One-line review: A genius who just wants to be. I have now seen this Bob Dylan movie seven times and in all formats: IMAX, Dolby, Laser, you name it, and I can’t wait to own it. It’s just a great movie that delivers on all departments: script, directing, casting (even the guy who announces Seeger […]
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (2024) Read More »
Bankability is the cornerstone of relationships. My earliest memory of the word “bankable” is from decades ago. After staying with me for a year, my cousin was moving to a different town. In the goodbye gift, a book, she, a banker, wrote, “You can always bank on me.” The word has always stayed with me
I recently took an eight-week Shakespeare class at a well-known acting school in the city. Like for most people, Shakespeare was an enigma, and the class, surprisingly open to even non-actors, was my chance to demystify the Bard. There were around ten people in the class. Some were pros, but they assured me newbies would
DECODING SHAKESPEARE Read More »
Since I don’t have cable, I had to rely on NBC’s YouTube clips. As a result, I mostly watched the US-dominant events, and track and field in particular. There is something visceral about seeing peak-performing men and women outrunning each other. As Woody Allen famously said, after skipping the Oscars despite winning the best picture,
MY OLYMPICS TOP TEN Read More »
The closest equivalent to the Indian “thali” in the West is a “platter,” although that bland word sucks the juice out of the delectable thali. A thali is a multi-course meal served on a single plate, and you can eat it in any order. Every thali has salad, rice, Indian bread, at least two main
THALI MEALS IN INDIA Read More »
One-line review: A “gangsta” gangster movie. The film’s title means excitement and writer-director Jithu Madhavan leaves no stone unturned in his quest to entertain. For example, the title song, the pulsating “Illuminati” (already a hit before the film’s release), is cleverly placed at the end when the credits roll so that an already roused audience
AAVESHAM (2024) (Malayalam) Read More »
I spent my childhood summers with my grandmother in Kollam, Kerala. As I grew older, around eight or nine, my parents dropped me off and returned to the nearby city of Kochi, where we lived. My grandmother lived in a traditional house with a courtyard (sadly dilapidated now) with my widowed aunt and a maid.
COMING FULL CIRCLE WITH PEARL S. BUCK Read More »
One-line review: A siesta awakens many. What’s remarkable about auteur Malayalam director Lijo Jose Pilassery’s film about an afternoon nap gone wrong is that it feels like a nap with its pacing, cinematography, and music. Despite the high drama, the notes stay within the nap “meter.” The film is about a group of theater actors
NANPAKAL NERATHU MAYAKKAM (2022) Read More »
Caving in can be fun. Like thousands of people in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in South India, Kerala, I, too, have been caught in the Manjummel Boys spell the last few weeks. Manjummel Boys is a smash hit Malayalam film about a real story of courage and friendship. It was playing in
ONBOARD THE MANJUMMEL BOYS BANDWAGON Read More »
Faux pas show us we are human. I had tea with three others in my Pilates class the other day. I was the Indian American in the group; two were middle-aged black women, and one was an older white woman. Since we were dressed in sweatpants, gauging what we did for work wasn’t easy. Our