The Other Banana

We are back after a long gap to continue with our Bala series. This one is special. Pithamagan was special. As two stars Vikram and Suriya come together, Bala goes up a notch and delivers a film that is as timeless as it is strange and compelling. With Vikram, Suriya, Laila, Sangeetha, Karunas and Raaja's music, Pithamagan shocked and awed everyone. Equanimus joins Aditya and Anantha to talk all t...

It's been some time but we are back with the Bala series. This time we talk about the 2001 film, Bala's sophomore feature Nandha starring Suriya, Laila, Rajkiran, Saravanan, Karunas. This felt like a more assured Bala, more confident in his approach and expanding the definition of mainstream. We have the same team to talk about the film. Hari and Anantha join Aditya. Participants: Aditya Hari Anan...

A new Director Series at The Other Banana We have long debated a series on director Bala. You could say that Bala is not Bala anymore and his films are increasingly becoming difficult to meaningfully engage with but, the Bala 1999-2010 was something else. A new voice broke out in Tamil cinema in 1999 with Sethu. One of the several assistants of Balu Mahendra who will go on to make a mark in the fo...

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 hav...

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 othe...

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 Ra...

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, come...

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...

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 narrat...

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 wit...

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 Hin...

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 Adhigaa...

And we are back with an episode on one of the films of the year- Lokesh Kanagaraj's Leo. If you haven't yet heard of the film, crawl out of that rock and here we go- starring Vijay, Trisha, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun etc, the film, after Vikram and the introduction of Lokesh Cinematic Universe, was THE Tamil film if not Indian film that a huge fan base was looking out for. Now that...

We return after a long long time. Various commitments kept us busy but we are back with a new season and we couldn't have picked up a better film to start. Hemanth M. Rao's Sapta Saagaradaache Ello - Side A released on September 1st and later on Amazon Prime, and at least for me it is one of the best films of the year from India. A romantic tragedy starring Rakshit Shetty, Rukmini Vasanth,...

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...

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 mon...

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...

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 t...

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...

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. Palath...

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 P...

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 com...

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,...

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 a...

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 inter...