Balaji's Thots

Earlier in his career, Vijay Sethupathy seemed to be the poster boy for a new generation of Tamil cinema as he acted as the hero in a string of films(Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanum, Soodhu Kavvum, Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum) directed by debutant directors who tackled new genres, took on different subjects and injected excitement at a […]

Director Balaji Mohan gave us two delightful romcoms in Kaadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi and Vaayai Moodi Pesavum. And though Dhanush has given us commercial entertainers lately, he has shown in the past in films like 3 and Mayakkam Enna that he doesn’t completely shy away from predominantly romantic films or emotional dramas. Considering this, Maari, which […]

On day 4 in the park, we had only one item on the agenda – the 8-mile hike to see Grinnell Glacier. This was definitely the longest hike we’d ever done and to make things scarier, all the descriptions categorized the hike as “strenuous” owing to its 2500 feet ascent. So we decided to join […]

Malayalam films have gotten a rather rough deal when it comes to Tamil remakes. Atrocious casting(Karthik and P.Vasu in place of Mohanlal and Nedumudi Venu *shudder* in Seenu), unnecessary masala(Rajni’s heroics in Chandramukhi) and more artificiality led to films that were pale shadows of their classic originals. Thankfully things have gotten better recently. In 36 […]

Though he had an enviable track record with all his films being hits (many of them were also remade into multiple languages), it was first Magadheera and then Eega that really got director Rajamouli noticed outside Telugu cinema.  Both films were revenge sagas based on reincarnation but for the former he invoked a period setting […]

We visited Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada on day 3. While Glacier NP is on the US side, Waterton Lakes NP is on the Canadian side and together the two parks make up 1 large park called Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. That is what it says at the entrance to the park and […]

Road movies are always made up of the main characters meeting a number of people along the way. While the person(s) taking the road trip are more grounded, the people they run into are usually eccentric or strange but end up imparting some important life lessons to the protagonists. The bulk of Piku is also […]

Day 2 started with a long drive as we had to go over to the Many Glacier area on the east side of the park to purchase boat tickets for the Grinnell Glacier hike we planned to do on one of the following days. We chose to drive to the east side on the Going […]

Tamil cinema heroines have come a long way but Kayal(Nikki Galrani), the heroine of Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka really pushes the envelope at the start. She goes up to Saga(Aadhi) voluntarily and proposes an outing on his bike, she buys alcohol and condoms on the way and asks him if he is a virgin as she […]

It was a bit of a late start after the late flight the previous night. After a quick stop at the Apgar Visitor Center, which is close to the Western entrance, we caught the park shuttle to the trailhead for the Avalanche Lake hike (the park shuttle system was nice but since there were only […]