Happy Birthday Mohanlal! My Favorite Movie of Yours, Namukku Parkkan Munthirithoppukal

This is such a lovely movie. Poor quality, the only copy available seems to be a bit deteriorated. But you can still feel the reality of the beauty of the world around them. And most of all, the story is so beautiful, hope and love over terrible damage.

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Valentine’s Week of Sex: Namukku Parkkan Munthirithoppukal

This is a movie that is all about sex, without actually having a sex scene. Sex fantasies, sex experimentation, and sexual violence (nothing explicitly shown, but discussed and treated seriously by the plot). And it is also a movie about love and redemption and freedom. It’s just lovely.

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Driving Licence Review (SPOILERS): The Story Behind Every Star Story

Trying very hard to keep my eyes open and looking forward to spending tomorrow just being sick in bed, but I will plow on and finish the SPOILER review of this movie, because it is just so interesting! Oh, and I encourage you to read the spoilers in this case if you want. Probably most of you can’t see it in theaters, and the ideas it brings up are universal and really interesting to discuss. Or at least, I think so.

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Driving Licence Review (No SPOILERS): Shahrukh’s Fan, But in Kerala and With Prithviraj

As expected, I did way too much and by the end of the day was having a very hard time staying awake since I am ever so slightly sick. I just barely managed to make it through to the end of this film without falling asleep, but it was worth it (I think).

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Jallikattu Review (SPOILERS): This is the Reason I Stay Off Social Media

What a brilliantly disturbing movie. If you are a film person, someone who admires camerawork and inventive images and so on, you can watch it. If you are someone who tends to get emotionally involved in a film, maybe stay away, there are some very disturbing emotions here.

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NRI Week: Ivide, An American Family Story

This is such a fascinating wonderful movie, so many themes woven into it, and no easy answers. And tragically, it is impossible to find with subtitles. Looks like it might be available through WorldCat (the extreme University version of inter-library loan) and on the UK, India, and Australia amazon on DVD. And also, Movie Time Video, the wonderful New Jersey store that offers rent-by-mail. So if you live in one of those three countries, or have access to WorldCat, or a rental account with NJMT, you can watch it! Otherwise, you can struggle along with the Einthusan no-subtitles version. Thankfully a lot of the dialogue is English, so you might be able to make it work.

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Wednesday Malayalam: Sakhavu, for May Day

I finally watched it! Ages after it came out. For those of you who like Communists/Communism, this is a great movie for gently explaining the importance of collective action. For those of you who like “cuddly” type men (you know who you are!), this is a great movie for giving you nice sofa like Nivin striding around with his big arms and trunk.

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