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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “And the Oscar doesn’t go to…”
Some thoughts on cricket and baseball and the movies we send out for Best Foreign Film consideration. So the powers that be chose The Good Road over The Lunchbox, and Twitter exploded. I thought,...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A truce between fiction and fact”
‘Madras Café’ may not be a perfect film, but it deserves praise for doing what it does in our cinematic climate. I finally caught up with Madras Café, which begins with this snatch of background...
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“Those days, we could afford to launch a film without a script”
Ramesh Sippy offers a whirlwind tour through his career as Baradwaj Rangan listens. ‘Ramesh Sippy, who was in Chennai for the hundredth-year-of-Indian cinema celebrations, wouldn’t talk about the film...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Dancing about architecture”
Thoughts on the background score in the movies, and the difficulty in writing about them. One kind of response you get used to as a critic is the but-how-could-you-not-mention… This usually comes from...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “On matters of gravity…”
On Clooney. On Jackman. On heroes not playing heroes. On how much money is enough. On fans. Different people like George Clooney for different reasons. My affection for the actor comes from the fact...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A separation of audiences?”
Movies for everyone versus movies for a few. Notes from the recently concluded Mumbai International Film Festival. Why do people laugh in the movies? The obvious answer is that they find something...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “The metrosexualisation of muscle”
Six-pack? Eight-pack? Or make it a round dozen – twelve-pack? How fit do we want our heroes to be? When Aamir Khan acquired a six-pack (or eight-pack or whatever) for Ghajini, it was still a novelty,...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Playing the market”
In which we perform the duties of the devil’s advocate and look at why movies, most times, are the way they are. James Gray made his filmmaking debut with Little Odessa, and then he made four...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “How to make a big dumb movie… with smarts ”
See ‘Thor: The Dark World’, and you’ll see what the latest installment of ‘Krrish’ could and should have been. I didn’t like Krrish 3, and one type of response to my opinion about the film has pointed...
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A man and his muse
When Meena Kumari died of cirrhosis of the liver (precipitated by excessive drinking), in March 1972, Vinod Mehta was working as a copywriter in an advertising agency. He accepted a commission to write...
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Man of Steel
An excerpt from my profile of Vikram for Caravan’s December issue. The full text will be available online soon at this link: IT WAS THE BEST NIGHT of Kenny’s life. It was the worst night of Kenny’s...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “In the company of men”
About the non-release of “Satya 2,” and an attempt to understand a fine filmmaker’s descent into cultural irrelevance. That Ram Gopal Varma’s stock has fallen is in little doubt, but it was shocking,...
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‘An entertainer should help build the moral fibre of society’
A week before Aamir Khan was to inaugurate 11th Chennai International Film Festival, he consented to a curtain-raiser interview – and on a warm Thursday afternoon, I found myself waiting in his new...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Back on the big screen”
The re-release of “Sholay” shows us, again, that this isn’t just a great action movie, but a great movie, period. The 3D is just frippery. When the thakur, in an inspector’s uniform, shoots at the pair...
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Seeking unity in diversity
In a country as diverse as ours, how do we prevent the ghettoisation of the regional film industries? Subtitles could be a start… When an Elizabeth Taylor or a Paul Newman dies, all of America grieves....
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Poems, with beats and a great tune…”
Vairamuthu’s Padma Bhushan honour is a reminder (if any were needed) that the lyrics written for films are sometimes on par with the best poetry. We all read prose, some of us write prose, but when it...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A few good women”
On films for “women audiences,” films like Suchitra Sen’s ‘Mamta’, where the hero played second fiddle to the heroine. When Suchitra Sen passed away, I wanted to write something about Bombai Ka Babu,...
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The natural
Balu Mahendra, who died yesterday of cardiac arrest, was one of the handful of filmmakers who, in the 1970s, changed the face of Tamil cinema. He was also one of the handful who could be termed an...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Highway robbery… or happenstance?”
A few days after the release of Imtiaz Ali’s wonderful new film, the Internet is abuzz with accusations of plagiarisation. But is that really the case? I liked Imtiaz Ali’s Highway a lot, and when...
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