Sunday, April 28, 2024

Film and TV

“As a nation, we did not have a religious identity before but now I don’t know why…”: Actor Vidya Balan

India has become “more polarised” when it comes to religion, with people desperately searching for anything that gives them a sense of “identity,” said award winning actor Vidya Balan.

Indian-American actor Avantika Vandanapu dedicates South Asian Person of The Year award to Gaza

Indian-American actor and 'Mean Girls' star Avantika Vandanapu was named the South Asian Person of the Year by Harvard University on 10 April.

South Indian films ahead of Bollywood as they aren’t bogged down by ‘astronomical’ star fees: Dibakar Banerjee

Acclaimed filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee says that Bollywood is so disconnected from its roots

“Aadujeevitham”: Fails in its adaptation, survives on visual grandeur and built-up anticipation

One can understand how the idea of Najeeb’s Iman in the novel is universalised into Hope in the film. This might appear as nit picking but given the current situation, I cannot help but highlight how Islamic narratives are appropriated by liberal language use. 

Watching ‘Dune’ from the East

Second part of the 'Dune' film series, adapted from Frank Herbert’s novel of the same title and directed by Denis Villeneuve with a stellar cast of globally acclaimed actors like Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Javier Bardem, is gaining attention worldwide. Rising Box office collections and high ratings have made it a remarkable success. 

Tandav: Discussed for the wrong reasons

Every time I watch an Indian political drama and before my criticism about its shortcomings, gross misrepresentations, and appropriations take place, the Indian far-right would have already got offended and started a campaign against it just because of a dialogue or a scene.

Cinema theatres to reopen in Kerala from January 5

Kerala set to open cinema theatres from January 5 with 50 per cent seating capacity.
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Malayalam director Naranipuzha Shanavas dies at 37

Naranipuzha Shanavas, best known for directing the recently released Malayalam movie Sufiyum Sujathayum passed away on Tuesday.

Kim; the beauty of the wilderness

My filims are out of mediocrity, Kim ki Duk the south korean director known for his eccentric cinematic oeuvre, once said. May be that 's why the characters in his filims don't talk much. Most of the movies have very little dialogues, rather the scenes captured were excruciating. The fictional sculpture seems to be the mild surface of the sea, and the violence unexpectedly exploding are evident of how Kim's treatment of motif is idiosyncratic. It scares the audience sometimes with blood drips, and the scenes of cut penis, bitten vagina.
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Legendary filmmaker Kim Ki-duk dies of COVID-19

Award-winning and legendary Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk died from Covid-19 complications in Latvia, the country's media have reported.

Dhanush, Sai Pallavi’s Rowdy Baby becomes first South Indian song to hit 1 billion views

Dhanush and Sai Pallavi's hit song Rowdy Baby has hit another milestone as it garnered a whopping 1 billion views on YouTube.
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The trial of Chicago 7: An indictment for carrying “certain” ideas

The Netflix original film is based on the “political” trial of eight activists who were indicted for the conspiracy to cross the state lines to incite riots. The anti-Vietnam war demonstrations took place in Chicago in 1968 at the National Democratic Convention.

The ethics of seeing: Watching Halal Love Story

The cinema tries to trace a specific time period of a Muslim everyday.
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C U SOON: A movie happened beyond limitations

Mahesh Narayanan the director of Take-off gives a thoroughly different visual experience with his realistic production design through C U Soon a full screen-based movie breaking all expectations and surpassing particularly limitations of the lockdown period when the writers, directors, artist, and technicians around the globe face extreme challenges.

Over a haveli: Gulabo Sitabo and contemporary contestations

The octogenarian actor Farrukh Jaffer of Gulabi Sitabo, somehow reminds one of the nanis and dadis of Shaheen Bagh, as her remarkable character Fathima Beegum has got certain resemblances to those elderly women sat at the Delhi-Noida highway, to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
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‘The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas’ trailer released

Writer-filmmaker Rajesh Rajamani has shared the trailer of his upcoming short film The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas, a satirical take on upper-caste savarnas.

‘Dialect’ics of performance: An ode to Mammootty

Thus, all the individualistic improvements apart, our experience of seeing Mammootty on screen is always strongly mediated by our history of discursive engagements with various on/off-screen experiences of Mammootty, as an actor and as a public personality.
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