Aviyal

Some of you might think this is a bit too much, but moderation does not help societal change. The French revolution did not come about by calling the nobility a ‘tad bit rude’. We have written many times about the history of caste based discrimination and the exploitation of the majority of the Indian society by a small number of upper caste Hindus. We have talked about the justification of caste based reservations in education and employment. Yes, we can all agree that the upper caste Hindus from 200 years ago did some serious damage to the rest of the society and the people from other castes have a right to reparations for fair competition. (Everywhere you see ‘upper caste Hindu’, substitute with any dominant caste name) But this leaves us with an uncomfortable question, the elephant in the room that we either don’t see or don’t want to see. The question is this: What about the upper caste society of the present day? We regularly see people who say something along the lines of, ‘I do...

In our school books we would’ve read about freedom fighters staging plays in various parts of the country to preach how the Colonial government was robbing them and to plant the idea of independence in them. Forward to 1960’s Tamil Nadu, we had the likes of Periyar, Aringar Anna, Karunanithi who used commercial cinema to spread Dravidian Ideology which gave them wide recognition among people and above said examples made people unite for a strong progressive cause irrespective of their cultural, religious backgrounds. Coming to present 2023, I recently saw this Movie called ‘The Kerala Story’ – whose one line ist “innocent women trapped by sex traffickers assisted by supposedly respectable people”. Sounds Interesting right? It would be, only if the makers decided to keep it that way. Recently there was a news headline that in Gujarat, around 40,000 women have disappeared over the last few years (most of them claimed to be saved and reunited with families) which could indeed be a perfec...

Disclaimer: A different take on Ponniyin Selvan. Fairly offensive to Mani saar kannis. Writer’s Block and How I Overcame It I guess most of you are aware of the term writer’s block. Here’s the definition of writer’s block according to Wikipedia: “ Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce work for years .” While it may sound silly and made up by lazy writers to avoid admitting they are lazy, it is very real. I say this because I am experiencing it (or I am just lazy).   It is a fairly difficult condition to overcome. Some may not overcome writer’s block for years. For a brief period, I thought I would never overcome it. But then the miracle happened.  I watched Ponnyin Selvan a couple of days ago, and it removed my writer’s b...

If I am being very honest (and a little lazy), a lot of things that went for PS1 can also be said for PS2. Great performances, great music, engaging action scenes and occasionally too fast to follow. Watchable and rewatchable.  Now, to get more detailed. The movie has very much diverted from its source material. It did in part-1 but in part-2 the difference is very visible, including some major plot points. But, to its credit, it has diverted in a way that makes the movie a really good watch. To anyone who wants the movie to be an exact screen rendering of the books - you will be very much disappointed. To those who can view it as a different medium, beautiful movie.  Like before, the movie pulls no punches. The violence is violent. The action scenes have actually improved since the first movie. The last war scene (which is not even present in the books but served as a good plot element for a few key points) was gripping. Realistic action scenes with high stakes and quite a lo...

The list is long so we don’t want a long preface as well, but we have to explain the criteria by which these movies were chosen. Well, there aren’t any. At least no solid ones. But these are the movies that inspired Aviyal to write movie reviews. These movies made us love Cinema. So if you like Aviyal’s movie reviews, you should check this out. Click on the title to go to the OTT platform to watch each movie. (There might be a part 2 for this list so calm tf down). Vadachennai: Stephen King says ‘Great stories are not about events, they are about people’. The events in Vadachennai are comparable to any other gangster movie but what makes it stand out so much is the beautifully written and acted characters. So many characters, each one so real. The non linear storytelling and plotline only adds to the effect.  Batman: Under the Red-hood: A key concept of any good story is conflict. Many stories portray external conflict - the hero wants to do something but something external stops h...