Cinema, Karam, Kapi

After almost a week of its release, watched Vijay’s Varisu. Went without any expectations as there has been a steady negative feedback about the film. In fact, the reviews mostly said the film was too much drama.   After coping for over 150mins, I am convinced with the popular verdict. The film is heavy on drama. But then, aren’t films meant to be that way? Will come back to this at the end of this article.  Vijay (Vijay) is sent out of his home by his father Rajendran (Sarath Kumar) as he fails to fall in line to his wishes. The family patriarch, father of three sons is yet to decide his successor of his sprawling business empire which is dominated by the mining fields and wants his sons Ajay (Shamsudern aka Sham) and Jay (Srikanth) to pitch themselves against each other. Not wanting to be a part of this rat race, Vijay relinquishes from the race. He travels around the country only to be called back home by his mother Sudha (Jayasudha).  On the occasion of Rajendran’s 60th birthday ce

Bank heists are a common subject when it comes to international films. Many are based on true stories, some are really well made. Over two decades back, Amitabh Bachchan’s Aankhen was all praise for it’s content and crew’s excellent acting. Thunivu is perhaps the first of its kind in its genre in Tamil cinema. After a bit of it in Billa and Mankatha, Ajith Kumar is back in his badass avatar. Spanning 145 mins, the film sets the ball rolling within the first 15 mins.  Darkdevil aka Chief (Ajith Kumar) and his smart crew are a gang of robbers with various international heists to their credit. They are much sought after, with their impeccable track record, access to the latest technology, weapons and what not. Kanmani (Manju Warrier), Amir, Pavni and Ciby are part of the gang as well.  It is interesting that the protagonist doesn’t have a defined first name all through the film! Yes, Ajith is addressed with various monikers and not really an actual name. At the end of the movie, we see Y

Max Barber (Robert de Niro) and his nephew Walter Creason (Zach Braff) are film producers in Hollywood. None of their films recover their investment. Max wants to make another film to set-off the losses of the previous one and the cycle continues. Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman) is an influential investor who lends money to film producers like Max. But he has had enough of it with the duo and demands that this entire loan be returned, or he is going to kill them off. Max is forced by James Moore (Emile Hirsch) to give him a script which is close to the former’s heart to which he will pay him enough and more so he can cover his debts with Reggie. Reluctantly, Max decides to sell the script.   At the first day of the shoot, Frank Pierce (Patrick Muldoon) falls off the terrace of the building where the filming is planned. James has “insured” any such unfortunate outcome and hence gets paid in millions. The film is trashed, while James gets his insurance. Max decides to cancel the sale-ag

It’s Christmas time, so makes a lot of connect to watch movies which have been made for the season! This one is on Amazon Prime and wouldn’t let you down for sure. Hayley Taylor (Cora Kirk) and Hubert James Hughes (Asa Butterfield) are classmates and are departing by train to their respective family homes. The couple seem to be deeply entrenched in love and seem to already miss each other’s absence. In a sudden last minute decision, they alight from their respective trains and board the other one’s train. Each one wishes to surprise the other by coming to the other’s place for Christmas. Sounds a bit odd, as ideally they would wish to reunite with their families for the holidays. Alas, both have done the same thing, so they are going to be travelling solo, without each other!  When they arrive at their respective destinations, they figure out they did not travel with the other. Hayley manages to walk all the way, finding Hubert’s house, only to be accosted by a gunman who assumes her t

Like millions of fans worldwide, I too have been watching ' a few videos on youtube since morning which brings a lot of nostalgia. After all, its 12/12 and an important day for every fan of entertainment. In Indian cinema, Tamil cinema especially, entertainment has been among the foremost reasons why ardent cinephiles watch a movie. Ask Netflix, Amazon and others, and they would tell you how tamil films are watched repeatedly. Some for their content. Some for their screenplay. Many for the lead actors & actresses. Among the top of this pyramid would be the one and only Superstar of Indian Cinema – Rajnikanth who is celebrating his 72 nd  birthday today. Much to the chagrin of his fans, he is not in town today and is shooting with his team for the upcoming movie Jailer, a film which has a lot of expectations due to the Director of the film Nelson, who’s Doctor (Sivakarthikeyan) and Beast (Vijay) has built a certain level of expectation.   This would be Rajini’s 169th movie. The

Artificial Intelligence, may sometimes result in to natural stupidity. With all due respect to machine learning, automation techniques and the innumerable scientists and engineers who code on computer data, at the end there is always a human intervention that is required to stop an accident or even an apocalypse from occurring. Takeover is a movie about this.  Mel Badisson (Holly Mae Brood) is a student with acute computer skills who hacks in to the server of a local military to avoid them from using the aerodrome from flying, atleast for a few hours a day. And her motive – is to minimise the noise harm to animals in the surrounding. As she grows up, she turns up an ethical hacker, while front-ending herself as a system security specialist, that is ensuring her clients computer servers are safe from viruses and commercial hackers who demand money in lieu of letting go off their systems.  In one such case, Mel intervenes in to the servers of Rotramax, an autonomous Bus development compa

All of us want some “me time” every now and then. In the context of working men vs. stay at home women, it is almost like a privilege that is showered on the latter by the earning male member of the house. It is not just unusual but also societally inappropriate for a father to be a house husband and rear the family while the lady love gets to work and earns the dough. The film “Me Time” is a typical characterisation of one such stay-at home dad, his wife, two kids, a long lost friend and how eventually it makes sense of the much-hyped “Me Time” that many of us crave for, quite often.   Sonny Fisher (Kevin Hart) has a daily routine; get the kids ready to school, make breakfast for his wife Maya (Regina Hall), drop the kids at their school and undertake voluntary work at the same school, which he feels is a part of community service. Regina’s boss at the architecture firm Armanda Zavala (Luiz Gerard Mendez) feels very high of her and in a party, not just does he showers praises on her w