The Other Banana

One of our listeners think it would be a good idea for us to talk about the 2006 Chimbu Deven's historic-fiction "Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi". We too think this is a great idea. 23am Pulikesi is one of the best comedies of Tamil cinema in the last 20 years featuring Vadivelu, Nassar, Ilavarasu, Sriman, Thambi Ramaiah, Manobala and many others. We have Anantha, Ashoka and Rajiv touch upon the film, its comedy, the performances, the homage it pays to its predecessor: Uthama Puthiran, how it could be a modern office-drama masquerading as a period-piece and several other things. ps: Rajiv has his own crime-fiction podcast on Spotify named "Detective Mathimaran". You can listen to it here.

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

Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 released a little over a week ago and has taken the box office by storm. A critical and commercial success, the film has attracted a wide demographic to the theatres. Largely due to its source - Kalki R. Krishnamurthy's serialized novel Ponniyin Selvan published in the 1950s, a historical fiction based on the Cholas and the conflicts within and outside the kingdom for the throne. The film, like most Mani Ratnam films, is also an example of technical mastery which is one of the attractions for widespread theatre viewing with almost no one choosing to wait for the streaming release like it is the norm of late. The film is star studded - Karthi, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Jayaram, Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sarath Kumar, Parthiban, Prabhu, Lal, Prakash Raj and more. There are stars behind the camera as well apart from the director and writing team (Mani Ratnam, Jeyamohan and Elango Kumaravel). It is edited by Sreekar Prasad, art direction by Thotta Tharani with cinematography by Ravi Varman. Music is by A.R Rahman and sound design by Anand Krishnamoorthi. Foley Artist is Prathap and re-recording mix by Craig Mann. In this episode, we talk about one aspect of the technical mastery - sound design. Sound Designer/Engineer/Editor Anand Krishnamoorthi joins Aditya and Ashoka to talk about the sound of Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 and the nuances in the art of sound design. We talk about sound design in general in cinema as well as the work that has gone into Ponniyin Selvan. Anand gives both eli5 explanations for some aspects of his work and also some nerdy and deeply technical things that go into a film's sound. Listen on. Definitions of a few technical terms that will help in enjoying the conversation better Recce Foley Sync Sound ADR Participants: Anand Krishnamoorthi Aditya Ashoka Edited by Ashoka.

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.

In this episode we dive into Raaja’s most ambitious album - Thiruvasagam in Symphony. We discuss the historical origins and similarities between the 2 schools of music that Raaja consciously combines, breakdown elements in each of the songs, and address the need for humility when engaging in the critique of such attempts. Topics Covered: Initial listening experience and how it has evolved over time What is an oratorio and how did the form evolve? What is the form of the Thevaram tradition and what does it bring to the album? How Raaja combines the two forms as part of the album Bouquets, brickbats, and the hollowness of both when it comes to TiS Participants: Mahesh Deepauk Bala Chidambaram Musical References: St.Matthew's Passion Raaja talks about the forms laid out for us by his predecessors and his intent of creating TiS a clip of Hariprasad Chaurasia Handel's Messiah Pannum pathamezhum Thalaye nee vanagaai Insert part about criticisms from Raaja Putril Vaazh

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

In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood  movie 83 – which retells the story of India’s miraculous victory in the  1983 World Cup. Talking Points: A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983The conspicuous absence of India’s victory over West Indies at BerbiceThe complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath’s golden seasonRanveer Singh and Jiiva – and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari SrikkanthThe film not setting the context for the 1983 World CupThe lack of a genuine bad guy – which makes the movie search for antagonistsThe factual inaccuracies in the movie – including a big faux pas in the final sceneThe movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytellingThe cinematographic techniques – long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reelsThe nationalistic tone that runs through the movieThe Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983The Indian cricket ecosystem’s inability to create cultural value and works of art Participants: Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee) Aditya Shrikrishna (@gradwolf) Anantha (@anantha) Related: With Obvious Storytelling, ’83’ Is an Opportunity Lost to Show Underdog India’s Famous WC Victory – Tanul Thakur – The Wire 83 Loses Itself In The Excesses Of Euphoria – Rahul Desai – Film Companion Lead image from here.

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.

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.