This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on October 17, 2019. Raghavan Nair (Thilakan) has been a station master for the Indian Railways in Tamil Nadu for 30 years, and bids an emotional farewell to the community he’s become a part of — but, as he tells the people he’s…
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A man is pulled from the Johnson River in Kerala’s Wayanad district, in Kerala’s mountainous Western Ghat region. At night, a group of young men sit around a fire, drinking, and ponder how the dead man got into the river. Murder, suggests one, but Johnny (Basil Paulose) says that couldn’t…
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T.P. Balagopalan (Mohanlal) is a low level employee at Falcon Products. He earns 800 rupees a month, and uses that money to support his eldest sister, Radha (K.P.A.C. Lalitha) and her family – her husband, Chandrankutty (Kuthiravattam Pappu) who is a bus conductor and largely absent, as well as their…
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on December 10, 2017. Totally Filmi Casa Fave Indrajith lends his voice to this short film from graphic artist and director Suneesh K. Sukumaran. The film marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the destruction of the Babri Masjid, an event that changed the face of…
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on November 11, 2011. Late one evening, businessman Chirammal Enashu Francis (AKA Pranchiyettan, as per the film’s title) makes a visit to the churchyard, first, to “visit” with his ancestors (whom he claims later to be able to actually see). Pranchiyettan needs their…
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on January 5, 2012. A landscape, a house, a Koran, a suitcase, an umbrella, some perfume bottles, and a picture of Mecca hung on the wall. From the opening frames of Adaminte Makan Abu, director/writer Salim Ahmed draws us in to the world of…
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on March 3, 2012. Aashiq Abu’s second film, Salt N’ Pepper, was a bit of a sleeper hit in the summer of 2012. It tells the story of Kalidasan (Lal), a middle-aged archeologist and Maya (Shweta Menon), a dubbing artiste in her late thirties. …
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on August 1, 2014. On the busy day of a celebratory function in an apartment building, nine people end up stuck in the building’s elevator. All of them are, in some way, connected with a mysterious woman (Meghna Raj), who ends up dead…
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This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on August 1, 2016. Award-winning Malayalam director Jayaraj turned to an Anton Chekov short story, “Vanka”, to find the inspiration for his most recent film Ottaal (“The Trap”), proof that some themes transcend place and time. Eight-year-old Kuttappai (Ashanth K. Sha), orphaned after the…
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