Member Reviews

A Canadian couple takes their children on a tour of the world in the new National Geographic documentary film Blink, but it isn’t just an ordinary vacation. Three of their four kids, aged between 13 and 7, have been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable eye condition that will eventually render them blind. Overnight, the lives of the Pelletier family changed forever. The movie begins after the parents, Edith and Sebastien, made their peace with the cards they were dealt, although there is a sense that they will never fully wrap their heads around the tragedy. Still in the process of accepting their new reality, they collect their entire life’s savings and plan a trip across the globe.

When one looks at films that are over a decade old, it is but natural to see if it has aged well. Are the dialogues still relevant? Is the narrative still fresh? Have the actors and filmmaker evolved? In fact, many a time, it takes us back to the time we first saw it, and our response to it today is a reflection of our own evolution. But what if it is a movie that you never saw, and you are watching it for the first time a decade after it was made. What if it is a movie that no one saw because it didn’t release when it had to, and is finally hitting the screens 12 years later? Do you see it as a 2013 film? Do you see it as a 2025 film? That is the conundrum one finds themselves in while watching Sundar C’s long-delayed Madha Gaja Raja, which was supposed to hit screens for Pongal 2013, but a time traveler moved a chair somewhere in the past, and it saw the light of day for Pongal 2025.

One of the oldest tricks in the cinematic book of twists is introducing car accidents. Tamil cinema’s tryst with it has been a long-standing one. Just a small flip through the memory reminds me of films like Kushi, Kovil, Manmadan Ambu and even recent flicks like Star and Thiruchitrambalam. When it results in impending tragedy for our protagonist or those affiliated with them, most films leave us wishing that fateful day never happened. While the conflict in Shane Nigam’s Tamil debut Madraskaaran also happens to be the same, given the number of times it happens, it’s also the first time one might probably feel that the protagonist should never be allowed to take the wheel and his driving license immediately cancelled.

Sundar C’s long-delayed Madha Gaja Raja is not the sort of film you enter expecting complex interpersonal relationships or technical finesse. Even if we’d watched the film in 2012 — when it was originally set to release — we may still have found its scenes dated or objectionable. It’s as though we’re forced to remind ourselves that this film is a product of its time, urging us to be kinder because none of us knew any better. Simpler times we no longer have the patience for; like that scene that follows when Raja (Vishal) learns that his friend’s wife has misplaced her gold necklace. Instead of launching an investigation, Raja offers his own gold chain and urges his friends to pool in to make up for the lost necklace. Or the other scene in which Raja deliberately loses a race, just so his rival feels respected in his hometown. Or even the over-the-top nobility with which Raja moves to Chennai to get a corporate honcho to return ₹ 52,20,350 to his broke bestie. It’s all sickeningly sweet, but you’d be shocked at how badly we want to buy into all this.

Balakrishna’s resurgence in recent films such as Akhanda and Bhagawant Kesari can be attributed to filmmakers Boyapati Sreenu and Anil Ravipudi making the star more relatable to the masses beyond his larger-than-life quirks. While the ethos of a typical Balakrishna film has not changed drastically, the fresh narrative styles have breathed a new lease of life into time-tested templates. In Daaku Maharaaj, it is evident that director Bobby Kolli was keen on a new visual aesthetic to a star-led vehicle. The action is stylised and slick; there is a genuine effort at charismatic world-building and the ‘punch lines’ are minimal (going by the standards of popular Telugu masala potboilers). Hero worship is woven into the narrative rather than appearing forced. Despite these merits the film falls short, owing to its lack of conviction in the execution. It neither plays to the galleries nor embraces the new dictum wholeheartedly. A handful of sequences draw attention and can be termed paisa vasool, but the film on the whole is not satisfying.

Imagine it’s the 2010s. You are back from school, and you switch on the TV, you flip through the channels only to land on one showing comedy clips. You know which movie it is from, the dialogue by heart, and yet it brings laughter every time you watch. Now, imagine watching a typical Sundar C film, which is known for its comedy, 12 years after it was actually made. Madha Gaja Raja follows the story of Raja (Vishal) attending a wedding at his school teacher’s house, where he reunites with his school gang. One of his friends (Santhanam) is going through marriage issues, while the other two are involved in a case that concerns business tycoon Karkuvel Vishwanath (Sonu Sood).

Nandamuri Balakrishna struck a hat-trick with Akhanda, Veera Simha Reddy and Bhagavanth Kesari. Now, he is back with his next outing, Daaku Maharaaj, with director Bobby Kolli, aiming to make it four in a row. Balakrishna, fondly called Balayya by fans, is known for his over-the-top faction entertainers. Will he strike gold with Daaku Maharaaj? Govind Gujjar (Makarand Deshpande) sends a message to Nanaji (Nandamuri Balakrishna) that Baby Vaishnavi is in danger. Vaishnavi and her family face threats from local MLA, Thirumurthulu Naidu and his brother (Sandeep Raj) after they are caught cultivating cocaine on the pretext of tea production. Nanaji arrives as a driver and protects Baby Vaishnavi and her family from grave dangers.

Actor Subodh Bhave’s directorial debut Katyar Kaljyat Ghusli (2015) turned out to be a spectacular affair. There were much expectations for his second film as a director Sangeet Manapmaan, not just because he is in the director’s chair. This film is also adapted from an old classic musical play, just like the 2015 movie. But this time, the end result turns out to be just a one-time watch. Sangeet Manapmaan is adapted from Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar’s musical play of the same name, which was first staged way back in 1911. The story takes place in a kingdom in Maharashtra called Sangrampur in an unspecified era. The chief of army Kakasaheb (Shailesh Datar) expresses his wish to the queen of Sangrampur (Nivedita Saraf) to retire from his services because of his advanced age. Although the queen believes he is irreplaceable, she suggests Kakasaheb’s deputy Chandravilas (Sumeet Raghvan) as the next chief. Kakasaheb subtly disagrees with the queen as he believes, despite being a brave warrior, Chandravilas doesn’t possess the exact qualities to be the next chief.

Jails are a world of their own making and ‘a law unto themselves’. Time and again, we have been reminded that prisons not only house hardened criminals, but are hubs of crime too. We have often seen the murky life inside prisons through the eyes of the prisoners. But a jailer’s unflinching point of view, listing systemic lapses, is not an everyday insight. Trust filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane to not only tread a new path each time, but also come out trumps. After wowing us with his period series ‘Jubilee’, now in association with Applause Entertainment and co-creator Satyanshu Singh, he turns his attention to Tihar jail. It’s certainly not a happy place, neither for the inmates, nor for those who try to run it. Since the source material is the book ‘Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer’, written by Sunetra Choudhury and the former superintendent of Tihar Jail Sunil Gupta, for most parts the intense narrative rings true.

Vanangaan is another addition to Bala’s list of tragedies that make the audience leave the theatre with a heavy heart. Above all, make them wonder: “Why does Bala do it every single time?" Perhaps, he aims to jolt the everyday people and show them the devastating side of life they choose to ignore. That’s why Bala’s protagonists are strangers. They don’t conform to the ways which are termed ‘normal’. Almost all of his protagonists – Pithamagan’s Chithan, Nandha, and Naan Kadavul’s Rudran–are taciturn and choose to interact less with society as their very existence is odd with the society they live in. Set in Kanyakumari, Vanangaan is about one such anomaly named Koti (Arun Vijay), a deaf and dumb ruffian, who is depicted as this beast with a heart.