When I see a film, I try to analyse it like a text. Therefore, these are not reviews, but merely notes on film.

Notes on film:  Rum Diary

Over the weekend, I went on a movie marathon watching You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Fantastic Mr.Fox, Rango, and Rum Diary. It was Rum Diary to which I kept going back again and again in my mind as if it didn’t reveal all its secrets.

Notes on film: The Neighbour

The Neighbour is an unconventional love triangle involving two women and a girl. It tells the story of a woman, her neighbour and the neighbour’s child and the way their lives become entangled…

Notes on film: Departures (Okuribito)

Departures or its Japanese title Okuribito (2008) a soulful and stunning film. The story of a young man, an artist, a cellist, who accidentally stumbles into a profession that is socially unacceptable to many makes for a substantive story…

Notes on film: Doubt

Doubt (2008) is an intensely packed little drama between four deeply-flawed characters. It betrays its theatrical origins in its fondness for words, which usually happens in intimate spaces, and its proclivity for the unsaid…

Notes on film: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Over the span of a summer in Barcelona, close friends Vicky and Cristina discover another dimension to love and themselves. It’s both a typical Woody Allen movie and yet it’s not…

Crossing over: The Lives of Others

The Winner of the 2007 Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film, the Lives of Others stands out as a film in many significant ways. At heart, it’s a deeply human story of one man who was transformed by the power of art…

When radio confessions rule: Rang de Basanti

A young British woman Sue comes to India following her dream of making a documentary about the freedom fighters. She is inspired by her grandfather’s diary-an old leathered book-which she embraces from time to time…

When lives depend on a bicycle: The Bicycle Thieves

And so it was that one fine Sunday, I was destined to watch one of the greatest films of all time 58 years after it was made in sunny dusty tropical Chennai so far away from anything that the director would have imagined…

The parody as a parody of a parody: Sur Asur

This is the funniest and most complex Hindi movie produced on a shoestring budget. Abandon reason, season, and song and jump into a parody…

A subjective review: The Skeleton Key

Since I hadn’t seen a movie in ages, I readily agreed when friends suggested that we try and catch a movie…