Dalton

Dalton is quintessentially a film critic /essayist /festival advisor. Additionally, he’s the editor of Cinematic Illusions and the Journal of Indian Cinema; founder of the Cinema Society of India, which screens films; CEO of House of Illusions, a film studio that creates meaningful cinema; chief advisory board member of the Kautik International Film Festival; and artistic director of the Chalachitram National Film Festival. He has served on the music jury of Mahatma Gandhi University and on the film jury (west zone panel) of the 67th National Film Awards of India.
  • Double Barrel

    Filmmaking, in its finest form, is an art that employs visuals to tell a story. ‘Double Barrel’ is a visual extravaganza with no story at all to tell. It is simply bold and experimental, and, like the director’s ‘City of God’, is high on stylization steroids. The scenes are...
  • Madhura Naranga

    Human bonding is a natural virtue. It drives individuals of a society to altruistically sacrifice personal needs, safeties, and time for the good of the others within it. And, as ‘Madhura Narunga’ (Sweet Lemon) suggests, it is best manifested when people are on foreign sands and in dire straits....
  • Ivide (Here)

    The first thing you’ll subconsciously notice in Ivide (Here) if you’re a regular contemporary-English-films viewer is the Hollywood style of lighting and shot taking. Listen closely, and you’ll hear things too that weren’t a staple of the old Malayalam films: full songs playing in the background; the voice at...
  • Nee-Na

    Touchingly, Nee-Na flows, sweet as a romantic poem. Thus, you may not mind that there’s nothing new to the premise: a happily married couple rocked by the entry of another girl. Or to the plot: heads, the man goes with the new girl, tails, he remains with his wife;...
  • Bhaskar the Rascal

    Family dramas aren’t quite what they used to be. In addition to the usual familial emotions, romance, and comedy, Bhaskar the Rascal has a fair amount of elegant décor, suspense, danger, and power-packed fights meant primarily to enhance the image of the film’s megastar. Part of the reason for...
  • WALL•E

    Sipping an iced, green tea on a hot summer noon, director/co-writer Andrew Stanton wondered, ‘What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?’ Over a decade later, he has given us his answer, in WALL•E It is 2815 AD. Earth is a...
  • The Dark Knight

    A superhero is compelled to make grave choices, and a city soaked in corruption questions its conscience in The Dark Knight. Unlike many of the other mass entertainers, this dark sequel to Batman Begins has a substantial plot, albeit, a slightly far-fetched one riddled with holes that manages to...
  • Ormayundo Ee Mukham (Do You Remember This Face?)

    Those areas of memory which are directly linked with the species’ instinct cannot be completely wiped out in any living organism during their potent period. The assumption to the contrary made by Ormayundo Ee Mukham (Do you remember this face?) is plain nonsense. Nithya (Namitha Pramod) finds herself in...
  • Revolutionary Road

    Once one is chained to the warmth of a high comfort zone, it can be very difficult to break out of the system. The wealthy Wheeler couple, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) in Revolutionary Road, is the toast of society but unfortunately they aren’t happy. They yearn...