‘Notes on this, that, and everything in between’ – Episode 3: Lyrics & Life

Recent Posts

• Interview: Vasanth Ravi (‘Asvins’)
• ‘Notes on this, that, and everything in between’ – Episode 3: Lyrics & Life
• ‘Notes on this, that, and everything in between’ – Episode 2: Watching older films…
• Interview: Pasupathy, director Ram Sangaiah, and DoP Mahesh Muthswami (‘Thandatti’)
• From the Web (FTW) #10: Things Are Looking Up At Box Office, But…
• Readers Write In #587: Asur: A Victim Of Main Text Overpowered By Not So Powerful Subtext
• Interview: Sanjay Narayanan, who made ‘Maalai Nera Mallipoo’ when he was 21/22 years old
• SJ Suryah gives a BIG performance in  Radhamohan’s ‘Bommai’, but the film never convinces us about its central relationship
• Om Raut’s ‘Adipurush’ is a sci-fi/fantasy take on Ramayana that’s high on visual effects and low on drama
• Dileesh Pothan is fabulous in Ranjan Pramod’s ‘O.Baby’, a richly textured strike against all kinds of ownership
• Interview: SJ Suryah (Bommai)
• Suraj Varma’s ‘Kolla’ (Rajisha Vijayan, Vinay Forrt, Priya Varrier) has an interesting premise, but is content to remain vaguely watchable
• Interview: Sean Roldan (on ‘Uravu’, and his music)
• Readers Write In #586: Nanpagal Nostalgia
• Interview: Vignesh Raja (storyboarding Por Thozhil)
• Sanjay Narayanan’s exquisite, moving ‘Maalai Nera Mallipoo’, on aha, takes us into a sex worker’s psyche
• Karthik G Krish’s ‘Takkar’ is filled with good ideas, but none of them are fleshed out convincingly
• Vignesh Raja’s ‘Por Thozhil’ (Sarathkumar, Ashok Selvan) is a solid, well-crafted serial-killer thriller with enough pluses to overcome its issues
• Interview: Siddharth (Takkar)
• Readers Write In #585: Book Review: Plassey- The Battle that Changed the Course of Indian History
• Interview: Hansal Mehta / writer Mrunmayee Lagoo (Scoop, on Netflix)
• Readers Write In #584: Diving straight and dissecting into the micro level of why mass unnatural disasters happen
• Readers Write In #583: Objects in the rear view mirror: 2000s Kollywood
• Notes on this, that, and everything in between – Episode 1: Does age matter?
• A very happy 80th birthday, Ilaiyaraaja
• Ajitpal Singh’s ‘Fire In the Mountains’, on SonyLIV, peels back the beauty of the mountains to gaze at stark realities
• Akhil Sathyan’s ‘Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum’, on Prime Video, is proof that templates are never an issue if the storytelling is strong
• Interview: Sohum Shah (Maharani on SonyLIV, Dahaad on Amazon Prime Video)
• Readers Write In #582: The Story of Allen Dulles and his CIA
• Readers Write In #581: Virupaksha: The Succubus lies in the details
• From the Web (FTW) #9: Martin Scorsese on the Importance of Visual Literacy
• BR Live Season 2
• Thank you so much for this appreciation, Bits Of Info Tamil
• From the Web (FTW) #8: Nenendu Vethugudura (a translation)
• Readers Write In #580: The Imposter – The ramblings of a fundamentally uninteresting man
• Readers Write In #579: Daredevil Musthafa (DDM) – An outsider’s view
• Achyut Vinayak’s ‘Thrishanku’, with Anna Ben and Arjun Ashokan, has a super premise, but it’s content to remain a pleasant watch instead of the all-out riot it could have become
• Shashank Soghal’s ‘Daredevil Musthafa’ is a laid-back charmer filled with newcomers, and it covers up its flaws with a massive dose of can-do spirit
• Interview: Sarathkumar (Por Thozhil, etc.)
• Interview: Anna Ben / ‘Andhadhun’ producer Sarita Patil (Thrishanku)
• Readers Write In #578: Succession – A Saga of Kendall and Logan
• Apoorv Singh Karki’s ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’ is an earnest, well-acted courtroom drama that needed more tension
• Yashowardhan Mishra’s ‘Kathal’, on Netflix, is  a gently amusing detective story-cum-social commentary that involves missing jackfruits 
• Readers Write In #577: The National Legacy of NTR
• From the Web (FTW) #7: The Magic of K Vishwanath’s songs
• Shamal Sulaiman’s entertaining ‘Jackson Bazaar Youth’ makes you think it’s a drama about the underprivileged before pulling the rug from under your feet
• Lights, Camera, Analysis: Ravi Varman (Ponniyin Selvan 1 & 2)
• Vijay Antony’s ‘Pichaikkaran 2’ is a sentimental, speech-heavy take on how the rich should help the poor
• ‘Modern Love Chennai’, overseen by creative producer Thiagarajan Kumararaja and team, makes a strong case for what Tamil creators can do in the OTT space
• Interview: Thiagarajan Kumararaja (Modern Love Chennai, and this man’s mind)