The complicated moral universe of ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ and Shankar’s ‘2.0’
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/2.0-moral-universe-thugs-of-hindustan-shankar-aamir-khan-rajinikanth/ Or why films that attempt to deviate from the formula...
View ArticleReaders Write In #61: Metacriticism – The difficulty of reviewing a movie in...
I watched the Rajnikanth starrer “2.0” yesterday and now I’m faced with a very difficult question. What do I say when a friend asks me: “How was the film?” No one’s going to look for a detailed...
View ArticleInterview: PC Sreeram
Coming this Friday. My conversation with PC Sreeram in the “Journeys” series. (Ravi Varman featured in the previous – and first – episode). For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH:...
View Article#AskBR – 2.0
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one. For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
View ArticleInterview: Rajiv Menon
Rajiv Menon talks about being a dominant-caste filmmaker tackling a Dalit narrative in Sarvam Thaala Mayam, his relationship with the “musically modest” AR Rahman, and why the cinematography in Mani...
View Article“Kedarnath”… A generally watchable film whose scenery does more heavy-lifting...
Spoilers ahead… I’m going to begin with the scene you expect in every story where an upper-class Hindu girl falls for a lower-class Muslim boy. The girl’s family finds out. They’re livid when they...
View Article“Zero”… This very literal flight of fancy is the year’s most audacious love...
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/zero-review-baradwaj-rangan-this-very-literal-flight-of-fancy-is-the-years-most-audacious-love-story/ In...
View Article“Simmba”… Ranveer Singh is ridiculously good in Rohit Shetty’s most focused film
Spoilers ahead… At the beginning of the Aankh maare music video in Rohit Shetty’s Simmba, Karan Johar pops up and declares, in mock horror, “Oh God, one more remix!”But of course, it isn’t just the...
View Article“Uri: The Surgical Strike”… Not so much a war movie as a ‘Hukumat’-style...
Spoilers ahead… Like the prelude to an orchestral score, the opening stretch of Aditya Dhar’s Uri: The Surgical Strike, lays out a leitmotif. It’s 2015. Soldiers of the Indian Army are travelling in a...
View ArticleInterview: The heroines of the ‘Queen’ remakes
#Tamannaah Bhatia, #KajalAggarwal & #ParulYadav who star in the South remakes of Kangana Ranaut’s #Queen, Paris Paris in Tamil, That is Mahalakshmi in Telugu & Butterfly in Kannada speak to...
View Article“Thackeray”… A celebratory epic that’s less about a leader’s psyche than his...
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/thackeray-movie-review-nawazuddin-siddiqui-baradwaj-rangan When the incendiary trailer for Abhijit Panse’s...
View Article“Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi”… A great historical character is dully...
Spoilers ahead… Why can’t we make better cinema about the great, cinema-ready personalities who fought the British in the nineteenth century? This isn’t just about Ketan Mehta’s Mangal Pandey, which...
View Article“Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga”… A pleasant (and yes, safe) romance with an...
Spoilers ahead… Shelly Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga opens with a big, fat Bollywood wedding — but like everything else in the film, it’s also about something else, something sadder,...
View ArticleFC@Berlin 2019, Dispatch 1 – Before Zoya Akhtar and Rima Das, these Indians...
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-indians-at-berlinale-before-zoya-akhtar-rima-das/ Mainstream ventures like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,...
View Article“Gully Boy”… A softer than expected, but hugely entertaining and beautifully...
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/gully-boy-movie-review-berlin-film-festival-2019-ranveer-singh-zoya-akhtar-baradwaj-rangan/ Zoya Akhtar’s...
View ArticleMy Favourite Film Decade – Bollywood in the 1980s
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/favourite-films-of-a-decade/baradwaj-rangan-80s-top-films/ One of the aspects of pop-culture that really, I mean really, gets...
View ArticleGully Boy At Berlin: An Oral History
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-gully-boy-an-oral-history-baradwaj-rangan/ The premiere was near. Everyone was in a rush: producer...
View Article“Photograph”… A romance that’s a little too low-key, but with winsome little...
Spoilers ahead… Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/berlin-film-festival-2019-ritesh-batra-photograph-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan/ Hindi film music plays a...
View Article“Luka Chuppi”… A superb screwball premise results in a merely okayish comedy
Spoilers ahead… W hen I heard about the “live-in” premise of Luka Chuppi, directed by Laxman Utekar, I feared the worst. This is how I thought things would go: Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) and Rashmi (Kriti...
View Article“Sonchiriya”… A diligently made ‘daku’-drama whose parts work better than the...
Spoilers ahead… Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya opens with the image of flies swarming around a rotting snake carcass (seen in an extreme close-up) – and in the far distance, out of focus, we see a group...
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