Kantara, review: Dispossessing the 'possessed' Kantara is about conflict. Conflict between nature and human beings. Conflict between landlords and their subjects. Between Forest Officers and villagers using forest resources for subsistence. Between two powerful and major landlords. Between humans and ‘possessed-by-deities’ humans. Between humans and wild beasts. Between a mother and her son. Between a hero and his nemesis. Between a film and its audience. Yes, a film and i...

Trailer success meet and song launch of Major: Lookout, big fish, here comes the goldfish Three big, real BIG pictures are on the verge of release, simultaneously. Two are from the South, and one from Mumbai. Anybody who has been following release schedules will know that these three are Prithviraj from Yash Raj Films, KamalHaasan’s Vikram and a major film from Hyderabad, called, Major. I wonder whether the other two have been shown to anybody except the most selected of selective audie...

IFFI 52, 039: “We are just here to make honest cinema,”—Ganesh Hegde To be or not to be. The very same existential question that vexed Hamlet in Shakespeare’s timeless eponymous play is what troubles 10-year-old boy Sidda, albeit in a somewhat different avatar. Having been forced to bid adieu to the pristine beauty and serenity of his village, the young boy is confronted with the inevitability of having to choose between the chaotic and alienating hustle of the city, t...

Badshaah Pahelwan, Review: There’s a brown wrestler in the boxing ring, tra la la la la When director of photography S. Krishna turned producer just over two years ago, vicariously, through his wife, Swapna, having directed two action genre films, he decided to make his third film in nine Indian languages. Down the line, he settled for five, with the original in his native Kannada, and dubbed versions in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Rather ambitious of Krishna, considering the fi...