Vijay Sethupathi: Tamil Cinema’s Postmodern Hero
Vijay Sethupathi's take-off as Kollywood superstar is unprecedented. Achieved, as it were, by subverting the industry's heroic conventions.
Kumuthan Maderya
The 21st Century Counterculture of Pa. Ranjith’s ‘Kaala’
Is the incandescent and resplendent but bloated Kaala a transnational manifesto resurrecting the Left to rollback rightwing tribalism's global onslaught?
Slumgod Millionaire: On ‘Nayakan’, the Godfather of Indian Gangster Films
In revisiting Nayakan we are reminded that men become gods not as a sign of presumed cultural backwardness but because the modern nation-state has failed.
‘Moscow 1956’ and the Beginning of the End of Soviet Rule
Arresting and weighty, Moscow 1956 recreates the triumph and tragedy of a society recovering from the ravages of despotism but still ensconced in the throes of an authoritarian political system.
From Amar Akbar Anthony to Baahubali: Whither Indian Cinema’s Secularism?
A retrospective of Manmohan Desai’s Bollywood classic Amar Akbar Anthony, and the films it has influenced, 40 years on.
Performing Bestiality: Beauties and Beasts in Tamil Cinema
Middle of the road Kollywood’s strange obsession with bestiality through the ‘Stockholm syndrome’ demands attention.
Hardline Feminism and Unfettered Capitalism in the Action-Masala, ‘Mannan’
How does a beautiful young corporate bigwig control a rambunctiously charismatic Alpha-male trade unionist?
Indologist Shulman’s ‘Tamil’ Dismantles Tamil Nationalism and Questions Its Legacy
Sublime and riveting, Tamil: A Biography proves that good linguistic and intellectual history can be written without resorting to either esotericism or jargonism.
Is Indian Cinema’s First Chick Flick, ‘Mouna Raagam’, a Hindu Nationalist Fantasy?
The "chick flick" medium doesn't completely obfuscate the espousal of the triumph of Hindu conservatism over secular-liberal institutions and socialist ideology.
‘Kabali’ Is a Cerebral Gangster Film
Kabali, Rajinikanth's finest film in years, asks (and answers) whether the lumpenproletariat can be revolutionary.
Brown Lives Don’t Matter in the Dark and Cruel World of ‘Visaranai’
Visaranai compels us to interrogate our presumptions about the bourgeois state apparatus.
From Yugoslavia to South India: The Rise of Tamil Turbo-folk
Like its Serbian counterpart, Tamil Turbo-folk masquerades as ethno-nationalist resistance against the dislocations brought to bear by nation building, liberalization, and globalization.