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Showing posts from April, 2011

Is what you are watching actually a cartoon?

Disclaimer: What you are about to read may seem weird, but what the hell, I am hypothesising it to be true, so who knows... Cartoons are basica lly meant for kids. The main reason e lders prefer letting the kids watch them without their sup ervision is that they need not fret over the incidence of X-rated content in it – namely content that concerns that famous three-letter word or violence. I suggest that we re-examine this mindset of ours (as someone who has grown up watching the very cartoons that I am about to damn, I have mixed feelings as I type this. Consider the following list: Tom and Jerry , Bugs Bunny and El mer Fudd/Yosemite Sam , Tweety and Sylvester and Coyote a nd Road R unner . These are cartoons which we would definitel y not squirm about before letting a toddler/child watch it. These cartoons are hilarious, have palatable themes; have caricatures that look cute (I am yet to come across a girl who hates Tweety). Tom and Jerry, for instance, was once even vot

Oodles of disappointment, frame-by-frame

Appeared in City Express , the daily supplement of The Ne w Indian Express , on 25th April, 2011 It is not too often that we get to see a hero, instead of beating up a gang of bank robbers, pursues them in his bike, does whee lies and dare-devil stunts, all to take their pictures and splash it in the media. It isn’t too often that the viewer gets lulled into expecting something different from such a movie. K V Anand’s latest directorial venture, Ko, sadly is all about this and much more. Ashvin (Jiiva) is a photographer of Dina Anjal , a Tamil daily, whose prowess with the lens would make even a P eter Parker from Spiderman languis h in shame. Renu (Karthika, daughter of yeste ryear Tamil her oine, Radha), a reporter in the same daily, who did “responsible” coverage in Sri Lanka, i s eithe r content playing second-fiddle to Ashwin or pursuing the “scoops” he gives her after an analysis of his pictures, and by decree, falls in love with him. Then there is the political minefield o

Mappillai: Son-in-law gets it all wrong

Appeared in Expresso, the daily supplement of The New Indian Express, on April 11, 2011 Rajnikanth’s tearaway 1989 hit, Mapillai (son-in-law), in which he cures his rich, tempestuous mother-in-law (Srividya) of her arrogance, is back in its new avatar. Ironically, the Superstar’s mapillai, Dhanush, reprises his father-in-law’s role in the original. The mathematical ‘onto’ relations, Srividya -> Manisha Koirala and Amala-> Hansika Motwani, describe the roles enacted by them. Saravanan (Dhanush) is a devout person hailed by his neighbours as a role model to the youth, and marks his introduction with a song that begins with a remix of Madurai Somu’s Marudhamalai Maamaniye Muruga (clearly suggesting that he has failed to overcome the hangover from his earlier devotion-tinged movie, Seedan ). Its blink-once-and-fall-in-love for Gayathri (Hansika), the daughter of Rajeshwari (Manisha Koirala), a construction firm owner, with Saravanan. The initial hesitations notwithstanding, Saravana