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Thaandavam - true action is blind.
The biggest joy of watching the Tamil action flick Thaandavam was probably seeing it with stimpy, an old friend and a fellow Vikram fan. With her I could simply chuckle at the ludicrous bits of the...
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Filmi year 2012.
After a period of not being quite up on what was happening in Indian films (or being up on it, just not having a chance to watch most of it), I feel like 2012 was the year I was finally caught up on...
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Gandha: scent of hope, and of tragedy.
It stands to reason that if you wre going to turn any of the three stories in Gandha (Marathi for 'smell', directed by Sachin Kundalkar) into a massive motion picture, it would have to be the first...
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Diving into the aggravatingly shallow world of Karan Johar: Student of the Year.
I knew full well going into Student of the Year that this would not become a new favourite. For the longest time, I was prepared to simply ignore the film. I know my tastes my now, and having watched a...
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Shor In the City: oh, it's good. So good.
Sometimes you absolutely should take a gamble on your life's path. When Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., two Andra Pradesh-born computer engineers who'd both moved to work in the US, decided to have a...
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Kaminey picspam.
I love the way this movie looks and feels. The oppressive but calming blue tones with occasional flashes of red and gold just seem to add to the gripping atmosphere.Things only go from bad to worse,...
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Remake-mania or manic remakes? Rowdy Rathore and Siruthai.
Both based on the Telugu hit Vikramarkudu, I watched Rowdy Rathore and Siruthai in conjunction with one another, and not by accident. It just so happened that I didn't have the luxury of working...
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Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai: goondagiri at its finest.
Ever since watching Milan Luthria's brilliant The Dirty Picture, I've been meaning to check out his previous hit, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. I'm happy to report than when I finally did, I wasn't...
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Gangs of वासेपुर.
Gangs of Wasseypur, Anurag Kashyap's epic about the titular town and its violent history, is a 320 minute film, split into two for a commercial release. I watched them re-united as one cinematic...
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Chakravyuh: the red war.
You might've heard that India is at war with itself; hundreds, if not thousands, of people die in this war every year. You might've heard the term Maoist in conjunction to this war, or you might be...
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So, I watched Jism 2. Yes, really.
There were three film reviews of Jism 2 I considered writing. One was a long, sprawling essay that read too much into the gender and sexual politics of the film, and could essentially be summarized...
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Upendra, starring Upendra, directed by Upendra.
I went into Kannada director-star (titled "Real Star" in the Kannada film industry) Upendra's self-titled film (now there's a turn of phrase one rarely sees in cinema!) very cautiously. My relationship...
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This is the story of how I got completely obsessed with Randeep Hooda.
Everybody's allowed to gain a new quirk over the New Year, right? Mine just happened to be an instant obsession with Randeep Hooda (all thanks to Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai) and shortly after, the...
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Rushed review of Rush.
Since I enjoyed two Emraan Hashmi films from last year so much, Shanghai and Jannat 2, I figured I wouldn't mind seeing a third one as well. Rush is a debut direction from Shamin Desai, who passed away...
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Rewatch magic: Paa & Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge.
When I first saw Paa, I was sure my extreme emotional reaction to it was a fluke. It wasn't a hyperbole to say I cried my eyes out throughout the movie, by the end letting out dry sobs because I had no...
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Cocktail: mix one interesting character with two irritating ones. Shake well.
In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have watched Cocktail, Homi Adajania's breezy NRI romantic drama. There were just too many things that I knew, from the get-go, would not work for me. The trailers...
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Filmi year 2012: Appendices.
An addendum to my previous Filmi Year 2012 post, because don't you just hate it when this happens: make a end-of-year post in December because that's what everybody bloody does, and then watch all the...
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Eega - wouldn't hurt a fly? Make that, couldn't hurt a fly.
Two parts ingenuity, three parts exploration of the old formula - these are what make up Telugu cinema's undoubted mastermind SS Rajamouli's Eega, dubbed into Hindi as Makkhi (I personally saw the...
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Mini-reviews, part 10.
Once upon a time in the land of lazy blogging, long long ago, I drew up a list of every Indian film I'd watched up until that point (the overall sum came just under 200 those days), randomized it and...
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Charulata: the quiet craft.
The most stubborn person I know once told me I was the most stubborn person she knew. I'll admit to it - I am incredibly stubborn, particularly when it comes to the media I consume. I refuse to believe...
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