My earliest exposure to Telugu films was when watching Doordarshan in the 1980s-90s. The images of Chiranjeevi in purple pants and purple shirts singing in meadows with equally colourful heroines are etched in my mind. At the time, the mere mention of Telugu movies would bring forth laughter from everyone around me. I cringe. I...

Years ago, my colleagues and I were taking a short walk during our lunch hour along the quiet lanes of Rest House Road in Bangalore. Suddenly, we were accosted from behind by 3 or 4 transgenders. They didn’t do anything to us. They were simply asking for money. But their actions, appearance, behaviour were all...

I hadn’t heard of Lover until today evening. I have a habit of reading The Hindu’s movie review section every Friday. Today, it featured an article called “Breakout talents of Tamil cinema in 2024.” I was intrigued. I hadn’t heard of any of the actors’ names, except one, but I had watched many of the...

Malayalam cinema has been charming me all over again in recent times. After the brilliant and powerful movies of the 90s, there was a lull in the 2000s until talent like Dulquer, Fahadh, Parvathy, Aparna Gopinath et al arrived on the scene. More recently, there have been some intense and noteworthy performances from slightly more...

This weekend was sunny and glorious, and the whole of Dublin was outside on the streets in droves, filling up the parks, pubs, and canal-sides. I went for a walk in the park with my friends, and enjoyed some Curiosity Cola after a long, long time and the eclectic mix of movies that I watched...

The weather in Dublin has been an absolute drag on the soul. Colourless skies, intermittent rain, high winds. And just to drill it in further, the sun peeked out a few times, bathing everything gloriously golden, before quickly retreating to its mansion in the clouds. Given this setting, I wanted to watch movies that would...

Five movies this week. I feel decadent. But the movies were all mostly good, and it was a good mix of English, Hindi, and Tamil. While Aruvi was unexpectedly disappointing, Qarib Qarib Singlle was unexpectedly good. Here’s a brief roundup. Coco (English) Coco was a surprise watch this week and I am glad I got to...

This weekend I saw a Malayalam movie called “Pathemari” or The Dhow in English. Centered on the Gulf rush of the 70’s and 80’s when Malayalees would give anything to find a job in the Middle East, the movie has