• Kill

    The first thing you hear when you watch Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s Kill is the theme from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai that plays over the Dharma Productions logo. If there is a greater red herring in the history of red herrings, I do not know it. (This is not to say that Karan Johar only produces…

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  • Kalki 2898 AD

    An intrguing premise – elements of the Mahabharata are reconfigured into a dystopian sci-fi story – is let down by an underwhelming film.

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  • Ullozhukku

    A superb two-character drama about death, love, agency and doing the right thing.

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  • Coda

    “Hello?” “Hey, this is…” “I know. It’s been a while but it’s not like I can’t recognize your voice.” “I just heard the news. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.” “Really? I’m terribly sorry for your loss? Two years without a word, and when he dies, the best you can manage is that cliche? For…

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  • Laapataa Ladies

    Kiran Rao’s sophomore feature Laapataa Ladies begins at a bidaai (a farewell to the bride as she leaves to go to her in-laws’ house). The bride’s face is covered with a veil so all-encompassing that she can barely see anything past her feet. There is a moment of brief panic in her face when her…

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  • Merry Christmas

    A few days after watching Merry Christmas, I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out why it worked for me. The film is a slow burn, to the point where there isn’t really an end to the burning. You don’t see the quiet desperation of a character who has committed a crime and is…

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  • To be perfectly honest with you, Ghoomer feels more gimmicky than anything else for pretty much its entire running time. There’s a moment towards the end when Anina, a one-handed woman picked as a bowler, steps out to bat because her team still needs a couple of runs to win and she’s the only one…

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  • Kaathal – The Core

    There is a preternatural stillness to Kaathal – The Core, Jeo Baby’s latest directorial starring Mammooty and Jyothika. People pray with solemnity, and there’s a lot of praying throughout the film. Courtroom arguments are presented in a normal tone of voice. Even a political campaign where one candidate uses a microphone is interrupted by rain,…

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  • Leo

    Statutory warning: Here be spoilers. For more or less the entire first half of the film, I was transfixed by Leo. The writing is clean, the screenplay flows like water, the action is well shot, and Vijay finds another gear I didn’t know he had. The opening stretch involves a stunningly shot and edited encounter…

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  • Firstly, why the hell does the title need that extra i? Ah, never mind. Here’s the thing, and watch out, because there are going to be a few spoilers here: A young man finds out that his wheelchair-bound mostly-mentally-absent grandfather once had a dalliance with a woman named Jamini. Turns out they had, at the…

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