Iruvar!!! It’s AWESOME!!! And as a bonus, I am going to explain Tamil politics very quick and dirty in the first paragraph. For those of you who enjoy that kind of thing.
Continue readingI was dreading reviewing this movie and then I thought “well, what if I just don’t? What if instead, I explain to people why I don’t feel able to review it?”
Continue readingYaaaaay, a bunch of people watched this movie! Let’s talk about how awesome it is.
Continue readingIt’s Prakash Raj’s birthday! What a nice man he is. Seems generally hard working, respectful, and decent. Produced out of his own pocket a movie about AIDs, speaks up and says the politically unpopular thing, and everyone likes him and wants to work with him.
Continue readingFirst, head over here to read my big discussion of sex and meaning in Mani Ratnam films. That’s fun and new. This is not new, this has been reposted many many times already. But hey, maybe you haven’t read it yet somehow!
Continue readingI really hope Ratnam himself, while trolling the internet, runs across this headline out of context. Or even better, his wife Suhasini. Maybe they will comment and give us an answer!
Continue readingI really hope some of you watched this film. Or are ready to discuss it with me either way. It’s a fascinating look at a relationship.
Continue readingI say “rerun”, but I actually did quite a bit of rewriting of this review, so it’s mostly totally new. Hopefully you like it!
Continue readingWhen I first saw this, I had only seen a few Mani Ratnam movies and I really loved it. Now I have seen almost all of Ratnam’s movies, and I just appreciate it even more.
This is a really brilliant concept for a film. An intellectual exercise more than anything. I encourage you to watch it straight through once without knowing what is coming, but I also suspect it might turn out to be more entertaining when you know what is coming and can watch how it is built. If you want to maintain the surprise, you can read my No Spoilers review.
That was a very elaborate process! Getting to the theater from work, buying the ticket in advance so it wouldn’t be sold out, and on and on. But, worth it! Not as good as the best Ratnam film, but far better than the worst (Kadal).
This film in particular apparently went to a bunch of international film festivals? The end result being, it is easily available from my library, and on a bunch of streaming websites. I mean, it’s also a really really good movie, but the reason I picked it to watch next was based purely on convenience.
I watched this movie months and months ago when it first arrived on American Netflix, but that was before I was blogging seriously so I didn’t pay very close attention. I wanted to watch it again, now that the remake will be releasing soon (January 13th), and think about how this film could possibly be remade.
This is a strange review, because it’s a beautiful movie with a lot of strong elements that somehow fails to come together. But then on the other hand, the only version I was able to find was for some reason missing 8 or 20 minutes (depending on which source I see), so it’s possible it would have come together if I had seen the full version. But I still kind of doubt it somehow. It’s just an odd odd plot, a strange combination of Agneepath and Thalapathi and “Joote Bole” from Bobby expanded to full film length. And also Christian philosophy which is never quite defined.
This is Voter Registration week in America, so the perfect week to talk about Yuva! (yes yes, I know Aaytha Ezhuthu is better, I can’t find it, and I’ve already seen Yuva)
I’ve reviewed almost every film on this list, so I thought I might as well just write out them all and put in links to the ones I’ve seen, and then I can fill in the rest when I finally get around to reviewing them.
I finally watched Alai Payuthey! After putting it off for years and years and years and years and years. Because I love Saathiya, and I didn’t want to risk having it spoiled. But turns out, they are two distinctly different movies! Although still similar to Saathiya, so this is going to be kind of a combined review. I talked about some of these differences a little already when I reported on the OK Jaanu/OK Kanmani remake thing.
I was watching this movie so closely! So closely! I know the drill with Ratnam films, he just drops in these little bits and then moves on so you can’t look away for a second. And yet, I was still completely lost. But I don’t think it’s my fault! Or at least, not my fault because I wasn’t watching closely enough, but because I didn’t have the expected background.
It’s a Mani Ratnam movie, so the directing is just all around excellent. But more importantly, Rajnikanth! It’s my first Rajnikanth movie (not counting Ra.ONE, because why would you?) and I have to say, he does impress!
I finally sat down and watched Anjali, all set to sob and sob like I did for Kannathil Muthamittal, and it was a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but it just didn’t send me in the same way. Maybe because I’m not the intended audience?
Mani Ratnam strikes again! Another great romance with a complicated heroine and interesting supportive hero. Oh, and I am going to assume for this entire review that you at least know the big thing that is revealed 10 minutes into the film, so if you are obsessive about SPOILERS and don’t even want to know that, DON’T READ ANY MORE!!! But if you are fine with the 10 minute in reveal, but want to be protected from what happens in the remaining 113 minutes, keep going until the usual SPOILER marker.
As you may have picked up from my Aval Shanmughi and Ambe Sivam posts, I have a hard time with Kamal Haasan. Yes, he is a brilliant actor. Yes, he has movie star charisma. But it just seems like his characters have to be so perfect and so wonderful, that no one else is allowed to do anything. But this Kamal Haasan movie, this one I liked!
I watched Mouna Ragam! Which is my 3rd (or 4th or 5th?) Revathy movie. And my I-don’t-kn0w-how-many Ratnam movie. But according to this blog excerpt, this is arguably the first “real” Ratnam film.
Happy Mani Ratnam Day! I’ve reviewed almost all his films here (really, I’m just missing Raavan, Thiruda Thiruda, and the Terrorism Trilogy) and I will be reposing the reviews through out the day today in the run up to Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. Mostly because I have to work a funny day at work to be able to see CCV in theaters so I’ll have no time to write anything new. If you don’t want to be spoiled, here is my no-spoilers review for this film.
This is a post I wrote a year and a half ago for the last Rahman/Ratnam movie, but I thought I should repost it today in honor of Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. It’s important to know why it is so especially exciting when a new Ratnam-Rahman movie comes out, and why that director-composer relationship is so special. (also, usually in this posts I try to use images instead of songs, but because of the topic, this will be an all songs post. I encourage you to actually watch all the videos too)
dontcallitbollywood 