toy Story series. Then we have The Truman Show where the hero lives in a made-up fantasy world till the reality hits him. Writers of Barbie use the similar premise and deliver a well-made satirical ride that is entertaining,
John Wick 4, Indiana Jones 5, and Mission Impossible 7 suffer from, what I call, the Sequel Syndrome. The crisp and tautness of the first part gets lost in the sequels. John Wick: Chapter 1, Raiders of the lost Ark, and MI:1 all were under 2hrs run time. Sequels of these movies continue with characters from earlier parts for nostalgia and add new characters to remain fresh and get some
Official Trailer: We know about Cheras, Cholas, and Pandyas from our history classes and books. Most to all of the time the kings are either glorified or vilified. We never had a peek into their lives or subjects other than learning about dates of historical events. How did they live? Their culture? What kind of Tamil they spoke? Why did they go to war? How did they convince their people
Official Trailer: Viduthalai Part I is about the conflict between the government which wants to take away and provide the forest land for mining to a corporate and the villagers who are against it. This conflict pits the police force against the Makkal Padai (People’s army). Makkal Padai has the support of the local population. A simple story of development Vs rights/conservation, good Vs evil. Where Viduthalai differs and gets
Official Trailer: Modern Love Chennai is a fine example of how an anthology series need to be made. In previous Tamil anthology series (Amazon Prime and Netflix), few episodes worked well and overall, the episodes didn’t come together. In Modern Love Chennai, we see a common theme with colors, sets linking the six episodes on love in modern Chennai. And we have characters from Super Deluxe popping up here. Stories
A Man Called Otto: Similar to Gran Torino, A Man Called Otto is a story about how an unlikely friendship can change someone’s life for the better. Otto is a grumpy and an unhappy widower who has given up on life following the loss of his wife. He doesn’t let anyone get close to him. He wants to end it all. He is the kind of person who disconnects electrical
Vaathi: Vaathi does engage the audience with few interesting arcs, smartly written and staged scenes. Schools which are supposed to provide education have become money making centers with the motto that one needs to pay to get good education. Vaathi smartly contrasts this with the movie hall (aptly named Lakshmi) which becomes a place for our protagonist to teach his students. Lakshmi and Saraswathi have swapped places. This arc is