The Other Banana

We are returning after a while but with a biggie! Director and cinematographer C Prem Kumar joins us to talk about his latest film Meiyazhagan starring Karthi, Arvind Swamy, Sri Divya and others.

The film has been warmly received by the audiences and is a breath of fresh air for Tamil cinema. Films with strong writing, a slice-of-life genre with male characters written as gentle and vulnerable have become rare. There is such a homogeneity of genre dominated by action, masala and violence that a Meiyazhagan deserves to be celebrated not just for how good it is but also for the mere fact that it exists.

Prem Kumar joins Aditya and Subha Rao to talk about the writing decisions, what was cut from the opening scene, music and lyrics, the characters of Arul and Mei, the trimming decisions by distributors and the importance of the small and mid budget film, and more. Listen on.

Edited by Deepauk.

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

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.

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

We couldn't ignore Malayalam cinema's great run in the first couple of months of 2024 so decided to talk about Lijo Jose Pellissery's Malaikottai Vaaliban which received a lukewarm to polarizing reception after huge expectations.

Right after the universally feted Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, Malaikottai Vaaliban couldn't have been more different, a fantastical tale that eschews the diktats of narrative cinema and leaps from one genre to another with every scene. Starring Mohanlal, Katha Nandi, Sonalee Kulkarni, Hareesh Peradi, Danish Sait, Manoj Moses and others, there is a lot in the film to like and talk about.

Aditya is joined by his namesake writer Aditya Mani Jha and Mint Lounge's film critic Uday Bhatia, three people who immensely enjoyed the film to talk about what worked, the influences and whether a sequel can be expected or not. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Uday Bhatia

Aditya Mani Jha

Edited by Anantha

Sapta Saagaradaache Ello - Side B team is back and this time we have director Hemanth M. Rao and actor/singer Chaithra J. Achar joining us. She plays Surabhi in this follow up to SSE Side A. Side B looks at the life of Manu (Rakshit Shetty) and Priya (Rukmini Vasanth) a decade after their tragic love story seemingly ended. We travel with these star crossed characters as Manu grapples with life without Priya after getting out of prison, his tryst with Surabhi and the inability to move on from the strongest love of his life.

We talk everything in this podcast - Chaithra's audition for Surabhi, the staging, colours and lenses used, the progression and inner selves of the three characters, some anecdotes and happy accidents from the filming and also broach the subject of stalking. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Hemanth M. Rao

Chaithra J. Achar

Edited by Anantha

Listen to our episode on Side A with Hemanth and Subha Rao here.

Hello. In the latest episode we visit one of the best films of 2023, SU Arunkumar's Chithha starring Siddharth, Sahasra Shree, Aafiya Tasneem, Nimisha Sajayan, Anjali Nair and others.

Some trigger warnings might apply and this is a spoiler filled discussion as the film deals with child sexual abuse. We have two special guests joining Aditya in this episode.

S. Poorvaja is a journalist with The Hindu and has extensively covered and reported stories related to Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. Some are linked below.

Sannuthi Suresh works with Tulir Centre for the Prevention and Healing Child Sexual Abuse and is a psychotherapist. We talk about how the film portrays a sensitive issue, how much it gets right about the functioning of law, police investigations, the healing process, the POCSO case proceedings and more.

Participants:

Aditya

Poorvaja

Sannuthi Suresh

Some POCSO stories reported by Poorvaja

POCSO: a case study

After recent case of sexual misconduct, spotlight on need for child protection policy in schools

A spate of sexual misconduct charges is rocking Chennai’s schools

Subha Rao's interview of Siddharth and SU Arunkumar

Baradwaj Rangan's interview of SU Arunkumar

Hello! In this episode, Deepauk, Anantha and Aditya talk about Roby Varghese Raj's Kannur Squad starring Mammootty, Rony David Raj, Azees Nedumangad, Kishore and others. The film is a thriller based on a real squad of police officers who are tasked with the toughest cases.

The film is very similar to last year's Kuttavum Shikshayum directed by Rajeev Ravi and H Vinoth's Tamil film Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru. Both the films, like Kannur Squad, feature a team of police officers operating beyond their familiar turf, traveling to different parts of the country in search of criminals on the run. We also look at how the films stack up and what they do differently with familiar premise.

We also talk about Mammootty who is having a terrific late innings in his career and a particularly great 2023 with Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (check out our episode on the film), Kannur Squad and Jeo Baby's Kaathal The Core that is currently in theatres.

Participants:

Deepauk

Anantha

Aditya

Edited by Anantha.