There have been very few times during the past year or even two of watching cinema that I have sat at the interval and reflected on what I had watched so far. Usually, when I do that, it’s because I’ve suffered, but Panjumittai is a pleasant surprise. At its heart, it’s a simple film. Appu (Ma Ka Pa) is married to Ranji (Nikhila Vimal) and during their first night, he learns that she loves food, so much that she keeps eating something or the other almost always. He also learns that she loves the colour yellow a lot, to the point that from the hairclip to the sari she wears,…

Arulnidhi has over the years built his repertoire meticulously to the point that the audiences implicitly trust his choices. Iravukku Aayiram Kangal is the latest in his impressive filmography. At its heart, it is a simple murder mystery but the sheer number of characters and the range of motives at play make you wonder if it is straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. In its style and execution, though, it resembles one of Rajeshkumar’s dynamite pocket novels. This isn’t a knock on the film per se because the author knew the audience he catered to, and one of the prime reasons why the pocket novel was a craze was…

Towards the end of the Netflix film, Sila Samayangalil, there is a terrific shot. A seated character casts a shadow on the wall and it lingers for some time as a shocking piece of news is delivered. The man and the shadow, one and the same for much of the film, are now distinct. At this moment, the room is awash with light and dark interspersed in measured intervals. The real reason is because people are moving in and out of the light source. But the metaphorical reason is a battle that has long been waged between such dualities — light vs dark, right vs wrong, perception vs reality. That…