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Kottukkaali is one of those films that will let the audience get a peek into the lives of people from the rural parts of south India. Despite education being widespread in many parts of the rural region, the locals are still stuck in many age-old traditions. There are women who are not allowed to live life on their own; inter-caste marriages are looked down upon, and couples who dare question their families are either killed or forced to get married to the person of the family’s choice. Kottukkaali, directed by P. S. Vinothraj, is one such story of a woman who is being taken for some rituals because she dared to choose her own life partner.

Spoilers Ahead

What were Pandi and Meena getting ready for?

Pandi and Meena were getting ready for a journey with their respective family members. Though Meena remained quiet while getting ready, her body...

Grave Torture is a brand-new Indonesian Netflix Original that is a psychological horror film that explores the themes of death, sin, the afterlife, radicalism, mental health, and abuse. All of these aspects are found in the stories of the characters of the film, which is extensively covered by the writer and director Joko Anwar.

Sita

Faradina Mufti and Widuri Puteri, both actors, portray the roles of older and younger Sita, respectively, in Grave Torture. Sita was the one who was most deeply affected by the death of her parents, as she witnessed them being killed by a suicide bomber. The young girl is disturbed to learn of grave torture, the reason behind the suicide bomber’s radicalization. Sita never processed the pain of losing her parents, and quickly jumped into debunking grave torture theories. As she refuses to get radicalized in the Islamic boarding school, she finds a way out...

Two families mobilize their forces in a colorful Ape (the marketing department of Piaggio will be pleased to see an impressive number of people comfortably travelling in it) and a tagging motorcycle to make sure that “the adamant” 21-year-old Meena (Anna Ben) gets purified at a holy site, and additionally exorcized by a seer to change her refusal to marry the impertinent, larger than life and physically abusive Pandi (Tamil film industry superstar Soori Muthuchamy). The arranged marriage has to take place at any cost, but Meena does not react to any of threats or attempts at conversation. She is dealing with all that hullabaloo with stubborn silence and passive participation in spiritual rituals she is dragged to like a sack of green potatoes.

The Adamant Girl is screening at Berlin International Film Festival

“The Adamant Girl”, P.S.Vinothraj's bitter drama sprinkled with dark humor, is the first film...

Farcical and viscerally upsetting in equal measure, P.S. Vinothraj’s “The Adamant Girl” masterfully exposes the nature of superstition by zeroing in on gendered expectations. A story of a betrothed woman being shepherded by her fiancé’s family between sites of religious ritual, the rural Tamil-language drama plays like an extension of “Pebbles,” Vinothraj’s remarkable 2021 debut in which an abusive, alcoholic husband and his young son traverse a harsh terrain on foot to retrieve his fleeing wife. This time, the men have cars and motorcycles, while the woman has little recourse but to silently bear the brunt of their beliefs, in a movie that makes deft use of the dynamic between bodies and their environments.

Vinothraj sets the stage by following his characters in lengthy, unbroken shots, observing their movement — or lack thereof, in some cases. He creates a sense of mood and texture around them even before they...

You probably don’t have a heart if you don’t feel an iota of anything after watching Thandatti, which is helmed by Ram Sangaiah and has an arresting Pasupathy leading the cast. Primarily a mystery drama, the movie keeps oscillating between various genres like a pendulum, which makes the viewing experience quite jarring. It is understandable that Sangaiah was trying to cater to a broad audience, but the main story he had in hand probably didn’t need such erratic treatment. In fact, for most of the second half, Thandatti feels quite exhausting to sit through. However, the final twist makes the experience mostly worthwhile. If only the treatment had been a bit more serious and straightforward without all the unnecessary comedic fluff, the ending would have been way more effective and evocative.

We are greeted with images of sprawling, lush green mountains you often see in rural South India,...