The Servant
Dissects the British class system
  • Maharaja Talkies

    The director’s baton is not a toy; before wielding it for the first time, one is required to learn, at least, the basic theories, and spend quality time gathering some amount of practical knowledge. Maharaja Talkies, with a premise of immense potential, fails miserably, chiefly because the plot and...
  • City of God

    Mainstream Indian filmmakers are generally “inspired” by the premises and plots of foreign-language films. Lijo Pellissery doesn’t flick any story; he just tries, very hard and unsuccessfully, to replicate the stylization and treatment of the original City of God. Handheld cameras are used throughout. The film opens with a...
  • Celluloid

    Originality is an art that isn’t practiced everywhere. Unfortunately, Malayalam cinema too, as ‘Celluloid’ explicitly suggests, appears to have its roots in what is now a Hollywood classic. Circa 1926, JC Daniel sells a portion of his ancestral land in order to make what would be the first Malayalam...
  • Annayum Rasoolum (Anna and Rasool)

    The neorealist school of filmmaking when it came into existence advocated for a particular reason the use of a deep focus lens: it allowed reality to pervade every micro-inch of the screen. Annayum Rasoolum follows none of the laid-down rules, but strives nevertheless to be real, and only partially...
  • A Wednesday!

    A Wednesday! is a concept film. It has nothing to do with reality, logic, and path-breaking cinema as some would like us to believe. It is vigilante film genre at its mediocre best, with a dash of jingoist sloganeering, and a loud background score to manufacture the elusive elements...
  • Maqbool – Hindi – film review

    Maqbool shows how a comprehensive film script, smart photography, and good casting can turn a low budget film into reasonably good cinema. Vishal Bhardwaj has grown leaps and bounds as a filmmaker. Maqbool is a clear proof of that. It is a good film. It should be a lesson...

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