Governor R N Ravi is a BJP asset in Tamil Nadu. His constitutional position gives him the gravitas that the vocal state BJP president Annamalai lacks. Keeping a check on the DMK government more effectively than the opposition parties, Governor Ravi goes beyond his constitutional role, playing a...
Kalaga Thalaivan is a taut thriller that could potentially work for multiplex audiences. It has a complex storyline and a grand ideological premise. It grandly declares that corporates rule Indian life and that includes all political parties. KT has Thiru, aka Udhayanidhi, as the rebel whose...
The Wire and its editorial leadership is under a cloud. They first put out a story on Meta saying that Instagram posts by a satirical account critical of the BJP and Hindutva are being taken down rather too quickly by Instagram. A follow-up article said, based on a purported internal document...
Head constable Raja had come to distribute food packets so his fellow policemen could be fed and have the energy to battle rioters. He was in plainclothes and doing his duty. Ordered by his superiors, he climbed on top of an Eicher police van and shot at protesters with a 0.410 musket – a gun...
During an interview with inmathi.com, data scientist R S Neelakantan said that irrespective of whether you are rightwing, leftwing or centrist, you wouldn’t want babies to die in society. Neelakantan also hints that what makes us save our babies also has little to do with the economic...
The films of Vetrimaaran have politics. His movies are to do with power, authority and a politics against it In Adukulam, he explored the power dynamic between the guru and the disciple. In Visaranai, he critiqued lawless authoritarianism. In Vada Chennai, he talked about political forces...
Mani Ratnam’s films, as most Tamil films tend to be, are just themes. Sequences and situations are written to flesh out the two-three aspects of the theme. His films are shot well; characters say smart things; they dress up nicely; the gloss is never understated; and quite often the songs stand...
V Sudarshan’s book, Dead End, is as much a story of the everyday reality of Indian life – miscarriage of justice – as it is about those such as K Ragothaman doing their best to ensure justice is done. Dead End: The Minister, The CBI, And The Murder That Wasn't, published by Hachette,...
Media have described Savukku Shankar as activist and YouTuber. He calls himself whistleblower, someone who blows the whistle on the rot in various institutions and among people in power. His mode of expression is tea shop talk and WhatsApp rant. Savukku Shankar has said his writings or even...
Amit Shah’s jibe on Rahul Gandhi’s dress and the row over him meeting a radical Catholic priest in Kanyakumari indicate how the BJP will try to counter the Bharat Jodo yatra. Rahul Gandhi’s choice of Kanyakumari as the starting point for his yatra is symbolic in several ways. Kashmir to...
