All stories by Sreehari Nair
The Small Big Pictures Of Rajamouli And Co
Rediff.com9 Jun 2022RRR isn't the "spectacle" it is made out to be, argues Sreehari Nair.
The Official Timekeeper Of Beating Hearts
Rediff.com6 May 2022If Irrfan could have been our finest professor of empirical philosophy, and Nawaz is our foremost poet of that space halfway between the gutter and the stars, then Jaideep Ahlawat has to be our greatest artist-scientist, asserts Sreehari Nair.
A NOT-SO-SENSITIVE Guide to Badhaai Do
Rediff.com17 Apr 2022Badhaai Do carries its audience on the wave of those little farces that come with being queer in India, a land where masculinity still has some say, observes Sreehari Nair.
Abhay 3 Review
Rediff.com8 Apr 2022Pinch your nerves, and trust the ghoul -- blood will be spilled; women, children, and grouchy old men will be dismembered! observes Sreehari Nair.
A spoilsport in a time of genocide remembrance
Rediff.com25 Mar 2022'The response to savagery and mass injustice is never a persistent howl.' 'There will be, among the victims, those who choose to forget the scars, those who go on living, those who challenge the overall environment of sentimentality.' 'And the more effort you put into including these other voices, into assimilating these spoilsports, the more balanced your depiction of the tragedy in question will be,' observes Sreehari Nair.
The Godfather: A Hell to Make
Rediff.com18 Mar 2022Despite the Oscars, the box office glory, and the universal acclaim, Francis Ford Coppola, I am sure, remembers The Godfather with as much frustration as pride. Like Michael Corleone, he got into it with the best of intentions, and got out of it on top but lost in the heights. Sreehari Nair revisits the film as it turns 50 this month.
Bloody Brothers Review
Rediff.com18 Mar 2022Bloody Brothers is watchable, especially in the scenes of its two lead actors trying to work out something from the puny material given to them. Jaideep Ahlawat, who suggests roiling energy and intelligence even when he is completely motionless, has to be India's finest actor on current form, observes Sreehari Nair.
Mohanlal: An Emperor Defeated By Love
Rediff.com28 Feb 2022'Once Mohanlal's ever-swelling entourage grasped his enormous worth, once it realized that the innate Mohanlal appeal could be profited from, it set about to exploit, to make uproars, to create the Mohanlal brand.' 'And he wasn't meant to be a brand. He was meant to be an artist, a tireless explorer of the unique seas inside him,' asserts Sreehari Nair.
A Little Bit Of Lalitha In My Life
Rediff.com26 Feb 2022KPAC Lalitha's specialty was evoking on screen people that the audience felt they knew intimately, and evoking them through telling details that tore down the boundary between the audience and the performer, observes Sreehari Nair.
What you DON'T KNOW about Nedumudi Venu
Rediff.com21 Oct 2021A Nedumudi Venu character was happiest when moving his head to a piece of music with his eyes closed; or, when inventing off of a note that a co-actor had left unfinished; or, when reciting a poem by Kavalam Narayana Panicker where a hymn about nature descends into a musing about cheating, depression and death, feels Sreehari Nair.
Tabbar review
Rediff.com18 Oct 2021There's the excitement of watching minor people commit major crimes and watching how that becomes their second nature, almost. Just when you think the show is extending outwards, it implodes. And with the ethical hinges off totally, you, the viewer, wouldn't know quite how to react, observes Sreehari Nair.
The Bhramam Review
Rediff.com11 Oct 2021Every film that Sriram Raghavan makes is a compendium of ideas and sensations that tickle him. Trying to remake a Sriram Raghavan film is like getting excited by somebody else's goosebumps, observes Sreehari Nair.
Maqbool is the SEXIEST Indian Film Ever
Rediff.com27 Aug 2021In Maqbool, Vishal Bhardwaj did a Godfather; in that he took something that was pulpy and fast and gripping, and made out of it something timeless and grand, feels Sreehari Nair.
Why Are Our Anthologies So Bad?
Rediff.com21 Aug 2021I am yet to encounter an anthology of films (made in this country or elsewhere) in which every feature has adhered to a minimum level of quality, asserts Sreehari Nair.
City of Dreams 2 review
Rediff.com8 Aug 2021The second season of City Of Dreams has more pulp, hardly any juice, feels Sreehari Nair.
Malik: When God takes over a human colony
Rediff.com20 Jul 2021'We feel thrust into a motion picture that has all the makings of a carnival but no real fireworks,' Sreehari Nair notes after watching Malik.
Is Nayattu anti-Dalit? Is Karnan pro-Dalit?
Rediff.com2 Jun 2021'If questioning and dethroning hierarchies is your primary motive, why not put an end to the practice of announcing your shining star, your box office draw, in big flaming letters and mentioning everyone else's name in small font at the bottom of the screen?' asks Sreehari Nair.
The world of Chaitanya Tamhane's Disciple
Rediff.com12 May 2021'Tamhane's densely composed shots achieve what a vacuously whizzing camera seldom does.' 'Like those Renaissance Paintings in which a bewitching lady is shown posing for a portrait, and daily life plays out in a corner unruffled, Tamhane's static frames have a hundred interesting things happening within them,' observes Sreehari Nair.
That talent called Amit Mistry
Rediff.com4 May 2021Amit Mistry was a wicked actor, someone who could chance a broken arm, who could take deep dives, who could ram his head into walls, all without bothering about the outcome. And, as with that closing bit, the knowledge of where he might have arrived at eludes us now, observes Sreehari Nair.
Aarkkariyam review
Rediff.com20 Apr 2021Despite its stiffness, in Aarkkariyam, a supernatural glow does shine out of the ordinary.