(Spoilers are a part of the spectacle and are necessary to understand the spectacle as well. This is exactly what Debord meant by detournement, and instead of googling what it is or thinking about its applicability in this context, you could just read the damn article.) One of Spielberg’s greatest strengths as a filmmaker is […]
Read more "Self-Mythology with Self-Reflexivity: The Fabelmans"(I guess the spoiler question arises again, but really, do we really need to fixate on spoilers and trivialize the real-life horrors the film speaks about?) In one of the few expository sequences in Don Palathara’s chilling Family, a nun chastises a pregnant woman, Rani (Divya Prabha), for even voicing suspicion about the acts of a […]
Read more "Closed Doors Policy: Family (2023)"(The spoilers in the review are meant for the readers to discover their humanity.) The opening lullaby in Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio reminded me of the song sequences in mainstream Indian relationship dramas, in its overlaying of a song on a series of vignettes to distil a relationship and the characters. But like many pedestrian Indian dramas, […]
Read more "A Tree With Broken Branches: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio"(I wrote an article on Natchatiram Nagargiradhu for Film Companion. Here’s a small excerpt from it.) In the episode of The Film Comment podcast dedicated to Godard, Richard Brody mentions how Godard arrived at his leftist politics through his filmmaking, rather than through the conventional route of reading texts. This isn’t hard for me to […]
Read more "Tritely Radical: Natchatiram Nagargiradhu"(Spoilers? I suppose you are the type that claims the past is filled with spoilers. Well, I wish to return to it, so here’s your warning. Happy?) Though my experience of watching The Tsugua Diaries was largely pleasurable, questions about its unusual reverse chronological structure kept hovering over my head. This aesthetic choice certainly offers […]
Read more "Covid and Community: The Tsugua Diaries (2021)"(I wrote about Devi (1960) for Animus magazine. Here’s a small excerpt. You are still asking about spoilers? You would think you would be rational and learn. But I guess this spoiler obsession is religious in nature.) “I’ll convince him! I have all the latest arguments at my fingertips,” boasts the cocky Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee), […]
Read more "The Rationale of Myth: Devi (1960)"I wrote an article for Ultra Dogme on Nishant (1976). Here’s a small excerpt from it: The temple jewels have been stolen. The villagers are dumbstruck, apprehensive of the vengeance of the gods. A villager remarks that this is a job for the police, and there is a cut to a gun hanging on the […]
Read more "Master and Slave (Masculine) Morality: ‘Nishant’ (1976)"My article was published in film companion. Here’s a small excerpt from it. The relationship between cinema and magic has been topsy-turvy, to say the least. Thearrival of cinema was heralded as some sort of spectacular magic trick – a piece oftechnical wizardry where the cinematographed reality appeared to collide with ourown. In its formative […]
Read more "Back to One’s Roots: Kummatty"My article was published in the Australian film magazine – Senses of Cinema. Here’s a small excerpt of the article which you can read on the site. From one angle, as Phillip Strick’s Sight and Sound1 review pointed out, The Shooting (Monte Hellman,1966) can be viewed as a classic revenge Western with the gender roles reversed. A woman, angered by […]
Read more "No Exit: The Shooting"(Spoilers, schmoilers. Hmph.) The combination of disability (mental and/or physical) and psychosexual horror is a delicate balancing act, to say the least. A well-intentioned film might try to rage against the common stereotype of disabled or “ugly” men as lecherous monsters driven by a murderous resentment of their more “well-endowed” counterparts, with the ugliness of […]
Read more "The Masculinity of the Emasculated : Cairo Station"
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