Ramnath

  Lu bber Pandhu Overview: Sports films are always a tricky genre to handle due to its predictability and capturing its true essence. Integrating emotions and sensitive subjects makes it an even more complex genre to deal with, and that's something Lubber Pandhu pulls off quite convincingly. Good writing can make even a feather a powerful weapon and this film is no such exception. The film deals with its subjects in a very deft manner that it neither overdoes nor underplays it. Performances: The story is filled with several characters etched out very well. Harish Kalyan as Anbu fills the screen with energy and maturity, and does several scenes in a subtle manner. The show stealers are easily Dinesh and Swasika, who get the best part out of everyone. The relationship between them is beautifully established through out the film and the small moments between them gives us some solid scenes of emotions. Dinesh as Gethu holds the perfect meter of being both egoistic as well as crying li...

  Meiyazhagan Overview: A film equivalent to an old album in our house, dusted yet nostalgic and wholesome. Amidst films with serious genres and wider ambitions, Meiyazhagan is a beautifully simple film that has a beating heart at a softer, yet right spot. The film manages to make a talky yet mature journey, out of a very simple thread of story. A film of this treatment, is a rare sight. Performances: The whole narrative is all about its two lead characters, Arvind Swamy and Karthi with few another characters. Karthi lights the screen with his bubbling innocence and brims with an infectious energy, with a tinge of emotional weight to him. The magic is however, with Arvind Swamy, who is easily the best in this film. He, as Arulmozhi Varman, brings a very humane nature to an already grounded character, His facial expressions and body language conveys the emotional weight he carries. The transformation his character undergoes, is very natural and convincing. The other star cast like R...

  RAAYAN OVERVIEW: A film where its directional brilliance masks its flawed writing choices" Raayan stems from a very emotional idea that deals with the ideas of betrayal, trust, family and so on. For a movie with such lofty ambitions, Raayan starts off well but loses it momentum in its latter half.  PERFORMANCES: Dhanush is fantastic as Raayan, with great support from Dushara, Sundeep, Kalidas and Selvaraghavan. While Sj Suryah's character feels underwritten, his performance covers it up. Prakash Raj, with his small role, is intriguing and impactful. TECHNICALITIES: Technically the film is outstanding. The cinematography by Om Prakash is terrific, to say the least. The highly coloured frames with red ,blue and dark shades add a lot more depth to the film. While there were moments the colour grading felt so much that it hid the scenes, it's just flawless in other parts. The action choreography is done really well with a lot more realistic yet superb moves. AR Rahman is the...

  Kalki 2898 AD OVERVIEW: 'A highly ambitious film, that remains as a solid visual spectacle rather than an emotionally relatable epic.' There can be definitely references to Mad Max, Dune and many other dystopian kinda films, but where it all stands out is it's sincere attempt to flesh out a mythological sci-fi film. Kalki is like a film where you find overused tropes around characters but the visual marvel it manages to show infront of us overshadows it. A Mahabharatha with Dystopian storyline is definitely a fresh and epic idea to explore and it is brought well on screen, to a very large extent. There were too many characters and too many cameos where some of them were good while others were for the hype surrounding the film. PERFORMANCES: Except for Amitabh Bachchan, no other character has a well etched character arc, spare it for the sparsely shown Kamal Hassan as Supreme Yaskin, who really manages to create a menacing villain. It's all Kamal Hassan's presence ...

  Indian 2 OVERVIEW: 'A film that borders on being over the top and being bearable, but fails to even do something original and fresh' This film is a bit tricky for me to give my opinion, just because the film felt better for me in its latter half. To hop onto the 'negatives' part, lets give credit where it's due. The initial moments of the film were good with some nice ideas sprinkled and the motive of having social issues, and somewhat hard hitting. The second half definitely got better for me, personally. The progression in the plot with certain moments made some sense in a film that almost made a mess of itself. The aspect of Senapathy's ambiguity in terms of characterisation towards the end was good. To just pounce on the badly written aspects of the film and demean it might be a bad step. I can probably try to be a bit diplomatic. The film doesn't try anything fresh or impactful in the first half. The most disheartening fact was that the film's wor...

  The Greatest of All Time OVERVIEW: G.O.A.T is a proper Vijay film after a very long time that works well as an entertainer, despite its many shortcomings. Venkat Prabhu has always been someone who is known for his style of handling humour in serious subjects and his knack of trying different genres. But this time, VP has managed to pull off a quintessential Thalapathy film with his trademark elements, which almost saved the day. Expecting G.O.A.T to be either Maanaadu/Leo/Mankatha is not gonna help much in getting entertained by this film as it delivers what it promised. VP doesn't get every single element of his style in a correct way, but he definitely brings back the Vijay film we admired and dearly missed. PERFORMANCES : Thalapathy Vijay is absolutely fantastic as Gandhi/ Jeevan. The versatility he shows with his characters is a showcase of his talent. While Jeevan's character might feel borderline cheesy, it does the best in keeping us entertained. A very different yet e...

  THANGALAAN: OVERVIEW: Thangalaan is definitely neither an easy watch, nor an easy film to review at. This is indeed a brave experiment by the whole team. Stories like Thangalaan deserve to be told and experienced on the big screen. The film is really fresh and unique from the conventional mainstream cinema we are exposed to. Thangalaan easily transitions across various time periods, giving us a sense of watching the evolution of not only the main character, but also the transformation of the world he inhabits. Films with world building has always managed to pique the interest of audiences and this is no such exception. PERFORMANCES: Films like these are powered by performances and this is no such exception.It is always a rare bad performance from Chiyaan and he gives this character a personality, with the way he walks, he speaks, he reacts, and the way he fights. Truly a great performance. Not to forget mentioning the great characters of Parvathy, Malavika, Pasupathy and even the...

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram OVERVIEW: Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is a golden proof that solid writing can elevate any story and this is no such exception. SS gets the most delicious core plot for an action-masala film and the reason why this commercial film feels fresh and unique is solely due to the beautiful writing. This usual good vs evil story is elevated very well due to its characterisation. What I absolutely loved about this film is the characters of both protagonist and antagonist. The common trait of them being hot-tempered and the way it humanises the protagonist and corrupts its antagonist, is top-notch masala writing. A simple contradiction of introspecting and venting out anger to outrageously venting out is a masterful stroke to flesh out a proper hero villain. (Hitchcock was always right.) PERFORMANCES:  Nani is natural as is known and pulls off this mass avatar quite effortlessly. SJ Suryah is easily the show stealer with his trademark antics, amped up by his cruel evilness a...

  A peek into my journey: Since my childhood, movies have been my go-to entertainment, something I have always found engaging and amusing, only to a time where I realised that there are a lot of facets to the filmmaking practice that has always impressed me. With my increasing age and exposure to films, I was keenly interested in learning a lot about films and its making, up until when I realised my sheer love for movies and then I decided to pursue my career on films. To hone my skills in films, I had decided to write film analysis and movie reviews to dissect the various aspects of a film and learn about each and everything in a film to make sure I get to know a lot about movies and the process behind its creation. And this is where my journey of writing film reviews had started and it will continue until I get hands on my own creation, my first film.  To start with, I have chosen to post my review on the newly released Malayalam film, Kishkinda Kandam, directed by Dinjith A...