Tue, January 14 2025

This is the quintessential Balakrishna film, but it is burdened by the hangover of a number of films including Rajinikanth's Jailer, Kamal Haasan's Vikram, and his own filmography.

No one in Telugu cinema loves playing the saviour as much as Nandamuri Balakrishna. The more grave the injustice, the more weapons he can wield, the more henchmen he can kill, and the more noise his dialogues can make. Probably why he feels most at home in a Boyapati Srinu film which allows him to be all this and much more. In Bobby Kolli’s latest, Daaku Maharaaj, Balakrishna is a do-gooder with a strong emotional core. He is a doting guardian of a young girl who seems to effortlessly put a smile on his face. And yes, he is also a saviour who saves an entire district from brutal oppression, wields fascinating weapons, kills hundreds of henchmen in innovatively gory ways, and says lines like, “If you shout, it is barking… if I shout…” and Thaman inserts a lion’s roar in the background score. Daaku Maharaaj is the quintessential Balakrishna film, but it is burdened by the hangover of a number of films including Rajinikanth’s Jailer, Kamal Haasan’s Vikram, and the ‘God of Masses’ own filmography.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Balakrishna and Shraddha Srinath’s performances, fine visuals and slick action choreography salvage director Bobby Kolli’s ‘Daaku Maharaaj’ to an extent

Balakrishna’s resurgence in recent films such as Akhanda and Bhagawant Kesari can be attributed to filmmakers Boyapati Sreenu and Anil Ravipudi making the star more relatable to the masses beyond his larger-than-life quirks. While the ethos of a typical Balakrishna film has not changed drastically, the fresh narrative styles have breathed a new lease of life into time-tested templates. In Daaku Maharaaj, it is evident that director Bobby Kolli was keen on a new visual aesthetic to a star-led vehicle. The action is stylised and slick; there is a genuine effort at charismatic world-building and the ‘punch lines’ are minimal (going by the standards of popular Telugu masala potboilers). Hero worship is woven into the narrative rather than appearing forced. Despite these merits the film falls short, owing to its lack of conviction in the execution. It neither plays to the galleries nor embraces the new dictum wholeheartedly. A handful of sequences draw attention and can be termed paisa vasool, but the film on the whole is not satisfying.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Director Bobby Kolli's Daaku Maharaaj, starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, Bobby Deol and Shraddha Srinath, is a predictable vigilante thriller. Though clichéd, the film strikes the right notes.

Nandamuri Balakrishna struck a hat-trick with Akhanda, Veera Simha Reddy and Bhagavanth Kesari. Now, he is back with his next outing, Daaku Maharaaj, with director Bobby Kolli, aiming to make it four in a row. Balakrishna, fondly called Balayya by fans, is known for his over-the-top faction entertainers. Will he strike gold with Daaku Maharaaj? Govind Gujjar (Makarand Deshpande) sends a message to Nanaji (Nandamuri Balakrishna) that Baby Vaishnavi is in danger. Vaishnavi and her family face threats from local MLA, Thirumurthulu Naidu and his brother (Sandeep Raj) after they are caught cultivating cocaine on the pretext of tea production. Nanaji arrives as a driver and protects Baby Vaishnavi and her family from grave dangers.

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Tue, January 14 2025

Directed by the 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, the gripping courtroom drama is streaming on Jio Cinema.

Director William Friedkin was so old and uninsurable during the making of the courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial that the Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro sat beside him on set every day, contractually bound to take over in case Friedkin were to — forgive the morbidity — die mid-production. The legendary filmmaker got the job done, but passed away not long afterwards. He was 87 years old. Clint Eastwood is even older; at 94, he just delivered what could be his final film, Juror No 2. Coincidentally another courtroom drama, the movie arrives over three decades after Eastwood entered the self-reflective phase of his career with the contemplative Western Unforgiven. In the last decade or so, he has devoted himself — as one would expect of a dying man — to understanding the idea of decency. Having made a name for himself in a genre famous for viewing the world in black and white, Eastwood has spent the better part of the last couple of decades dabbling in different shades of grey.

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Mon, December 23 2024

Sometimes truth isn’t justice, and justice isn’t truth’. Delivered with both pain and profundity in the penultimate moments of Juror#2, this incandescent line not only sums up the film, but the justice system as a whole, anywhere in the world. Exposing the fault lines in our rules of crime and punishment, but in the kind of quiet yet forceful manner which has been a signature of his brand of filmmaking ever since Clint Eastwood first put on the director’s hat a staggering 53 years ago, Juror#2 is the type of film that makes your mind go back to it time and again even days and weeks after watching it.

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Tue, January 14 2025

Stunning in every sense of the word, the new documentary film explores the lasting pain caused by a culture of silence in the Catholic church.

Perhaps the year’s most striking documentary, Sugarcane is billed as an ‘investigation’ into the crimes that were committed by Catholic missionaries against Indigenous peoples of Canada across a century, but it is equally successful as an examination of inherited trauma, and as a study of a community in crisis. At the beginning of the 20th Century, schools were set up specifically for Indigenous children across North America, ostensibly to help them assimilate into Western culture. The children were subjected to unspeakable crimes at these ‘residential’ institutions, operated exclusively by the Catholic church, causing many of them to take their lives as they grew older. The magnitude of the tragedy, which is revealed gradually throughout the film, is immeasurable.

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Tue, January 14 2025

The four-time Oscar-winning series returns with a charming new adventure on Netflix.

Trust Wallace to get himself mixed up in a plot that puts all of humanity at peril. The eccentric inventor — he’s the protagonist of Nick Park’s four-time Oscar-winning stop-motion animation series — makes his streaming debut alongside his ‘top dog’ Gromit with the feature-length Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Released on Netflix, the film is a pure nostalgia trip for fans who grew up with their charming adventures, replete with quirky household gizmos, absurd villains, and more cheese than you’d find in a Frenchman’s larder.

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Thu, January 9 2025

The newest feature-length adventure about the eccentric inventor and his loyal dog sees the return of a familiar foe.

It’s been 20 years since the last Wallace & Gromit feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And this follow-up does not disappoint, largely due to the reappearance of the greatest villain in the franchise, Feather McGraw. Yes, that dastardly silent penguin is back, and he wants revenge on the duo that sent him to jail all those years ago. Will he succeed? Not if Gromit has his way. With Nick Park back as co-director, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a funny, delightful romp in the neighbourhood. Wallace’s newest invention in the film is a Norbot, a smart gnome robot ready to help poor Gromit around the house. Even when he doesn’t need any help. What the pair don’t realise that someone’s got their eye on them, all the way from jail, as the quick-witted penguin has been biding his time, waiting to get back at Wallace for turning him into the authorities in the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers for attempting to steal the Blue Diamond. Soon, Wallace and his trusty dog Gromit are evading the police, who believe he might be the recent spate of neighbourhood robberies.

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Tue, January 14 2025

When three of their four children contract an incurable illness that will render them blind, a Canadian couple goes on a tour of the world while they're still able to appreciate its beauty.

A Canadian couple takes their children on a tour of the world in the new National Geographic documentary film Blink, but it isn’t just an ordinary vacation. Three of their four kids, aged between 13 and 7, have been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable eye condition that will eventually render them blind. Overnight, the lives of the Pelletier family changed forever. The movie begins after the parents, Edith and Sebastien, made their peace with the cards they were dealt, although there is a sense that they will never fully wrap their heads around the tragedy. Still in the process of accepting their new reality, they collect their entire life’s savings and plan a trip across the globe.

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Sun, January 12 2025

The laughs keep on coming, and it is a terrific mix of nostalgia and wistful thinking about the times that were that makes us throw our weights behind this Vishal-Santhanam film, directed by Sundar C

When one looks at films that are over a decade old, it is but natural to see if it has aged well. Are the dialogues still relevant? Is the narrative still fresh? Have the actors and filmmaker evolved? In fact, many a time, it takes us back to the time we first saw it, and our response to it today is a reflection of our own evolution. But what if it is a movie that you never saw, and you are watching it for the first time a decade after it was made. What if it is a movie that no one saw because it didn’t release when it had to, and is finally hitting the screens 12 years later? Do you see it as a 2013 film? Do you see it as a 2025 film? That is the conundrum one finds themselves in while watching Sundar C’s long-delayed Madha Gaja Raja, which was supposed to hit screens for Pongal 2013, but a time traveler moved a chair somewhere in the past, and it saw the light of day for Pongal 2025.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Sundar C and Vishal's long-delayed comedy gets you to laugh out loud, even when you’re trying your hardest not to.

Sundar C’s long-delayed Madha Gaja Raja is not the sort of film you enter expecting complex interpersonal relationships or technical finesse. Even if we’d watched the film in 2012 — when it was originally set to release — we may still have found its scenes dated or objectionable. It’s as though we’re forced to remind ourselves that this film is a product of its time, urging us to be kinder because none of us knew any better. Simpler times we no longer have the patience for; like that scene that follows when Raja (Vishal) learns that his friend’s wife has misplaced her gold necklace. Instead of launching an investigation, Raja offers his own gold chain and urges his friends to pool in to make up for the lost necklace. Or the other scene in which Raja deliberately loses a race, just so his rival feels respected in his hometown. Or even the over-the-top nobility with which Raja moves to Chennai to get a corporate honcho to return ₹ 52,20,350 to his broke bestie. It’s all sickeningly sweet, but you’d be shocked at how badly we want to buy into all this.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Director Sundar C's Madha Gaja Raja aka MGR, starring Vishal, Sonu Sood and Santhanam, is a comedy caper reminding you of the good old days

Imagine it’s the 2010s. You are back from school, and you switch on the TV, you flip through the channels only to land on one showing comedy clips. You know which movie it is from, the dialogue by heart, and yet it brings laughter every time you watch. Now, imagine watching a typical Sundar C film, which is known for its comedy, 12 years after it was actually made. Madha Gaja Raja follows the story of Raja (Vishal) attending a wedding at his school teacher’s house, where he reunites with his school gang. One of his friends (Santhanam) is going through marriage issues, while the other two are involved in a case that concerns business tycoon Karkuvel Vishwanath (Sonu Sood).

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Sun, January 12 2025

Shane Nigam and Kalaiyarasan try their best to save ‘Madraskaaran’, but the film is weighed down by tiresome contrivances

One of the oldest tricks in the cinematic book of twists is introducing car accidents. Tamil cinema’s tryst with it has been a long-standing one. Just a small flip through the memory reminds me of films like Kushi, Kovil, Manmadan Ambu and even recent flicks like Star and Thiruchitrambalam. When it results in impending tragedy for our protagonist or those affiliated with them, most films leave us wishing that fateful day never happened. While the conflict in Shane Nigam’s Tamil debut Madraskaaran also happens to be the same, given the number of times it happens, it’s also the first time one might probably feel that the protagonist should never be allowed to take the wheel and his driving license immediately cancelled.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Ahead of the Oscar nominations, we discuss one of the most acclaimed films of 2024, writer-director Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light. We talk about the film’s bittersweet exploration of urban loneliness and the migrant experience, its depiction of Mumbai, and Kapadia’s command over tone. We also talk about the bold mid-movie pivot and how it affects the narrative.

Sat, November 30 2024

Payal Kapadia’s debut fiction feature follows the lives of three women who navigate the big city.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light (AWIAL) establishes its Mumbai DNA early on. A visibly-tired Anu (Divya Prabha), an upstart nurse in a city hospital, is jotting down details of a patient. Age? “24… oh no sorry, it’s 25,” a young woman says, holding on to her child. “Pfft!” reacts Anu, showcasing her mild annoyance for having to strike out what she’d written earlier.

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Tue, November 26 2024

Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light is one of those life-altering gems that is transcendental and a moving memoir of mundane, transformative and a crushing reiteration of community sustenance.

Three women, monsoon and a severe city. If Payal Kapadia’s iridescent All We Imagine as Light was a novel, there would be dried flowers stuck between its pages. Since it is a film, the intangible feeling is imbued with visual tactility. It is present in the way Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a middle-aged woman, holds a totem of cold technology within the warmth of her embrace. It is embossed on the face of Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a woman in the middle of a crisis, as she listens to a fiery political speech about reclaiming what is hers. And it drips from the text messages a young Anu (Divya Prabha) sends to her lover: “I am sending you kisses through the clouds so that when it rains my kisses touch your lips.” Kapadia’s film is suffused with such ache that if you extend your hand you can touch it.

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Sun, January 12 2025

Actor Subodh Bhave’s directorial debut Katyar Kaljyat Ghusli (2015) turned out to be a spectacular affair. There were much expectations for his second film as a director Sangeet Manapmaan, not just because he is in the director’s chair. This film is also adapted from an old classic musical play, just like the 2015 movie. But this time, the end result turns out to be just a one-time watch. Sangeet Manapmaan is adapted from Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar’s musical play of the same name, which was first staged way back in 1911. The story takes place in a kingdom in Maharashtra called Sangrampur in an unspecified era. The chief of army Kakasaheb (Shailesh Datar) expresses his wish to the queen of Sangrampur (Nivedita Saraf) to retire from his services because of his advanced age. Although the queen believes he is irreplaceable, she suggests Kakasaheb’s deputy Chandravilas (Sumeet Raghvan) as the next chief. Kakasaheb subtly disagrees with the queen as he believes, despite being a brave warrior, Chandravilas doesn’t possess the exact qualities to be the next chief.

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Sat, January 11 2025

Shockingly, Vanangaan, starring Arun Vijay, a revenge drama about a protagonist on a hunt for three perverts, ends up catering to their gaze.

Vanangaan is another addition to Bala’s list of tragedies that make the audience leave the theatre with a heavy heart. Above all, make them wonder: “Why does Bala do it every single time?" Perhaps, he aims to jolt the everyday people and show them the devastating side of life they choose to ignore. That’s why Bala’s protagonists are strangers. They don’t conform to the ways which are termed ‘normal’. Almost all of his protagonists – Pithamagan’s Chithan, Nandha, and Naan Kadavul’s Rudran–are taciturn and choose to interact less with society as their very existence is odd with the society they live in. Set in Kanyakumari, Vanangaan is about one such anomaly named Koti (Arun Vijay), a deaf and dumb ruffian, who is depicted as this beast with a heart.

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Sat, January 11 2025

Director Bala's Vanangaan, starring Arun Vijay, Roshini Prakash and Ridha, is a film where the hero takes justice into his hands. The film is yet another addition to movies insensitively portraying sexual crimes against women.

In the 25 years of his career, director Bala has created quite a niche for himself. His films are far from the ‘ideal’ moral compass or political correctness. Violence or murder is a form of justice in most of his films, while death acts as a liberation for some of his characters. With 10 films to his credit, director Bala is back with Vanangaan, after the disastrous Varmaa, which is a remake of the Telugu superhit film, Arjun Reddy. Vanangaan follows the story of Koti (Arun Vijay) and Devi (Ridha), a brother-sister duo living a content life in Kanniyakumari. While Koti, who is hearing and speech impaired, does odd jobs to put money on the table, Devi works at a tattoo studio. Koti joins as a security guard at an orphanage where many visually impaired people live. An untoward incident happens and Koti gets to know about it. He takes up violence to offer justice.

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Fri, January 10 2025

The Arun Vijay-starrer is so dated and lifeless that we watch with apathy, even when we witness a series of events that must have sounded shocking on paper.

Bala probably forgot that he is Bala. Why else would a director with an obsession for the same pet themes begin a film with a song like ‘Irai Nooru’? The song composed by GV Prakash, isn’t the issue. It’s another one of those mirthful songs about a brother and the unending love he feels for his sister. They have fun, they go to the beach, they go to temples, they go to church, and they are obviously very happy. The year is 2025 and by now, we have a 100-year history of movies telling us that something terrible is going to happen when a film begins with such a lazy, happy montage. And then we must remember that this movie is being made by Bala, a man who has built his brand around tragedies. The remaining runtime of Vanangaan, then, isn’t so much about what’s going to happen and why, as much as it is about how many people are going to die and if we will care when they do.

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Sat, January 11 2025

For a film in which the leading man’s signature line is ‘I am unpredictable’, Game Changer feels as old as cinema itself. In fact, the plot of this film — stretching over an abominably long 165 minutes — is so stale that every second of it will remind you of some terrible movie you may have had the misfortune of sitting through in the past. Game Changer is vintage Shankar, which is more of a bad than a good thing these days. The man who once gave us films like Gentleman and Anniyan, Enthiran and Indian, has been stuck in a creative rut, recently illustrated by the torture fest called Indian 2. Game Changer is a definite improvement over Indian 2 but that isn’t saying much about a film that relies on every overused trope in the masala movie book — physical (over) acting, grating background score, expensively-shot but totally unnecessary songs and a story that goes here, there, everywhere… and ultimately, nowhere.

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Sat, January 11 2025

Game Changer begins with the promise of thematic depth and an evolved Shankar protagonist, but a lack of emotional resonance and uneven execution means that this is a missed opportunity

Perhaps it’s the repetition of certain ideas, or perhaps it’s the undeniable power of Shankar’s hit cinema, but it’s impossible not to think of his earlier works—his heyday, shall we dare call it—while watching Game Changer. A road grinding to a halt due to governmental apathy reminds you of Mudhalvan. A government authority dismantling corruption? That’s from the same film. There’s even a self-aware reference to Kadhalan as Ram Charan’s shoes perform a little jig during a song. A love-meter reminds you of Anniyan. When the hero lands out of a helicopter, it’s impossible not to think of Sivaji, especially with Jayaram’s character doing the signature tap on the villain’s shaved head.

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Sat, January 11 2025

Director Shankar's Game Changer, starring Ram Charan, Kiara Advani and SJ Suryah, is a handbook on electoral politics. The film looks spectacular, but the story is mediocre at its best.

After the monumental success of SS Rajamouli’s RRR, Game Changer marks Ram Charan’s return to a big solo release. Directed by Shankar, Game Changer is his first solo release and features him in dual roles, guaranteeing double dhamaka for the audience. After the debacle of Indian 2, Shankar is back with Game Changer, which marks his Telugu debut. Is it a ‘Game-Changing Day’ or ‘Game Over’ for Shankar-Ram Charan duo? Let’s find out! Ram Nandan (Ram Charan) is an IAS officer battling anger issues. He is an honest, upright officer who doesn’t bend to corruption. As a high-ranking official, he wants to make Visakhapatnam corruption-free. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Bobbili Satyamurthy (Srikanth), who so far has corrupted the government, undergoes a transformation and instructs his sons, Mopidevi (SJ Suryah) and Maavera Munimanikam (Jayaram), and his ministers to stop favouring anyone and run a corruption-free government for the next year while they remain in power.

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Sat, January 11 2025

A film rich in ideas and craft, though its emotional resonance doesn’t always match its ambition

In Viduthalai Part 2, a film that leans more on thought than emotion, more on words than feelings, my favourite portion is a brief, tender exchange between Perumal (Vijay Sethupathi) and Mahalakshmi (Manju Warrier). They are united by their disillusionment with life and society. Mahalakshmi has almost adopted the appearance of a man (and we later learn why), while Perumal, when tentatively reaching out to her about the prospect of a relationship, stammers and stutters, unsure of himself. Vetrimaaran beautifully allows Mahalakshmi time to respond to Perumal’s proposal, time to think, time in which to give us a beautiful Ilaiyaraaja song. And when you hear his melody, love, expectedly, blooms.

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Mon, December 30 2024

Viduthalai 2 suffers from something as basic as exposition. Characters keep telling you what’s happening with the story.

Vetri Maaran’s Viduthalai Part 1, told from the perspective of a new police constable Kumaresan (Soori), posted in a rural hillside Tamil Nadu village, explored the story of an extremist organisation named Makkal Padai and its head Perumal Vaathiyar (Vijay Sethupathi). Makkal Padai has a history, but when we entered the world in the first part, the conflict was immediate as the terrorist organisation had just bombed a passenger train killing and injuring several lives. The premise answered both ‘why and why now’ of the film’s existence. It ended with the arrest of Vaathiyar, aided by Kumaresan, who is on the brink of getting disillusioned with the government’s propaganda against the organisation. The effective first part left us with many questions about Vaathiyar and how it will affect Kumaresan.

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Wed, December 25 2024

This sequel is a powerful portrait showcasing how one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

In the first part of Viduthalai, you’d remember the long trek Kumaresan (Soori) undertakes to reach the camp where he is posted as a police constable for the first time. Even for a story that takes more than five hours to unfold, you’d remember the slow pace with which he treks across terrains, water bodies and hills to finally get to the top. Until today, I felt the pacing was intentional because we needed to understand how remote and challenging it was going to be for Kumaresan to work there. Narratively too, it was important for us to register the hostile terrain everyone in this movie was fighting over, right from the locals to the police and the mining corporation that wants to set up shop there.

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