In this episode writer Aditya Mani Jha joins Deepauk and Aditya to talk about two 2024 films, both Telugu originals, and adapted-inspired from two Hindu epics - Mahabharata and Ramayana.

One is Nag Ashwin's Kalki 2898 AD and the other is Prasanth Varma's Hanu-Man. One has a stellar pan-Indian star cast with the likes of Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone et al while the other has Teja Sajja, Amritha Aiyar, Vinay Rai among others. One has big budget and larger scope. The other has a big heart and novel ideas.

We talk about what the films get right, what they do not and which Hindu epic is more interesting, adaptable and more. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Aditya Mani Jha

Edited by Anantha.

Nithilan Saminathan returns after Kurangu Bommai with a bigger canvas and a bigger star. His talents are still visible, refined even, but his latest film with Vijay Sethupathi in and as Maharaja started a discourse about rape-revenge genre in cinema, gratuitous violence, depiction of sexual abuse, and the conspicuous choice of Vairamuthu as lyricist.

Aditya joins Deepauk and regular guest Subha Rao to talk about what irked them about the film, what they liked, and where Tamil cinema must do better. And how the audience reaction in the theatres didn't inspire much confidence. The discussion contains spoilers.

Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Subha Rao

Link to Subha's opinion piece on the film in The News Minute: https://www.thenewsminute.com/flix/opinion-vijay-sethupathi-film-maharaja-is-an-example-of-how-not-to-depict-violence-on-screen

The year for Tamil cinema hasn't been all that great so far but then comes along a film like Vinayak Chandrasekaran's Good Night.

A superb character study and exploration of dynamics, the film-also written by Vinayak-stars Manikandan, Ramesh Thilak, Meetha Raghunath, Balaji Sakthivel, Raichel Rebecca among others.

It also stars stand up comedian, actor, writer Jagan Krishnan who joined us for this episode to talk about the experience of auditioning, working in the film and what he thought about the various character dynamics in the film. He also shared some anecdotes while at it. Listen on.

You can find links to Jagan's work and information and tickets for his tour that's coming up here.

The Malayalam film referenced in the episode is Vadakkunokkiyantram.

Participants:

Deepauk

Anantha

Jagan

Edited by Deepauk.

 In part 1 of the discussion of the film, the gain delves into the key aspects that made the film Telugu cinema's cult hit of 2018. They try to get under the skin of the characters and the milieu before we bring on a special guest for part 2. 

 The cabal finally decided to sit down and wrestle with Super Deluxe this past weekend. We were ably aided in this quest by @NadikaNadja as we dove inextricable deeper and deeper into the universe created by Thiagarajan Kumararaja. While we've all tried to come to terms with what we experienced, I think we'll all be either watching the film in the theaters again or on some streaming platform as soon as it is available!

Big thanks to Nadika for joining us! Look forward to everyone's feedback and having an open discussion with our listeners on their thoughts.

 In this episode @complicateur and @gradwolf are joined by Ashwathy G to discuss Aashiq Abu and Syam Pushkaran's heart wrenching film - Mayanadhi. 

 In this episode, we take a look at one of the biggest hits in Telugu cinema for 2018. DIrector Sukumar's Rangasthalam starring RamCharan & Samantha. Our guests were columnist and friend of the podcast, @KrupgaGe and popular movie critic @crhemanth.

Listen in as we talk about the politics that the movie captures and how it addresses a lot of issues thanks to some stellar performances by the supporting cast.

The Cabal does a bilingual film in its true spirit - with a bilingual guest. We are joined by LTP aka @localteaparty to talk about the L.V Prasad classic MISSIAMMA(1955), one of the famous films from the golden period, made in Tamil and Telugu with different casts. 

 

In a fit of nostalgia, the Cabal revisits the 1985 Thamizh film classic, Aan Paavam. It also gives one of our members the opportunity to wax eloquent on the phenomenon that is Ilaiyaraja. Big thanks as always to @jestme for joining the crew to discuss one of her favorite films as well!

And all music in the pod composed by the indomitable Ilaiayaraaja.

 We couldn't get everyone together when Kaala released and published a blogpost instead. With Petta releasing, we wanted to ensure we did not repeat the same. So we hauled in everyone last weekend and some of us had pretty diverse opinions in this impromptu discussion on the film. We cover everything from the film references to the politics of the movie in the discussion! 

 For our first venture into Hindi cinema, the cabal discusses the 2018 horror film Tumbbad. While most horror films tend to be morality tales, Tumbbad really differentiates itself by setting up mythology and universe that is entirely relatable. The gang loved watching the film and we hope you all do as well! 

In this episode we talk about one of 2018's best Indian films, Mari Selvaraj's Pariyerum Perumal. And to discuss this tale of a youth's struggle with the power dynamics fueled by caste hegemony we are joined by guest Vijeta Kumar (@rumlolarum on Twitter).

We are back with an episode on literature.

On this episode writers and translators Priyamvada and Suchitra join Deepauk and Aditya to talk about Tamil author and screenplay writer Jeyamohan, and their translations of his works. Priyamvada's translation of Aram titled Stories of the True was published last year. Suchitra's translation of Ezhaam Ulagam titled The Abyss came out couple of months ago. We talk to them about their journey through Tamil literature from readers to translators, Jeyamohan's influence, his place in the larger canon of Tamil literature, his politics and their experience translating two of his important works.

Jeyamohan's Blog: https://jeyamohan.in

Link to Stories of the True: https://www.amazon.in/Stories-True-Translated-Tamil-Priyamvada/dp/9393986177

Link to The Abyss: https://www.amazon.in/ABYSS-Jeyamohan/dp/9393986525/

Link to Jeyamohan's interview on Scroll by Suchitra and Priyamvada: https://scroll.in/article/1047710/as-a-writer-im-apolitical-and-spiritually-free-that-is-how-id-like-to-retain-myself-jeyamohan

Suchitra and Priyamvada's initiative Mozhi to bring together literature from different Indian languages: https://mozhi.co.in/

Participants:

Priyamvada

Suchitra

Deepauk

Aditya

Edited by Anantha

This week the cabal talks about Thiagarajan Kumararaja's 2011 cult classic Aaranya Kaandam. The film is available on Hotstar (though mangled beyond recognition) - as always please watch the film prior to listening!

The cabal continues its animated discussion on Virumandi in this pod. We cover the cast characters, specifically the women, the music, and the film's penchant for drawing from the real world in this session. We're joined by 2 special guests here; @jestme is on the pod again and the venerable @atlasdanced joins us this time with his unique brand of insights.

In this episode, we talk about SS Rajamouli's 2010 action-comedy "Maryada Ramanna". The Cabal talks about everything that felt right in the movie and few that didn't. Here we go. Maryada Ramanna is inspired by Buster Keaton's "Our Hospitality". You can check it out on Youtube.

In this episode, we discuss one of 2018's best Malayalam films thus far - Sudani from Nigeria. This is ostensibly a 'light' film, but we found that it sneakily packs weighty topics within the fluff. And everyone in the cabal liked it.

In the wake of Vishwaroopam-2 the gang decided to revisit @ikamalhaasan 's Vishwaroopam-1.... with mixed results. The gangs all here and it was still a fun discussion, so listen and give us feedback!

Lijo Jose Pellissery's Angamaly Diaries, was a much feted movie from 2017 that every member of the cabal loved. So it is no surprise that episode 21 of the podcast marked the return of the cabal back to full strength to discuss this feature.

This week the cabal talks about Attakathi and the Pa.Ranjith universe more broadly. We're joined by special guest @jestme and the group had a lot of interesting things to say. A fulfilling discussion on a truly unique voice in Thamizh cinema.

Things take a horrific turn... Ok fine, we're just being dramatic. The Cabal each came into the discussion thinking Pawan Kumar's third outing was a well executed film, but I think we were all genuinely surprised at what we ended up discussing. Hope you all enjoy this pod as much as we enjoyed discussing the film.

As part of The Other Banana's efforts to bring in more technicians to the forefront, we have a special episode with a special guest now that Ponniyin Selvan Part 2 is out and the saga is complete. An effort that's achieved great success and more importantly, provided immense satisfaction and joy to experience on screen. Starring Karthi, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sarath Kumar, Parthiban, Prakash Raj, Rahman and Sobhita among others, the film has music by AR Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Varman, editing by Sreekar Prasad and art direction by Thota Tharani.

In this episode, we have the multi hyphenate Krithika Nelson - musician, lyricist, creative producer and director, dubbin artist, associate director, and more. She dubbed for Trisha's Kundavai in the Ponniyin Selvan films, wrote the lyrics of Sol in Part 1 and was also an associate director to Mani Ratnam. She also wrote the lyrics for the soundtrack of the recent film Nitham Oru Vaanam.

We spoke to Krithika about her dubbing career, the skill and techniques that it involves, what happens inside and outside the recording studio, and her experience as a dubbing artist for the past several years. We also talk about the production of Ponniyin Selvan films, her work as an associate director to Mani Ratnam, the films' grand scale and what it took to make these two films with the biggest of actors and technicians. Krithika shared with us some great anecdotes from the time of filming, what she looks for in an actor's performance when she dubs for them, how dubbing can be different with different directors. And of course, we also talk about Trisha!

Earlier, when Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 released, we had done an episode with sound engineer Anand Krishnamoorthi on his work in the film and also the job of sound engineers, designers and mixers in general. You can check it out here.

Participants:

Krithika Nelson

Aditya

Anantha

Here's Krithika Nelson's latest independent single Nee Mattum. She wrote the lyrics, composed and sang the song in addition to directing the music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ivuwuHEWE

Aditya's review of Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 and Ponniyin Selvan Part 2.

Intro audio from JFW Awards 2023, a recreation of PS 1 scene between Nandini and Kundavai on stage by their respective dubbing artists Deepa Venkat and Krithika Nelson.

In a return to the true mainstream, we talk about the December 2017 Mohan Raja - Sivakarthikeyan - Fahadh starrer Velaikkaaran. We had a rather wide, ranging discussion about the movie as well as the meta movie within it. A film that really suffers from excess but is redeemed really by its inventiveness and the occasional sparkling dialog.

The cabal (well at least 2 of the cabal) is/are taken in by the atmosphere, sound, and aesthetic of Rajeev Ravi's directorial debut. We loved it so much we decided to do this as 2 parts, with a surprise addition coming in part 2.

A look back at one of the many iconic films Sridevi made. Much like RGV's film, this pod is an ode to Sridevi the star.

Pickled sweet discussion on a lovely Marathi film. While being comfortably close to home the cabal also discusses the need to point out why such films represent a specific type of life.

The Cabal dissects a procedural and debates privacy, potential for scams and the state of personal data in India through the lens of the 2014 Tamil thriller Thegidi.

Still in the post-Valentine hangover the cabal decides to go over the 2017 Kannada rom-com Ondu Motteya Kathe. We dive into the disparities of self-valuation vs. 3rd party valuation and the range responses the arranged marriage systems creates as a result.All in all this is a #GRCA certified podcast. Music, of course, sponsored by the great Rajkumar. (listen to the pod to find out why)

We return with a Telugu film, a massive hit from 2022. Just when we thought only male star driven, machismo action films could do well in theatres, we had films based on romance with author backed pairs work their charm at the box office. One was Thiruchitrambalam. The other was Sita Ramam directed by Hani Raghavapudi.

Sita Ramam stars Dulquer Salmaan and Mrunal Thakur, two stars made to glisten the screen. In this episode Aditya joins Sal of Salandthebadpun on Twitter and our returning guest Amrita to talk about the film, how the romance works with the help of the actors' charm and great looks, the set and costume design, the casting of Rashmika and the way her character is written. We also talk about the fragmented politics of the film, muted but always grating in the background.

Participants:

Aditya

Sal

Amrita

Edited by Anantha.

The Cabal goes a little more mainstream this week exploring the 2012 Malayalam hit Usthad Hotel. Bit of a guilty pleasure, this film brought some varied reactions from the group. But we could all agree on one thing - Dulquer and Thilakan were excellent!

This week the cabal discussed four generations and a funeral through the Kannada indie movie Thithi. We cover everything from why brokers hide behind xerox shops to funeral dancers while marveling at the ease with which people with no morality hang ups pass through life.

We’re back with Part 2 of our conversation on MayaBazaar . The Cabal veers off into broader discussions on the Mahabharatha epic and why we should revisit films that were our childhood favorites.

Almost everybody agrees Lijo Jose Pellissery's Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam that released mid January of 2023 and on Netflix at the end of February is going to be the Indian film of the year? Why? We thought we'll dig in. 

Aditya watched it twice in theatres. Deepauk watched it a day before recording of this podcast. And our special guest critic, programmer, author Srikanth Srinivasan watched it thrice in theatres and a couple of more times on Netflix. With a screenplay by S Hareesh and directed by Pellissery, the film stars Mammootty, Ramya Pandian, Ashokan, Ramya Suvi, Poo Ramu among others.

The three of them gather to discuss what makes this film so interesting, the seamless Tamil-Malayalam intermingling, the filmmaking ideas and cinematography, the almost exclusive Tamil cinema soundtrack throughout the film, and the film's philosophical interventions. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Srikanth Srinivasan

Deepauk

Srikanth Srinivasan's writings on the film:

A Letter to Lijo Jose Pellissery: https://theseventhart.info/2023/01/25/a-letter-to-lijo-jose-pellissery/

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam Part 2: https://theseventhart.info/2023/01/31/nanpakal-nerathu-mayakkam-2022-part-2/

If anybody would like to watch Ratha Kanneer, it's on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63Qhsl5010

Here is a playlist of songs that you hear in the film: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlgM21QZS6YyKtiXGxtGyMAzTVbR2Y_8R

Hello, we are back!

After a lengthy break, The Other Banana returns with a new season and with a small change in programming for this opening episode. We have two special guests - filmmaker Don Palathara who's made films such as Shavam, Vith, 1956 Central Travancore, Everything is Cinema joined us to talk about Swedish auteur Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. Palathara's new film Family premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this month. Aditya's writing on Palathara's cinema and review of Family are linked below in the show notes.

The second guest participating in this episode is sociologist Sherin Catherine who also dabbles in writing and acting. She's the co-writer of Everything is Cinema and Family.

Roy Andersson's films are unique in their narrative style and shot compositions. They are more anti-narrative with us just following a seemingly disconnected set of characters who are framed in painterly compositions with deep focus with most of the film in master shots. His films are existential in nature probing what it means to be human and sometimes dark and, more often than not, funny. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) is the third in his Living trilogy following Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and You, the Living (2007). It won the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

Listen on

Participants:

Aditya

Don Palathara

Sherin

Some writings on Don Palathara's cinema by Aditya:

On Palathara's cinema: https://www.cinemaexpress.com/malayalam/features/2021/aug/18/biweekly-binge-inside-don-palatharas-cinema-26130.html

Review of Family: https://www.ottplay.com/news/newsletter-the-church-faith-at-all-costs-in-don-palatharas-family/fc3e211676571

At The Other Banana podcast, we are aware that we haven't been paying attention to our Kannada roster as much as the others. In an attempt to address that, we got together some folks who were excited to talk about one of the finest comedies from Kannada cinema.

In this episode, Anantha and Ashoka talk about Gauri Ganesha (1991), a film directed by Phani Ramachandra and starring Anant Nag, Vinaya Prasad, Master Anand et al, with two special guests.

Alok Prasanna Kumar, an advocate based in Bengaluru who is also a columnist in various publications, joins the podcast along with filmmaker Suneel Raghavendra. Suneel is the director of the film Puta Tirugisi Nodi. Listen on.

Participants:

Anantha

Ashoka

Alok Prasanna Kumar

Suneel Raghavendra

Edited by Ashoka.

Among all the epic star vehicles and action extravaganzas like Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, KGF and Vikram, we had a seemingly little film that became a box office hit. It's not a little film by any means. It has Dhanush, Nithya Menen, Prakash Raj, Bharathiraja in the lead and directed by Mithran Jawahar. The film, Thiruchitrambalam, is just more grounded and subtle, the opposite of what people have come to expect from theatrical films. And yet, this romantic comedy, a genre that's hard to come by in Tamil cinema, is not just a wonderful film but also found its audience.

To talk about the film, we have Aditya and Anantha. And joining them is writer, journalist and film critic Subha Rao who makes a return to the podcast. She had earlier joined us for the episode on stars and promising directors.

Participants:

Aditya

Anantha

Subha Rao

Edited by Ashoka

We at The Other Banana believe that director Girish AD is doing something incredible with the genre of romantic comedy and coming of age. With the recent big hit Premalu, that awed audiences across south India, we decided to take a look at all his films that show steady progression in certain genre conventions as well as successful attempts at breaking them with memorable writing, characters, comedy and performances.

In this episode, Poorvaja S, journalist from The Hindu joins Aditya and Deepauk to talk about Girish and his three films so far - Thanneer Mathan Dinangal, Super Sharanya and Premalu.

There is a lot of giggling and laughter but also some observations into what makes Girish AD unique and how he has revitalized the genre in India. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Poorvaja

Edited by Anantha.

Thallumaala is one of a kind cinema to come out of India this year. A complex screenplay (or storyboard?) structure, a filmmaking style that takes giant leaps of faith and a great rhythmic sense to the narrative coupled with its music make it an immense watch. You watch it and you want to watch it again all over again. The film is written by Muhsin Parari and Ashraf Hamza and stars Tovino Thomas, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Shine Tom Chacko, Lukman, Swathi Das Prabhu who all form a part of a whole winning ensemble.

To talk about Thallumaala we have special guest Uday Bhatia, writer and film critic at Mint Lounge. Joining him are Aditya and Deepauk. 

You should also check out Uday's book Bullets Over Bombay: Satya and the Hindi Film Gangster, on the story behind the making of Ram Gopal Verma's Satya and its effects on Hindi cinema that lasted more than two decades.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Uday Bhatia

Edited by Ashoka

The podcast returns to Tamil cinema with one of the classics of the 1980s. Produced by AVM and written and directed by Visu, Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, released in 1986, remains one of the most memorable and talked about family dramedies. Starring Lakshmi, Manorama, Raghuvaran, Kishmu, Chandrashekar, Visu, Kamala Kamesh, Delhi Ganesh, Ilavarasi and others, the film is remembered for its great lines and great performance of the ensemble. To discuss the film we have one of our regular guests, Balajee Ge aka Localteaparty who recently co-wrote the Sony LIV Tamil web series Meme Boys. Joining him is someone we've been looking to get on to our podcast for long and finally the stars aligned. Rajiv Rajaram who wears many hats, the most recent as the creator of Meme Boys. Rajiv joins Anantha and Balajee to discuss all things Samsaram Adhu Minsaram. Listen on. Participants: Anantha Balajee Ge Rajiv Rajaram Edited by Ashoka.

Today is August 15th and on this day in 1992 Mani Ratnam's Roja released. Along with the film arrived a new sound that awed one and all throughout the country. In the next thirty years, this music will unite India the way only cricket often does. Today marks 30 years since AR Rahman broke out. His growth was tremendous and quick, he transcended borders within India first and then made a mark internationally as well earning two Academy awards in the process.

We at The Other Banana thought that this calls for a special episode on growing up with AR Rahman. We have two special guests joining us for the episode.

Arjun Nair is a music producer, music director, voice artist and part of the A Cappella group Voctronica. Their most popular cover, among others, was a medley of Rahman songs titled Evolution of AR Rahman. You can listen to it here.

Meher Manda is a writer, educator and culture critic based in the USA. The episode was originally her idea and we almost instantly decided to record it and she brought Arjun on board.

Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya who also edited the pod

Arjun Nair

Meher

Vivek Athreya's Ante Sundaraniki released in June to mixed reviews. Telugu cinema is where romantic comedy is thriving and this film was Vivek Athreya's follow up to the immensely popular, hilarious Brochevarevarura. This also had great leads in Nani and Nazriya. While the film failed to click in the box office its Netflix release renewed the debate and the film was received warmly compared to how it did theatrically.

Since we trust Telugu cinema with romcoms in this podcast, we thought let's talk about the film. Our podcast regular Krupa Ge, writer and author (check out her books - Rivers Remember and the more recent What We Know About Her) joined us for this episode along with Aditya and Anantha. They had polar opposite reactions to the film. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Krupa Ge

Anantha

Edited by Ashoka

To restore parity after discussing an old Kamal Haasan film we thought we must do a Rajinikanth film. Ok, that's not the reason but we felt this Rajinikanth film must be discussed.

This is 1978 and Rajinikanth's early years in Tamil cinema. It's the year he stamped his authority and signaled the coming of a legend of Indian cinema. Mullum Malarum, directed by Mahendran with cinematography by Balu Mahendra and music by Ilaiyaraaja had Rajinikanth, Shoba, Sarath Babu and Jayalaxmi. The film was based on a novel by Uma Chandran. A seminal film in not just the crew's and Rajinikanth's careers but to Tamil cinema itself, the film informed the direction Tamil cinema took from there on and also colored the future characters played by the superstar.

To talk about all that and more we invited two of the biggest fans of the film. Shakila Zamboulingame, more popularly known by her account 1916tamilcinema on Instagram which contains some of the most original takes on everything Tamil cinema. Joining her is journalist Kavitha Muralidharan who is participating in our podcast for the third time.

Participants:

Aditya

Anantha

Shakila Zamboulingame

Kavitha Muralidharan

Edited by ABVan

Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram is just a week away and the expectations are immense for the film starring Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil. The furor began in late 2020 when they released a teaser revealing the title accompanied by a sampling of one of the greatest title tracks by Ilaiyaraaja - Vikram from the film of the same name that released in 1986. The 1986 film was a mammoth effort in terms of scripting and production. A screenplay written by Kamal Haasan and writer/novelist Sujatha adapted from the latter's serialized story and directed by Rajashekar the making of Vikram is as much of a lore as its aftermath, influences and the new film it has spawned (though not a sequel).

Vikram has Kamal Haasan as an intelligence agent playing the closest James Bond could come to Indian cinema back till that point (and after Jai Shankar in Tamil cinema). It also had Sathyaraj as the villain with Lissy, Dimple Kapadia, Amjad Khan and Charuhasan completing a role call of who's who from different language industries.

Guru aka Lazygeek joins us to talk about how Sujatha and Kamal Haasan met, their journey through cinema, their collaboration on Vikram, the production effort,how the film turned out and how it has aged. Joining him are Aditya and Anantha

Participants

Guru

Aditya

Anantha

Edited by Ashoka

A film like Chennai 600028 needs no introduction but here is an attempt anyway - a small gang of first timers and amateurs, however privileged by their industry backgrounds, came together to make a movie on amateur cricket - street cricket to be precise - and male friendship. Venkat Prabhu bandied together Shiva, Premji, Nithin Sathya, Aravind Akash, Sampath, Jai, Vijay Vasanth, Ajay Raj and of course, Yuvan Shankar Raja to create a film whose infection charm and fun might have been felt during the set but with a few jitters as SP Balasubrahmanyam and his son SPB Charan put their money into it.

The film completed fifteen years recently and what opened lukewarm with so many newcomers are all names today we always associate together as a gang and not by individual, went on to become a sleeper cult hit. To celebrate these fifteen years of repeat watches, Aditya, Anantha and Balajee get together to talk about the film and the memories associated with it.

Cinema Express Editor in Chief and podcast friend and guest Sudhir Srinivasan interviewed Venkat Prabhu for the same occasion and it came up during our discussion. The interview is linked below

Participants:

Aditya

Anantha (also editor of this episode)

Balajee

Venkat Prabhu interview with Sudhir Srinivasan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGhNELP6fsc

The recent big announcement in Tamil cinema is the collaboration of director Nelson (Kolamaavu Kokila, Doctor, yet to release Beast with Vijay) with Rajinikanth. Since the time Rajinikanth collaborated twice with Pa. Ranjith and once with Karthik Subbaraj, there have always been calls for the biggest stars - meaning male actors who guarantee huge weekend openings at box office - to work with young, promising filmmakers making a different kind of cinema, themselves a coterie that came into being around 2008 in Tamil cinema. The list of filmmakers has only grown since then and it's been a great decade. From calls for Kamal Haasan at his height of stardom and experimentation to work with some of them to Rajini working with them and Vijay collaborating with Lokesh Kanagaraj, and Ajith with H. Vinoth (and we've had more than a decade of Dhanush-Vetrimaaran), fans believe this is a treat. Currently we have upcoming films like Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram with Kamal Haasan, Vijay's Beast with Nelson, Vetrimaaran's Vaadivaasal with Suriya and Pa Ranjith's film with Vikram to name a few.

At The Other Banana, we wondered how healthy these pairings are for Tamil cinema? An industry notorious for the way it manages production and budgets, do the numbers make sense and does the quality suffer? What is the equation between the star actor and the filmmaker? What do they get out of each other and are they satisfied? Who are the biggest stars today, who were the stars we thought could take Tamil cinema to great heights in 2005 and where are they today? What do distributors feel about this subject? Do the filmmakers matter to them the way they do for fans?

To talk about all these things and more, reporter and journalist Subha Rao joined us. Subha has covered Tamil cinema for close to twenty years now and she has been at the forefront from the days of Rajini-Kamal to today's Ajith-Vijay. Young kids might find it hard to believe but there was a time when Ajith used to give interviews and Subha has interviewed him among others like Vikram et al. We've linked to some of her recent and past works before. She comes armed with a wealth of knowledge and experience and stories from distributors and filmmakers and what they think about this topic. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Subha

Anantha

Ashoka

Edited by Ashoka

Show Notes:

Subha's Ajith interviews from back in the day here and here.

Subha's piece on female superstars referenced in the episode.

Subha's essay on Allu Arjun and Pushpa, and how the former became a huge star.

In this episode we dive into the atomic elements of composition that we can observe in Raaja's music. How does he use sentence structures and motifs in his compositions? Can we really tell apart where Carnatic ends and Western touches begin in his music. Briefly we also cover one stark difference between MSV and Raaja.

Topics Covered:

What are sentences and how have they been used by Beethoven and Mozart?

How do sentence structures show up in Raaja's music?

What is a motif and why does it often form the kernel of the full composition?

How has Raaja used various motifs in his film songs?

Participants:

Mahesh

Deepauk

Bala Chidambaram

Musical References:

Subramanyena (Notes)

Kaatumalli

Sakkarakattikku

After a long break, we return to our Director Series on Mysskin. In this episode we talk about Mysskin's 2014 film Pisaasu starring Naga, Prayaga Martin, Radha Ravi et al. The film broadly falls under the horror genre but with its filmmaking and inherent philosophy subverts the genre in many different ways. Add to this, Mysskin's next film is a sequel to Pisaasu starring Andrea.

To talk about the film Aditya is joined by two distinguished guests.

Sudhir Srinivasan returns to our podcast to talk about his favorite Mysskin film. Sudhir is a film critic and editor of Cinema Express. He had earlier joined us to talk about Aayirathil Oruvan

Amrutha is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Film and Digital Media Studies at the Department of English Language and Literature at Wofford College. She obtained her doctoral degree from Department of English at MSU last year, with her dissertation on 'Situating Tamil Cinema'. Her PhD advisor was Dr. Swarnavel Eswaran who is a friend of the podcast and joined us for an episode to talk about Andha Naal.

Edited by Aditya and Anantha.

References:

Amrutha quotes from Kogonada's 2013 video on Neorealism in the podcast. We recommend Kogonada's Columbus and he also has a film coming up in March 2022 - After Yang.

Previous episodes on Mysskin series:

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum.

Yuddham Sei.

As the title suggests, Raj B. Shetty's latest Kannada film Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana contains its share of mythological undertones. But the film is more than just that almost reinventing the gangster drama at an epic scale with very curious passage of character developments. Set in Mangaluru, it tells the story of Hari (Rishab Shetty) and Shiva (Raj B. Shetty), the backstory of how they climb up the ladder of crime in the city and the eventual souring of the relationship. The film's conspicous homo-eroticism was noticed by many and how well it does what it does with it and the film's complete disregard for women in its universe has been topics of debate.

For this episode, we have full house of The Other Banana team - Aditya, Deepauk, Anantha and Ashoka discuss the setting, the relationship between Shiva and Hari, what the film does well and what it does not, the character of Brahmmaya played by Gopal Krishna Deshpande, the writing and filmmaking in Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana.

Episode edited by Anantha

Links:

The Raj B. Shetty interview with Baradwaj Rangan

Our episode on Raj B. Shetty's Ondu Motteya Kathe

Its a full house for the last pod of the year; all 4 of us talk about movies/series of 2021: what we watched, what we liked, what we didn't and what we hope to see more of in the coming year. It is a freewheeling chat covering regional content from South India and a lit bit from around the world.  

...oh and a Happy 2022 from the crew! 

Participants:

Deepauk

Ashoka

Aditya

Anantha

Episode edited by Ashoka.

This episode is brought to you by MUBI, a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe. Every day, MUBI premieres a new film, each one thoughtfully hand-picked. From new directors to award-winners. Beautiful, interesting, incredible movies—there is always something new to discover.

In this episode, we talk about Vijay Kumar's 2016 film Uriyadi. A debut film as actor, writer and director for Vijay Kumar the film had several debutantes in its cast along with Mime Gopi, Citizen Sivakumar among others. The film, set in and around an engineering college outside Trichy, touched upon many issues like caste outfits, caste violence, clashing ideologies and transformation of such outfits into political politics. The film is visceral in its depiction of violence and though it does not name names, Tamil Nadu has a storied history for us to join the dots and talk about the various topics associated with the theme of the film.

Joining Aditya and Anantha for this episode are Niranjana, urban researcher working on everyday life of cities at London School of Economics and Political Science and Vignesh, researcher at King's College London focusing on democracy and politics of mobilization. Along with the thoughts on the film we also talk about the history of caste outfits in Tamil Nadu, the mobilization of such organizations, history of Vanniyar Sangam and PMK as an example and how the Dravidian movement morphed through the decades.

You can try MUBI for a hugely discounted price by signing up on https://mubi.com/theotherbanana or click here.

Participants:

Niranjana

Vignesh

Aditya

Anantha

Episode edited by Anantha.