#CelluloidCritic

Director: Shyamprasad
Casts: Nivin Pauly, Trisha Kirshnan, Siddique, Vijay Menon, Neena Kurup
Language: Malayalam
Genre: Drama / Romance
Music: Gopi Sundar, Rahul Raj, Ouseppachan, M.Jayachandran

SYNOPSIS:
Life takes a beautiful turn when a socially awkward, mathematic genius Jude (Nivin Pauly) and an extroverted talented singer Crystal (Trisha) become friends.

REVIEW:
The film starts off by a narration of how Jude explains that happiness is expressed by a smile. He conveys it like a theory and calculation. After the opening credits, we are pulled into the world of Jude, his fascination of oceanology, his rigid timetable routine and his OCD behaviours of how he wants his things to be. We get to see how socially awkward Jude is but also witness his tenderness through his passion towards mathematics.

With a neat progressive sequences, we get to understand Jude’s family and each of their character very quickly. Shyamprasad’s writing brilliance lies on how seamlessly he makes the characters grow…

Director: Shakthi Sounder Rajan
Casts: Jayam Ravi, Nivetha Pethuraj, Aaron Aziz, Ramesh Thilak, Jayaprakash, Vincent Asokan, Arjunan, Aarav Ravi
Language: Tamil
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Music: D Imman

SYNOPSIS:
The Defence Space Division in India, hires a skilful trickster (Jayam Ravi) and travels to space to stop a destructive asteroid from hitting the planet.

REVIEW:
Shakthi Sounder Rajan is one of the most underrated upcoming director who dares to venture out into outlandish themes that are influenced by Hollywood. Nanayam (bank heist), Naaigal Jaakirathai (a thriller with a canine as a sidekick) and Miruthan (zombie) contained a definite drive to push the boundaries despite whether they are successful or not. In Tik Tik Tik, he literally attempts to soar higher, quite literally.

The film starts off with a very template style of small catastrophe that strikes Chennai which moves on to establish the main threat that is about to destroy large part of the world. People who are expos…

Director: Pa. Ranjith
Casts: Rajinikanth, Nana Patekar, Huma Qureshi, Eswari Rao, Samuthirakani, Anjali Patil, Dileepan, Manikanden
Language: Tamil
Genre: Action / Drama
Music: Santosh Narayanan

SYNOPSIS:
‘Kaala’ (Rajinikanth) who is celebrated as the King of Dharavi, fights for keeping the land safe from mighty politician and the land mafia, Hari Dhadha (Nana Patekar).

REVIEW:
Even though ‘Kabali (2016)’ emerged as a blockbuster in the box office, both cinema fans and Rajini fans were mildly disappointed by the dullness and subtlety that worked against the film. The film was seen as an experimental film by Ranjith who attempted to force in a few commercialism that the story didn’t warrant. No one can deny the film’s genuine content but the execution left us half hearted.

Whereas, ‘Kaala’ is different. Right from the marketing campaigns, the film looked and felt more local, raw and at the same time with Ranjith’s similar political ideology on land ownership that echoes through his short film…

Director: P.S.Mithran
Casts: Vishal, Arjun, Samantha, Robo Shankar, Dehli Ganesh
Language: Tamil
Genre: Action / Thriller
Music: Yuvan Shankara Raja

SYNOPSIS:
A hot headed military officer, Kathiravan (Vishal) tries to expose the crime of data stealing and misuse of it to make money from innocent people by a master hacker, White Devil (Arjun).

REVIEW:
Cyber-crime is one of the prevalent topics worldwide, thanks to the immense growth of technology and the ease of data sharing it has facilitated. Even though in surface, the topic might look a bit straight forward, the complexity of these technology is limitless. Debutant director P.S.Mithran has researched deeply and has crafted a film that is intelligent, relatable and engaging.

The film sets up with a strong tone by establishing the master hacker, White Devil who is working towards his ultimate goal of having every individual’s information and money in hand. On the other end, we are introduced to a military officer, Kathiravan who is taking…