Filmy Illusions

Ranam- Detroit Crossing- Movie Review “Second chances are sometimes too costly” A life trapped in endless crimes, a faraway mirage for a better life and the yearning for redemption, Ranam- The Detroit crossing, revolves around this plot.  Ranam is a movie which is technically rich with strong performances and personally to me, an improvement in the superstar/gangster genre movies in Malayalam. Upcoming directors can certainly learn a thing or two from Ranam, about how to make a decent dark gangster movie with brilliant cinematography (Jigme Tenzing is perfection in human form) along with the editing which makes Ranam, comparable to mafia dramas of the West. Ranam as a movie relies on the strong performances of the central characters played by Prithviraj as Aadhi, a runaway driver and member of an outsider gangster group in Detroit struggling to maintain their relevance, led by Damodar Ratnam played by Rahman.   It is a pleasure to watch the evolutio...

Manmarziyaan - Movie Review The eternal chaos called love, is what Manmarziyaan tries to encapsulate.  The confused state of mind when in love, the thin lines of right or wrong which frequently gets blurred, and the fragility of life decisions we often take, Anurag Kashyap has managed to portray the catastrophic events in lives of people in love, beautifully. After a while, Anurag managed to impress me within last two weeks, as an actor in the Tamil film, Imaikkaa Nodigal (check out the blog for Imaikkaa Nodigal’s review) with his effortless acting and now as a director with Manmarziyaan, by portraying the complexities of the feeling called love, successfully. When an about to be thirty me, wanted to dismiss the film as unrealistic, my 20 plus heart who went through catastrophic life events due to the same destructive, yet enriching feeling called love, vouched for the film as the justifiable portrayal of souls messed up in real life. Manmarziyaan is a mess ...

Imaikkaa Nodigal- Movie Review Love. Loss. Ego Every act in this world is a consequence of love, loss or ego, is what I could absorb from Imaikkaa Nodigal, which seems like quite a food for thought. What could have been a standard and shorter suspense thriller, Imaikkaa Nogidal is unfortunately dragged with a cliché and clearly irritating subplot. But before we dive into what went wrong, this film certainly deserves to be called a decent thriller with strong performances.  While Atharvaa, tested my patience with his mostly blunt acting, Anurag Kashyap and Nayanthara, made me go wow with their killer performances. Nayanthara, in her second innings, have been cautiously selecting roles which provide her quite a larger platform to perform and justifiably excels in the same too. She is a stylish, strong and talented CBI officer Anjali Vikramadithyan, as usual with a storm behind the calm waters. I was happy to see her completely switching between emotions, ...