Ingenious">""Good Night I Good Morning" -->Ingenious"  by Sabari Sridhar 

  Sudhish Kamath’s “Good Night I Good Morning” is a novel yet interesting watch. It involves loads of hard work & intelligence to write a script like this based a telephonic conversation between two strangers on the New Year night. And the more difficult part is to keep the viewers interested over 80 minutes not giving any scope for boredom. In this type of screenplay boredom is inevitable to strike the viewers but Sudhish Kamath intelligently uses some funny, some poignant & some hard hitting interludes which prevents the viewers from having a monotonous feel to it.   As with any good cinema writing is excellent. Movie is basically a conversation between two strangers who at the outset are still clinging onto their extended grief of loss of their respective relationships. And over the course of the conversation how they let go off their angst and get on with their lives , almost. Sudhish Kamath & Shilpa Rathnam’s writing is what makes this movie a fulfilling exp...

"Notes on the Inglourious Basterds"  by udhav naig 

    Inglorious Basterds is widely discussed in the academic circles for many things. But the one that intrigues me the most is the way Tarantino structures his story, designs his scenes, turns the value, and creates the change1. Most of the things that I have mentioned in the last sentence seem quite obvious, but trust me they are not. In a well defined and a well-designed scene, there is nothing that is not designed.   So, what is a scene? Robert Mckee provides a very lucid definition of a scene:   A scene is an action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turns the value charged condition of a character’s life on at least one value with a significant change. Ideally, every scene is a story event.   So how do you build a scene? The smallest element of a scene is called a beat. The beat is the exchange of action and reaction in a scene. Let’s take the classic girl-meets-boy scene: the girl sees the boy and looks away. The boy notices it and give...

"The Call - a short story"  by Varun Srinivasan 

Navin and Deepika were text buddies of sorts. They texted each other day in and day out, discussing utter crap and non-sense. They never had one proper face-to-face interaction. Just a breezy hi-bye now and then, often through facial expressions whenever their eyes met in the college campus. It all started when Navin was heading a Public relations team for the college cultural fest and Deepika was one of his coordinators. Their conversations were mainly limited to the cultural fest work. Navin was a total introvert and Deepika, an even bigger one. They had to exchange numbers, quite an obvious thing to do whenever two people are working in the same team. Until the fest was over, they talked only when they had to discuss about the team’s work progress. Navin was quite a persona himself. He was handsome, tall and a little brownish in color. For a third person, he would seem like the perfect ‘ladies man’ but actually he was nowhere close to it. He was shy and used to avoid verbal interactions m...

"A Separation"  by prakash akon 

    Have you ever stared at a door for three continous hours without doing anything else? Absolutely nothing else? Not advisable! But I dont think I was given a choice. Or was I? Anyways, I have decided to pen this down and get it out of me.    I am writing this from a cafe in Vienna where she left me three hours ago.It all started with a drunken conversation last night in the room of a tourist hostel where wifi really works. I can say from her hello that she was Iranian. The conversation was a roller coaster ride, from Forugh Farrokhzad to Kader Abdollah. But that isn't the point, she invited me for a coffee today.    I chose a seat close to a window, wait,would it be much more readable if I delineate from here on in a conversation format?  By the way, I prefer to call her Mehroo, though that isn't her name. Mehroo: Salam, not a bad weather for winter. Me: Not at all, but I do like winter.  Mehroo : I dont think so. You look gloomy today, so unlike that crazy guy who ...

"Lifeu Ishtene -->Brilliant"  by Sabari Sridhar 

“Lifeu Isthene” is a swanky, urbane , stylish , pragmatic & uber cool version of “Autograph” by debutant director Pawan Kumar. Happy to finally catch up with the most liked Kannada movie of the year 2011. This movie is a proof of how a taut script , flawless execution , wonderful casting & excellent acting can elevate a wafer thin story into a brilliant movie. No point in 2 hours 15 minutes viewer feels bored. No wonder movie worked wonders among the urban youth of Karnataka this year. Story is how a “Ted Mosby”ish Vishal finally happens to meet & get hitched with the love of his life after a series of romantic misadventures. The narration is linear with lighter vein maintained throughout the length of the movie with a brief melodrama towards the end which perfectly blends in with the overall narration. Diganth has become an ideal choice for roles of this kind after “Manasaree” & “Pancharangi”. He has done an excellent job as the protagonist Vishal with a restrained p...

"My musings: Claps & Boos of 2011, Part 2"  by Sabari Sridhar 

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The content of the article is strictly my opinion. It is not an analysis of Tamil cinema from a journalistic point of view or going by trade news. It is purely reflects how I observed Tamil cinema in 2011 Let us see the movies which deserved the “Claps” & those which received the “Boos”. Also I’ve tried to analyse why they got “Claps ” & ”Boos” respectively. “ Claps “ : Vaagai Sooda vaa is in my opinion the best movie of the year . Vaagai Sooda Vaa deals with a heavy subject but presented in a very subtle manner yet makes a powerful impact on the viewers , therein lies the brilliance of the writer-director Sargunam. Marxist ideals and views are the basic thread of the story but it is more covertly depicted rather than being on your face jingoism of the same. We have seen a lot of movies which deals with societal issues being loud, opinionated and preachy. This is the first time as far as I can remember a maker has presented such an issue based movie in ...

"My musings: Claps & Boos of 2011 , Part 1"  by Sabari Sridhar 

Disclaimer: The content of the article is strictly my opinion. It is not an analysis of Tamil cinema from a journalistic point of view or going by trade news. It is purely reflects how I observed Tamil cinema in 2011 This year was one of those rare ones which left thousands of Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth's fans disappointed as they didn't have a release. Among the next generation of actors Vijay had 2, Ajithkumar had 1, Surya had 1, and Vikram had 2 releases all of which did good business. Of course, it is too early to talk about Vikram’s Rajapattai as the movie got released just one week back. In the next line of actors Dhanush had 5 releases (!), STR released 2 , Jiiva had 4, Karthi had 1. Dhanush and Jiiva has 3 flops each and STR 1 (may be due to the law of averages) which means all these 4 had one hits to their name this year. So in the end each of these top stars have atleast one hit which would have left their fans happy. Coming to my list, I have seen 42 films out of the 120 odd movies that ...

""Only Vi..."  by Sabari Sridhar 

After a very long time here is a pucca commercial movie packed with a very well written script that engrosses the viewers right through the 2 hours & 30 minutes. “Only Vishnuvardhana” by debutant director P.Kumar is a very entertaining movie & worth the every penny spent in making it & viewing it. The script is the hero of the movie with very few flaws. The screenplay is seamless & racy and at the same time engaging that in no point in time do you feel bored or disengaged. Entertainment is the mantra & the director-writer P.Kumar has done his best to provide it without any pretence & he has done an excellent job in doing so. Story revolves around the dreamy-eyed Vishnuvardhana played enthusiastically by Sudeep who happens to lay hands on the mobile of a powerful don (Sonu Sood) & the cat and mouse game that ensues. Director has maintained the lighter vein through the movie which keeps the viewer enthused all along. The intelligence of the writer in P.Kumar is evident in the...

"Midnight in Par..."  by Sabari Sridhar 

“ Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - it’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present ” , dialogue mouthed by the pseudo-intellectual Paul almost typifies the movie “Midnight in Paris ” & what it is about. It is a romantic comedy set in Paris by the most romantics of all Woody Allen. It tells the story of Gil Pender, an dissatisfied writer working in Hollywood trying to get inspiration for his first novel in Paris and how he travels back in time to meet the great artists , writers & legends who have set their foot in Paris in the 1920’s . However romantic & alluring the past may be it is always good to accept present for what it is is what Gil finally end up realizing. It is one of the best movies of the year & boy , it is an interesting piece of work from the grand ...

"The Art of Hindutva"  by udhav naig 

Why is Roja the most important among all the films released in last decade of the previous century? The last decade of the previous century witnessed a sharp ideological shift in the Indian political history which saw the rise and success of the Hindu far-right. The rise of the Hindu nationalist movement coincided with economic liberalisation. It was a period of great political instability (there were 4 elections in the span of 10 years). India let go of her Nehruvian ideas of socialism and secularism, and consumed a deadly cocktail of pro-western capitalism combined with an exclusivist Hindu ideology which tried to paint the Muslim minority as “others”. It is in this context we need to look at the cinematic text of Mani Ratnam’s Roja. Now, the big question is, what is the need to isolate Roja? The question can be answered in two parts: Mani Ratnam is one of those filmmakers who became nationally popular without actually making a film in Hindi. The second important reason is that the film signific...

"new year's..."  by Sabari Sridhar 

Ensemble cast , most romantic & festive day of the year , good support from technical team & a wonderful music , you would expect Gary Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” to be that special movie that you can go and watch it with your loved one for this holiday season. But unlike his previous attempt at a similar movie with even bigger ensemble “Valentine’s day ” , here Gary Marshall falters. The movie is soulless , artificial , contrived & not engaging enough. In the process of bringing in many characters & trying to give them equal opportunities director has lost focus on the script. It is an assortment of opt repeated mushy romances, break-ups & reunions , casual dates , serendipities , father-daughter & mother-daughter relationship issues , all occurring in the backdrop of the new year’s eve. Among the many the ten or so sub-plots , the interesting ones are very few. Lady in her midlife crisis trying to fulfil her series of new year’s resolutions with the help of cour...

"Osthi belongs to t..."  by Ashwath Ram 

Q: What is common with 80's/90's commercial flicks and OSTHE? A: Everything. First Day First Show were always going to be exciting, especially if it is your first time the feel reaches boiling point. I was eagerly looking forward towards the brouhaha, the fan frenzy, the wolf whistles and everything associated with a typical First Day First Show. The movie started one and half hour late and it was not at all worth the wait. The OSTHE stuff: 1. Rajapaatai trailer : This got the maximum cheer from the audience followed by Santhanam. STR comes third. It is the first time I saw the trailer. Chiyaan looks terrific, and I should catch this movie. Santhanam- Apart from Santhanam, nothing is OSTHE in the movie. I have never been more grateful for this guy's presence in any movie. In other words, 'star value' of a movie can be replaced by Santhanam value. Nowhere have I seen an actor on screen who makes the audience clap automatically every time he mouths a dialogue. His comic timing, dialogue delivery, the compar...

"Mayakkam Enn..."  by vanniaperumal s 

Best brothers of kollywood are back to silver screen after 5 years with Mayakkam Enna. Expectations for this movie was very low until the songs were released, but after the audio launch due to the chart buster songs, expectations were at the peak. Hats off to Selva and his team for being active in Twitter and marketing movie to their target audience. Does the movie live up to the expectations??? The answer is "YES". Story Analysis: Karthik Swaminathan (Dhanush) a photographer, his only aim in life is to become a wild life photographer. He & his sister lives with a group of friends. Sundar is a close friend of karthik. One fine day, Sundar brings his gal friend Yamini (Richa) to introduce his gang members. Right from day one, Karthik & Yamini keep on fighting but at a certain point of time, they both fall in love with each other. The remaining story is about, how does Karthik marry his close friend's gal friend?? An accident turns Karthik into Psycho.. Can he come back to his normal life and succee...

"Neon Nagaram - Review of a Music Novel"  by narayan 1991 

Only amazing movies,fascinating cricket matches,captivating novels,heart melting music have entertained us in the past. No one dared to travel in a different path to entertain people.Would you believe me if i say that a group of software engineers wanted to try something different and wanted to travel towards their zeal. Hats Off to Paadhai team for choosing a different path and almost succeeded in it. No one would have had the idea of blending Music and Writing before they tried it. Here comes their second creation “Neon Nagaram”. Oops forgot it .. If you are new to the concept of music Novel , log on to www.paadhai.com and continue reading.The Novel never lets you to put it down. The best part in characterisation is that you can always relate to someone in your life. 1.A stubborn girl like Madhu. 2.A humorous and caring friend like Deepak. 3. A caring mom who always wants you to eat properly. 4.A dad who loves you but hardly finds time to show it to you. 5. A boss who uses your talents. in your life. ...

"Melancholia."  by Manoj Govind 

This time it was that glorious epiphany-type connect. From reading Stephen Davis’ Morrison biography Life, Legend, Death to highlighting the books Morrison used to carry with himself wherever he went, to reading one of them i.e. Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and finally being led into the very mind-numbing evil itself, yes, Lars Von Trier. Incidentally, when I was reading Neitzsche’s B and E, Chap. III p.47 where he talks about religious moods and saints, "in the background of the most recent philosophy, that of Schopenhauer, we find almost as the problem in itself, this terrible note of interrogation of the religious crisis and awakening. How is the negation of will POSSIBLE? how is the saint possible?—that seems to have been the very question with which Schopenhauer made a start and became a philosopher. And thus it was a genuine Schopenhauerian consequence, that his most convinced adherent (perhaps also his last, as far as Germany is concerned), namely, Richard Wagner, should bring his own lif...