Oscar logos are pictured in the red carpet area for Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. | Photo Credit: Chris Pizzello The Oscars fever will grip the world on Monday (India time), March 3, as the 97th Academy Awards is set to take place in … Read more
M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. | Photo Credit: SREE RAMASEVA MANDALI The 116th birth anniversary of M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, widely regarded as the first superstar of Tamil cinema, was observed today in a special Guru Pooja ceremony. The Tamil Nadu government recognised this occasion as a state event, reflecting Bhagavathar’s immense contributions to both the film industry … Read more
Union Minister and actor Suresh Gopi (file) | Photo Credit: PTI Union Minister Suresh Gopi on Saturday (March 1, 2025) conceded that cinema may have a role in the violence occurring in society, but it cannot be said that movies were the source of the same. Mr. Gopi, the Union Minister of State for Petroleum, … Read more
Playback singer Shreya Ghoshal. | Photo Credit: THAMODHARAN B Singer Shreya Ghoshal on Saturday said that her X account has been hacked and warned fans not to access any link sent from her profile on the microblogging site. Ghoshal shared a post on her Instagram handle, saying that her X account was hacked on February … Read more
Madame Web, an American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name, nabbed the most wins at the 45th Razzie Awards on Friday, including worst picture, actress and screenplay. The Razzie Awards are the annual Oscar spoof that spotlights Hollywood’s worst performances. Seinfeld actor Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix satire about the cereal industry, … Read more
While stepping into films like Aghathiyaa, you need to set your expectations right, something the promo material of the Pa Vijay-directorial fails to do. So when the film opens with a drone shot swooping us into a palatial bungalow replete with translucent ghosts and a Piano-playing French woman whose head can turn 360 degrees, you … Read more
Francis Ford Coppola. | Photo Credit: AP Multiple Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola on Friday said he was “thrilled” to accept this year’s tongue-in-cheek Razzie Award for worst director, insisting it shows he has a “courage” sorely lacking in modern Hollywood. The legendary filmmaker behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now poured his own money into last … Read more
Brad Winderbaum and Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ | Photo Credit: Ruth Dhanaraj and Giovanni Rufino Nearly 10 years after Daredevil dropped on Netflix, comes the continuation/revival, Daredevil: Born Again. Running for three seasons from 2015 to 2018, Daredevil tells the story of Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer by day … Read more
A 16-foot long memorial of 3,000-odd film technicians, primarily actors, who have traversed the Malayalam film industry since the first Malayalam film, Vigathakumaran, in 1928, to the present, sounds like hyperbole which stretches the imagination. And then I see it at the Aluva home of former insurance employee-turned-artist Javan Chacko and his wife, Reena. Resting … Read more
A still from ‘Crazxy’ | Photo Credit: @sohumshahfilmss/YouTube We get so many spam calls these days that it is hard to figure out which ones are real. Then, while driving the car, you listen to FM stations where prank calls drive the programming. Director Girish Kohli employs this odd everyday reality in this thrilling race … Read more
A file image of Raj Kapoor Many decades ago, there lived in Kolkata — then Calcutta — a boy called Shrishti Nath Kapoor, who studied in a school called Mitra Institution in Bhowanipore. When his family later moved to Bombay, he not only carried along the artistic influence that Calcutta left on him but also … Read more
The 16th Bengaluru International Film Festival will begin with an inauguration ceremony outside the premises of Vidhana Soudha on Saturday. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will inaugurate the annual festival while veteran star Shivarajkumar and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar will join the event as chief guests. Books to be released Shivarajkumar, who returned from the U.S. … Read more
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is the kind of project that seems willed into existence by sheer conviction alone. A stark, unflinching, and rigorously designed meditation on ambition, power, and the immigrant experience, the film unfolds with the same extended grandiosity as the clean, concrete constructs its protagonist spends his life erecting. Running a formidable 202 … Read more
A still from ‘Sabdham’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement What distinguishes music and noise is a thin line. It also seems to be the case between service and business for those with healthcare needs. The former involves soundwaves while the latter can be implied with a heartbeat waveform and in both cases, the lines cannot … Read more
Ibrahim Ali Khan as Arjun Mehta, Khushi Kapoor as Pia Jaisingh in ‘Nadaaniyan’ | Photo Credit: Megha Chattani/Netflix Avail on 3/1/2025 The Potato Lab A passionate researcher’s life takes a turn when a strict director arrives at her potato lab — proving that love can sprout in the most unlikely places. Avail on 3/3/2025 Hot … Read more
Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves in ‘The Matrix’ | Photo Credit: Ronald Siemoneit A friend’s brother, who happens to be an assistant cinematographer, shared on his Instagram story how he enjoyed watching the sci-fi thriller Coherence. Of course, I had to reply to him asking if he caught the recent Tamil film Black, an adaptation … Read more
Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’ Do not go into A Complete Unknown expecting your senses to be set upon a magic swirling ship a la Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There or Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese or No Direction Home. James Mangold’s biopic based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book, … Read more
Stills from ‘Good Bad Ugly’ | Photo Credit: Mythri Movie Makers Ajith Kumar, in a scene from Vedhalam, replies to one of the villains if he looks like someone from a Mexican cartel before taking him out. In his upcoming film, the Adhik Ravichandran-directorial Good Bad Ugly, the teaser of which dropped today, the actor … Read more
‘Superboys of Malegaon’ movie review: Not too super, much too safe
For an institution that loves to drape itself in the grandeur of Hollywood’s golden age and dedicate itself to celebrating the best in cinema, the Oscars have always been just a bit of a mess. The annual night at the Dolby Theatre desperately wants to be a bastion of taste and cultural significance, but more … Read more
Jyotika, Anjali Anand, Shalini Pandey, Shabana Azmi, Nimisha Sajayan in ‘Dabba Cartel’ | Photo Credit: Netflix Shabana Azmi is the fiery queenpin of a female outfit. They ply a disreputable trade. Her underlings feel the heat of her glare. She suffers no fools. I’m talking, of course, about a film called Mandi, directed by the … Read more
Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani are expecting | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Bollywood actors Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani have announced their pregnancy. In an Instagram post, the couple, who are expecting, shared a picture of knitted baby socks and wrote: “The greatest gift of our lives. Coming soon.” Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani were married … Read more
A still from ‘Kudumbasthan’. | Photo Credit: Think Music India/YouTube Kudumbasthan, the hit Tamil comedy drama, has continued the successful run of actor Manikandan. Released on January 24, 2025, in theatres, the movie is directed by Rajeshwar Kaliswamy. The movie revolves around the life of a newly-married middle-class youngster. As he succumbs to the pressure … Read more
K J Yesudas. | Photo Credit: KARUNAKARAN M Vijay Yesudas, actor, playback singer and son of KJ Yesudas, has responded to the rumours about the legendary singer’s health. Recent reports said Yesudas, 85, was facing age-related issues and was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai. “There is no truth to the reports of hospitalisation,” … Read more
A still from ‘Poovu‘ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Poovu, a film by cinematographer Anish Babu Abbas, takes viewers along with the characters on a road trip. It is the metaphorical journey as well, where the protagonist’s life comes full circle. As he drives through picturesque landscapes — lush fields, bridges, forests and tree-lined vistas, … Read more
A still from ‘Nickel Boys’ | Photo Credit: Prime Video RaMell Ross has been trying to reshape our understanding of what storytelling can be. His debut, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, turned everyday Black life into something lyrical and ineffable, demonstrating how cinema could hold time gently and reverently, before it slips away. Now, … Read more
Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and one of their dogs were apparently dead for some time before a maintenance worker discovered their bodies at the couple’s Santa Fe home, investigators said. Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in an entryway, and his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found in a bathroom next to a space … Read more
A file picture of Gene Hackman accepting his Oscar for best actor at the 44th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 10, 1972. | Photo Credit: AP Director Francis Ford Coppola, actor Viola Davis, director Paul Feig and and actor-director Clint Eastwood are among those paying tribute to Gene Hackman after his death at … Read more
Uttam Mohanty had been suffering from acute liver ailments and was airlifted to Delhi from Bhubaneswar on February 8, 2025. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu Veteran Odia actor Uttam Mohanty died on Thursday (February 27, 2025) night while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Delhi (February 28, 2025), his family said. He was 66. … Read more
Before 2022’s Suzhal – The Vortex, pundits would have disregarded the belief that a Tamil streaming series could get as much post-release buzz as a mainstream theatrical film. Filmmaker duo Pushkar-Gayatri deserve credit for setting Tamil long-format storytelling in motion on Prime Video, and the streamer’s courage to pump money into original Tamil series like … Read more