u/insta_i_filmiholic

I believe DILEESH POTHAN - A10 🔥 Will be an industry hit🤞

Baasha, Mankatha, Jailer, Vikram... The list is long. Curious to know other movies which can be in this list.

I believe, Girish AD is the new gen Shafi (2000's rom-com), the king of feel-good rom-coms

But what I like most is his selection of stories. He's actually telling the story of a single character, every movie is in different stages of her / his life.

Thanneer Mathan Dinangal – the raw, awkward, watermelon-juice days of teenage insecurities.

Super Sharanya –Shy small-town girl thrown into hostel chaos, that confused experimental college phase, where she slowly learn to stand up for yourself.

Premalu – that uncertain yet curious, hopeful, figuring out love while dealing with unwanted attention and new possibilities.

Bethlehem Kudumba Unit – Waiting but from trailer, it's again a continuation of her 25+

It’s not the same character, but it feels like watching one continuous girl arc (or even a boy) across time, the same soft humour, the same confusion, the same romantic roller coaster drama, it looks like Mamitha Baiju almost becomes the face of that journey.

Can be considered as Girish AD’s version of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy.

Where Linklater followed one couple through different stages of love and life, Girish is doing it for youth with pure humour ..

What are your expectations on BKU

Three completely different women, but one thing in common....

Chandra from Vada Chennai.

She exists in a world built for men, gangsters, politics, power. But she moves everything around her without anyone realising it. The moon that learned to move the tides without ever touching the water.

Chandra from Lokah.

She didn't choose immortality. She chose to survive it. The moon that has been rising and setting for centuries, alone, still showing up.

Chandra from DC is actually based on Chandramukhi from Devdas but Arun Matheswaran completely reimagined her.

She is the bloody moon that was contained for too long in a world that took everything from her, her freedom, her body, her dream of a simple life. The moon that just burns.

BUT THEY WERE ALL DEFINED by what the world did to them. and then they decided they were done being defined by it.

For me It's In The Mood For Love

Jude Antony Joseph knows how to entertain you. An average Film, Below average acting, but still there are thrills and entertainment.

He is not an extraordinary director with a vision, but he will give you his filmy moments and make sure you leave the theatre satisfied, is what i observed in 2018 and again in Thudakkam.

He knows exactly where the majority claps. That sensibility about audience pulse is genuinely his strength.

Thudakkam has a good plot. Meenu lives with her father, a government employee. She helps two school going girls reach home safely, that's the first act, and how that one decision turns her life around is the rest.

There is nothing new, rest is expected, but Jude ensures that you are not bored of same routine template.

Jude packages it well, adds the right entertainment elements at the right moments, and keeps it moving.

Will it entertain fans? Yes. For a neutral audience it is probably average.

My honest problem with the film is different though.

It is Vismaya's Thudakkam on paper but it felt more like a Lalettan promotion in the theatre. I don't understand why they are so obsessed with the A10 aura.

The film already has great narration, strong visuals, solid performances (except Vismaya), and then in between all of that you get the A10 moments and some preachy (kombedu kuzhaledu type) dialogues that felt completely out of place, is what i noticed.

Those cringe moments are the same awkward feeling i got in 2018 and Om Shanthi Oshaana. Jude can't fully resist it, but many loves that.

Still worth a watch. Just go for Jude's entertainment with A10 obsession not for Vismaya's film.

DC or Thudakkam? My friends who went for DC say, that's 🔥🔥🔥

This is the thread for all doubts, explanations, alternative readings, theories regarding recent OTT release BALAN : The Boy

Here are some of my observations and doubts.

1. Why did the real Shirley cry for her son in the prison and the asylum? Why mother said "these men took your child away" to Shirley

This is the question, I couldn’t find any answer, and it’s ambiguous, I believe it’s a plot hole or lazy writing.

One assumption is that the mother invented that story and planted it in Shirley's head as programming, "these men took your child away" so that Shirley would react with fear and aggression when strangers arrived.

But what if the loss was real? What if Shirley actually had a child taken from her at some point, by a family, by the state, by circumstances the film never shows us, and then the question is how the mother found that wound, understood it, and used it?

The film never confirms either way. I think that ambiguity should have been addressed by the writer.

2. Shamna found her despite the fake identity. How?

There is a scene before Shamna's arrival where the mother feels she is being followed. I think that’s the hint. Shamna is a criminal networker, tracking someone through informal channels, contacts, word of mouth, so she can track her.

More importantly though, this scene is doing something thematic. The mother threw away Shamna's number on the day she left jail. You can throw away a number, you cannot throw away a past

3. How did Pavithran take the mother from the mental health centre just by claiming to be her brother?

This is one the writer leaves deliberately loose and it is actually making a point. The system that jailed the wrong Shirley for years without checking her face is the same system that handed a woman over to a stranger without verifying his claim. Institutional negligence runs in both directions. 

4. Why didn't the mother just take the boy after executing her plan? Police only comes at night.

This is the second question that breaks the film's biggest apparent plot hole, i believe.

One hint the director gave us is that the four o'clock timeline,  it is tight but defensible. She stages the scene, packs, leaves through the back. By the time she could reach the bus stop, the boy has been standing there long enough for a crowd to form. She cannot walk up to a group of strangers carrying luggage and claim a child without answering questions about where she works and lives every answer links her to the house with a dead body.

But the question is.

She did not come back the next day either, or the next month, or for years. She was working on an estate close enough that a teenage boy found her by walking to a bus stop.

This is where Jithu’s writing failed I guess. It clearly shows they just wanted a surprise for the climax, and compromised with writing

5. Why didn't Pavithran follow the boy when he ran from the mental health centre?

My readings.

Practical one: Pavithran is confused. He brought the boy there to show him his mother and the boy ran, there is no immediate logic for Pavithran to chase him. He does not yet understand what the boy has figured out.

A more thematic one can be: Pavithran's investment in this case was never about justice. It was personal, a grudge carried for fifteen years. Once the boy ran, the situation stopped making sense to him, and a man who operates on personal scores rather than professional instinct would just let it go.

Every relationship in Balan is a version of ownership.

She refused to be owned by anyone. And she built a boy she owned completely.

When the only two options available to a person are to be owned or to own, they do not become free. (remember the story she told Grandma, either be a slave or a demon) They just change which side of it they are standing on.

For me, that was the high moment, the whole movie in few lines, it feels like we are reading a film rather than just watching it. That is where BALAN is a documented reality. 

Balan is not about a mother who loves her son. It is about what happens to people the state cannot see. And about the fact that the person most skilled at exploiting that invisibility is not the government.

It is her.

I wrote a full breakdown on my blog, all the observations above with deeper answers, and the political reading of the film that I think most reviews have missed.

👉 Balan: The Boy — Movie Explained, Ending, Twist and the Politics Nobody Talked AboutBalan Explained

Drop your own doubts below

Let's discuss and hope Jithu might be reading 🙈

I believe they stole the show. Throughout the trailer, Yash's aura, Rakul's screen presence, and the VFX of Airavata and Jatayu look mesmerising. I also believe Yash may overpower Ranbir

More than the stiry what actually stays with me is the visuals😍

The way they color grade the human world vs the spirit realm, two completely different palettes, and it never feels like a CGI shortut.

The creature designs from traditional Korean folk illustrations will really stay in the eyes 😍😍

The wide shots of the palace, the architcture feels like a character itself and not just a backdrop for the aesthetics extravaganza..

In short I haven't seen this in a Korean period drama in a while

Try with a 4K 🔥🔥🔥😍

Can you believe, this great grandpa censor board still follows the Cinematography Act 1952. Guidelines focus on “decency or morality” not offending “human sensibilities” with vulgarity/obscenity, protecting women, public order, sovereignty, etc. These give the Board wide subjective room to demand cuts.

The Shyam Benegal Committee (2016) recommended that the CBFC should only certify films by age categories and not order cuts/modifications. That major recommendation was never fully implemented🥲🥲

I believe Cinephiles should also start a protest to update these outdated laws, and CBFC should not actually like that sanskari uncle.

Poor VJ Sethupathi 🥲

My choice will be Row 1