Recent Reviews by Subha J. Rao
The News Minute
Subha J Rao has loved the movies since she sat in a darkened makeshift auditorium as a child and watched a K Balachander classic come alive on a white cloth that doubled up as a screen. A journalist with over 27 years of experience, she has worked in The Indian Express and United News of India, New Delhi, from 1997 to 2002. She then joined The Hindu and had two stints there, from November 2002 to February 2015 and from January 2016 to May 2017.
Films reviewed on this Page
Maryade Prashne
Maryade Prashne is an ode to the outliers of Bengaluru’s software gold rush
The film, directed by Nagaraj Somayaji, shines thanks to the writing, framing and performances.
There’s a Bengaluru that has slowly been invisibilised in pop culture. It’s almost like they’d like you to believe India’s Silicon Valley is all about skyscrapers and pubs, people with laptops waltzing into swanky hotels and coffee shops, and health-conscious folks ordering flour from chakkis. But, there’s another Bengaluru, the one that was once the mainstream and is now the outlier — made up of locals and migrant workforce, all of whom fall under the broad category of the middle class — whose members walk hesitantly into star hotels, drink happily in open-to-the-sky bars, who stand in a queue to grind flour in a machine, and who struggle to pay their loans on time, every single month. The kind of people who wear unbranded inner garments and smell of sweat, as a character in Maryade Prashne says. The only thing they have for themselves is maryade or self-respect. What does one do when that is questioned? When intent is rubbished? That’s what Nagaraj Somayaji’s taut two-hour-long Maryade Prashne is all about.
Bhairathi Ranagal
Shiva Rajkumar shines in a well-crafted but violent prequel to Mufti
The film, set against the background of iron mining, crafts its own path, cleverly bypassing any comparison to a recent blockbuster franchise that revolves around gold mining.
The trick with a prequel is that you have to impress viewers who have watched the original film, and those who are new to its cinematic world. So, first, a round of congratulations to director Narthan, who charmed in 2017 with his debut Mufti, and now with its prequel Bhairathi Ranagal, starring Shiva Rajkumar, Rahul Bose, Rukmini Vasanth and Chhaya Singh, among others.