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Teddy is not a film worthy of love, but it’s not a film worthy of ridicule either. Each time, when you feel like you have enough ammunition to shoot this film down, Teddy surprises you with a gentle touch here and there, showing evidence of the moderate thought that seems to have gone into its writing. For instance, the idea of the protagonist, Shiva (Arya), having eidetic memory, is reasonably well-utilised in the narrative. There is also genuine attempt at capturing, even if fleetingly so, the nature of such a man’s life. How would Shiva make money? How would his relationships be? There’s a constant attempt in this film to root Shiva’s actions in reality.
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CHENNAI: At a time when the idea of a Tamil horror film coming out is enough to give you the chills, director Selvaraghavan unleashes auteur touches into this genre to create a film that works brilliantly in patches. More importantly though, it’s a film that’s so original in its objective and treatment that you can barely take your eyes off it. It’s fascinating that the filmmaker manages this with the bones of an ofttold horror story: you know, when you-know-what happens to a young, innocent woman, causing her to become you-know-what.
If you are rolling your eyes already, know that the filmmaker, by employing the ingenious twist of focussing not on the victim, but on the malevolent protagonist instead, has managed to make a film that is addictively eccentric. The depraved protagonist, the antithesis of ‘saami’ if you will, is ironically named Ramasaamy (SJ Suryah). Ramsay, as he prefers to be called, has come to wrest control of a big business, but
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How dearly I have missed the directorial work of Nalan Kumarasamy. Is there another filmmaker who’s so at ease generating laugh-out-loud humour from complex, sensitive situations, and who is able to achieve this without ever trivialising the central issues of the film? The man is a rare talent.
In his segment in Kutty Story titled Aadal, Paadal, the song and dance is not of the literal variety. It s metaphorical and occurs between a husband and wife (played wonderfully by Vijay Sethupathi and Aditi Balan), whose years of togetherness have dented the fun in their relationship. This is the word Sethupathi’s character uses to explain away his transgression.
Shantabai : Tales of conviction
You see this especially when the elderly Shantabai does acts that should be thought impossible for someone of her age.
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Shantabai is the short story of the eponymous 85-year-old woman, who is determined to keep alive the legacy of her Dombari community by performing street circus acts. (Photo | PIB website)
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A human can be capable of seemingly impossible deeds when armed with great levels of conviction. A young man can kill with impunity; an old woman can perform astonishing feats of agility.
Pratiik Gupta’s Shantabai is the short story of the eponymous 85-year-old woman, who is determined to keep alive the legacy of her Dombari community by performing street circus acts like tightrope walking and juggling, well into her old age. It’s a film that asserts that age, really, is just a number.