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Movie Review - 2.0

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We are all taught the proverb, all that “Glitters is not Gold” or “Do not judge a book by its cover”, but after watching 2.0, I genuinely feel that we can go through every piece or written media we have and replace it with 2.0 and the meaning would remain the same. Watching 2.0 is like discovering a treasure box. One that is ornate, beautiful, grand designed with perfect geometry, shaped and sculpted by a thousand hands which opens up with a tantalizing hiss to reveal a small dried up piece of paper saying “treasure” crumpled up in some random corner. Let me get this out of the way, the first three minutes of the film where we see a man walking through the fields climb up the cell tower, surrounded by birds and hanging himself is a master class in 3D film-making where the director and the cinematographer show us how 3D can be used as a deeper tool than as a flashy gimmick and an afterthought. This along with some brilliant uses of lighting and framing show that there is ...
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Movie Review - The Light (Short Film)

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It is always special watching someone make something purely out of passion despite having no practical experience, and in a word that is how I would describe “The Light”; special. Despite all its flaws, every frame screams Passion, and in an ideal world that would probably be enough to make “The Light” one of my favourite short films. The film attempts to capture the feeling of depression, and from some of the shots and ideas it is obvious that the director is telling a very personal story. That is why it breaks my heart to say that the film did not live up to my expectations. Let me set the context for you, I saw the trailer first set to a fantastic cover of Hurt by Johnny Cash. The first thing I noticed in the trailer was the editing and I was captivated. When I did see the film, the thing that let me down most was the editing. I felt that the trailer told me a more consistent story compared to the film. What made it that much more disappointing was that the tr...
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The Dramatic Arts - Neithal

While watching Neithal, my perception of what makes a play “Good” came into question. How do you define a good play? Is it a good play if it follows certain arbitrary rules set by critics? Is it a good play if all the actors do an amazing job? Is considered a good play if the audience have a great time? The very scale by which I classify plays as good or bad is based on personal preferences and opinions and the very fact that Neithal is a play made by a very close friend calls into question the integrity of any review or critique I might express. Despite that however, I feel that Neithal has a very paradoxical sense to it that I really want to explore from two different perspectives. “The Intended Audience” and “The critic” Neithal had a unique advantage right from its conceptualization and that the director, Praveen, knew the general make-up of the audience who will be viewing the play; College students between the ages of 19 and 25 and, I am sure even he knows this, he has c...
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The Dramatic Arts : Nethradharisanam

It is rare to come across a perfect play; where impeccable direction, writing, screenplay and technical direction seamlessly blend together to create what is, necessarily, a breathtaking experience. It is rarer still to watch a play that manages to change the way you look at the medium. Interestingly enough a ground breaking play need not be perfect. Nethradharisanam belongs to the latter category and while not impeccable, the effect it had on me changed my perspective on the way Stage plays can tell truly touching stories. As it has been a while since I penned a review let me go through this part by part before I bombard you with my opinion. Nethradharisanam, written and directed by C V Chandramohan, was first released in the year 2005 to critical acclaim. The play that I am reviewing now is the re-staging of the same play, with the same writer- director, the same technical team and it also stars one of the three original cast members. Let me be upfront in saying that I have not...
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The Dramatic Arts : Ninaipadhaellam Nadandhuvittal

One of the many challenges that a writer of comedy drama faces is making a cohesive plot that ties together all the jokes, so that it doesn’t end up being just one random joke after another. Probably the easiest way to do this would be to take up a concept that is inherently funny and basically the jokes write themselves. This is why I am completely amazed by the writer and director of Ninaipadhaellam Nadandhuvittal, SL Naanu, because he takes a concept that is not all that inherently funny, a grandfather restoring his sons faith in the younger generation, and manages to combine it with wit, charm and most importantly good natured humor to create a play that won me over as it progressed. Ninaipadhaellam Nadandhuvittal is basically a family comedy, as most of SL Naanu’s recent plays have been, but to its credit it has a lot of new things in store for us. While the concept itself may not be original, the execution is actually very well done. The spin that is added to the age old ...
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The Dramatic Arts : Atithi

I am not sure many reviewers or critics would agree with this statement, but as a guy who calls himself both I have to admit that I am not without inherent opinions and biases. I have strong opinions about a lot of things and this, I believe, applies to each and every single human being. We all have predispositions to certain things. I, for example, prefer Thrillers to Comedies. I prefer English movies to Tamil movies. I prefer instrumental music to music with lyrics. I think that Adele is a better singer than Beyonce and that Inception is a better film than The Dark Knight. But the kicker is that with every word I write in my reviews or analyses I strive to differentiate myself from every other person with an opinion by setting a standard that is almost universal and I make sure the standard that I set makes sure that I don’t favor my biases over what is technically a good production but it has something that doesn’t align with my views. And with that preface I would like to mov...
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The Dramatic Arts : Uravodu Vilayadu

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Something that is pretty common when it comes to entertainment of any form is that a concept ends up being more interesting than the actual final product. This is very much common in a lot of movies, novels and, focusing on the topic at hand, stage plays. It always breaks my heart when I see it happen, and I have seen it happen a lot, because most of the time the concept is so original and so beautifully intricate that you are left wondering what it could have been. Uravodu Vilayadu is not a badly executed play but the concept itself outshines the execution so much that the end product feels incomplete. Before I dive headfirst into this analysis I want to admit that I have been working on this analysis for the past week because I really want to do this play ju stice. I also want to say this, GirishAyapathy and Gowthami gave their all on stage and they were by far, along with the music by Guhaprasath and lights by “Cheta” Ravi, the most captivating aspects of the play. T...
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