2d-life;

Bigil is the story of a rowdy neighbourhood that is reformed through sports. This transformation is shown through a gangster father (Rayappan) and his footballer son (Michael) both played by Vijay. Kids from this neighbourhood used to roam around with knives fighting each other. However, inspired by Michael (who uses the stage name Bigil) they have started playing football and are too busy to fight. Given this theme, it is unfortunate that the movie stressed the importance of winning - a recurrent dialogue by Rayappan to Michael being "Bigil, the cup is most important". I enjoyed watching the film and would recommend it to others. That said, most of my friends did not like the movie - especially those who watch and enjoy football. One of my friends was especially pissed by the fact that almost every other shot is a scissor cut.  As I dislike sports, the fact that the football portrayed in the film was unrealistic did not even strike me. If you are looking for a "mas...

Greek mythology contains tales of dangerous semi-human enchantresses called Sirens.  They seduce travelling sailors to their island using music and song to shipwreck on the rocky coasts.  Odysseus wanted to listen to the song of Sirens.  Heeding to the advice of Circe, he asks his crew to fill their ears with beeswax(so that they will not hear the song) and tie him to the mast of the ship.  He instructed the sailors that they are to leave him tied even if he orders to do otherwise.  Thus he could hear the song of the siren while escaping the treacherous end at the hands of Sirens.  This idea is called pre-commitment and is a favourite of many self-help gurus. The Tamil movie Deepavali gives an interesting twist to this story -  the hero is not Odysseus but a crew member.  Let me elaborate.  The heroine in this movie suffers from post-traumatic memory loss.  Troubled by the stressful experience of not recognising people she is supposed...

It is not uncommon to hear criticisms of unrealistic feats accomplished by heroes in South Indian films.  People are offended by the disregard to physical laws exhibited in these movies.  More often than not, the victims of these criticisms are Telugu films.  In this post, I attempt to explain, how to make sense of (or how I see) these unrealistic, physics-defying acts.  Hopefully, at least some of you would be able to better appreciate these films after reading this article. Say, for example, we are watching a Superman movie and you see Superman flying.  Does that bother you? If yes, you can stop reading right now.  This article is most probably not for you.  If not, why?  I guess it is because the storyteller has given an "explanation".  Notice that this explanation need not be there in this movie.  Someone watching Superman is expected to know that.  Now, let us come to a South Indian film.  In contrast, it appears...