We started the week with KR Vijaya. The yesteryear heroine regaled us with stories about her film career, working with Gemini Ganesan and what it meant to be the reigning star of the ’60s in a special interview.
Read Interview Here: “Back Then There Was No Pressure To Maintain Our Waistlines” – KR Vijaya Interview
Karunakaran, whose Hara Hara Mahadeva Ki released over the weekend, talked about the kind of comedy he prefers to be associated with and said that cruel physical jabs were just not his thing.
Read Interview Here: Karunakaran Interview – “Humour That Makes Fun Of A Person’s Appearance Is Unacceptable!”
Tovino Thomas too, toed the politically correct line in an interview. Insisting that he did not want fan associations, the young actor said that it was alright if his fans just watched his films. He didn’t need anything more.
Read Here: The Tovino Thomas Interview
The notoriously reclusive VT Vijayan spoke to us about staying away from publicity and the reason behind his decision to take on fewer films.
Read Here: Get To Know – Editor VT Vijayan
Jai Lava Kusa continued to dominate Telugu box office, with earnings of around Rs 60 crore. The other films weren’t quite so lucky, though.
Read Here: Box Office Roundup – ‘Jai Lava Kusa’ Emerges On Top
We spent a day in EVP Film City, Chennai to discover what pulled Tamil Cinema’s big-budget directors to the place. We were quite surprised with what we found.
Read Here: A Day In EVP Film City
Director Suresh Krissna spoke to us about the universal appeal of his Rajinikanth-starrer Baasha. The film was screened at a film festival in Austin, Texas.
Read Here: Director Suresh Krissna – “Baasha’s Universal Appeal Is Not Surprising!”
Anna Rajan’s throwaway comment about actor Mammootty elicited much social media rage. The actor personally apologised to Anna for the behaviour of his fans. If nothing else, this incident reinforced the need for male stars to rein in their fans on social media.
Read Here: Anna Rajan Trolled For Comment On Mammootty
While stars like Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan find social media an effective outlet for their thoughts and frustrations, they sometimes just don’t know how to use the medium, and end up making faux pas after faux pas.
Read Here: When Senior Stars Need Lessons In Twitter Etiquette
Ilaiyaraaja’s decision to ask Smule to remove his songs caused quite a furore earlier this week. We spoke to a few young composers about their thoughts on the issue. Not surprisingly, most of them took the side of Ilaiyaraaja.
Read Here: Young Composers Laud Ilaiyaraaja’s Decision To Remove His Songs From Smule
Lata Mangeshkar turned 87 earlier this week. The ageless singer has rendered many a soulful hit. But, we took a look at her ‘Lag Aa Jale’ – a song that simply refuses to rust with age.
Read Here: Lata Mangeshkar’s Lag Aa Jale Is A Song For The Ages
For actor Kamal Haasan and his fans, the past few months have been a roller coaster ride. From insisting that rational people will not enter politics to his recent announcement that he will start his own party soon, Haasan has given contradictory statements.
Read Here: What Exactly Is Kamal Haasan’s Political Stand?
The golu at the Kalpathi house is always executed on a grand scale. This year, they took inspiration from Odisha’s Puri Jagannadh yatra.
Read Here: Call Of The Dolls
Reviews:
Hara Hara Mahadeva Ki had a zany plot, but it was marred by crude, sexist humour and cringe worthy gags.
Read Here: ‘Hara Hara Mahadeva Ki’ Review
Judwaa 2 was a crude film with nothing to recommend it. It’s clearly been a bad year for Hindi films story-wise, especially the mega-budgeted ones. Biopics and sequels seem to be the flavour of the season. Minus a handful of good ones this year, several Hindi films have resorted to lazy writing, half-baked characters, and a general lack of creativity.
Bearing this in mind, Judwaa 2 doesn’t stand a chance next to its original 1997 film.
Read Here: ‘Judwaa 2’ Review
Despite Vijay Sethupathi’s efforts in Karuppan, this village drama sits ill at ease on his shoulders. There’s not much to recommend it (the editing by VT Vijayan could’ve been better – there’s a lot to chop in here) and Bobby Simha is criminally underused.
It’s nice to see Pasupathy after a long time, but even that novelty wears off when you see him as a man willing to give away his sister in marriage to a man who is (by all counts) a wastrel.
But, that’s the way these films roll.
One would be hard pressed to find differences between Karuppan and the many movies of Muthiah (Komban, Kutty Puli).
Read Here: Karuppan Review
Udaharanam Sujatha is not path-breaking cinematic work, or a story that tugs your heart forever. But it’s a neat level-headed portrait of a Dalit woman’s life in a city, something that our commercial films rarely focus on. The feel-goodness that it dishes out is too sugary sometimes, but is charmingly natural.
Read Here: Udaharanam Sujatha Review
Rama Leela is a forgettable film that toys with the serious subject of a political assassination; and as a crime and investigation drama, it displays no exceptional intelligence.
Recommended
Read Here: Rama Leela Review
Despite the combined efforts of Mahesh Babu and AR Murugadoss, the film fails to come together. It’s a mish-mash of ideas and ideologies. It wants to glorify its villain while maintaining the superstar image of its male lead. It wants to show a new type of heroine and usher in that rare mainstream film that makes use of the mythology bestowed upon us by our forebears. It’s a tall order.
Amusing and entertaining in parts, SPYder is a film that desperately wants to be slick, polished and even meaningful. But, it fails on all these fronts.
Read Here: SPYder Review
*****