Ramblings of a 20something girl

It's July of 2025, and it's time for my annual review of movies I watched last year. The movies released last year were extremely interesting. No points for guessing which Indian film industry shone through last year ( hint: it's not the Hindi film industry :p) Honestly, there were so many good movies I watched last year, it took me a lot of effort to pick just a few for this list due to space constraints. Anyway, if you don't find your favorite movie here, don't fret. I might have watched it, or I will in 10 years :p  Now that it's here, read on!  Malayalam Of course, I will start with the Malayalam film industry (it's my bias, I know). The Malayalam film industry went through an absolute whirlwind last year, with its back-to-back record-breaking successes. Were there bad movies too? Oh, absolutely! But here's my list of movies that made me laugh, cry, and go through all sorts of emotions!  1. Premalu    I didn't like this film (JK!). It's a mo...

              Ponman . (Spoilers ahead) Ponman, literally meaning Gold Man, is a Malayalam dark-comedy film  with a lesson as valuable as gold . The directorial debut of Jothish Shankar, it stars Basil Joseph, Lijomol Jose, Sajin Gopu, Anand Manmadhan and Deepak Parambol and is based on the novel, "Naalanchu Cheruppakar", by GR Indugopan. The story follows the problems of a family in Kollam: a widowed mother, her daughter Steffi Graf (Lijomol Jose), who is unmarried at 32, and her son Bruno, an unemployed, violent, and communist brat who cares about nothing but his party and communism.  What problems?  The first issue is Steffi's marriage. To arrange Steffi's marriage, they must provide 25 pavan (sovereigns) of gold as dowry, as asked by the groom's family. Demanding dowry is as common as asking for a glass of water. At 32—considered quite late for marriage—Steffi is not even asked about her wishes and is instead forced into it. Her fami...

Firstly, I know it's July 2024, and I'm terribly late with my list of 2023 movies. But it's not like you all were waiting for this list :p. So now that it's here, read on :) 2023 was a great year for movies (2024 is already better, I cannot wait to write my 2024 list, hehe). The Malayalam film industry has taken the mantle up once again, but I have to say that Hindi films were pretty good too, if not better.  So, in no particular order, here are my favorite movies from 2023. 1 . Romancham For someone who does not like watching horror movies because they're very boring (and not because I'm a coward in real life okay?), and also because I have not seen a lot of good horror comedies (Stree, 2018 is an exception), Romancham came as a pleasant surprise and what I would call a brilliantly set-up horror comedy. Jithu Madhavan, in his directorial debut,  traces the real-life story of himself and his friends back when they used to live in Bangalore as young 20-year-olds....

At the start of this year, I had promised myself  (let's call it my New Year resolution, :p) that I would try to watch more movies. Not just watch more movies, but in fact, watch movies that were not just Rom-Com, and venture into other genres as well. At the end of this year, it's safe to say that I have aced the challenge (almost :p). While it's impossible to pen down all the movies I watched this year, here's a list of my 10 movies of 2022. (They're in top 10 according to me based on the different genres. okay? okay.) 1. Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (Malayalam) This movie is 10/10 getting the top place.  Released in October, this movie has definitely created uproar in Kerala. As it should.  Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is a 2022 Malayalam film directed by Vipin Das and stars Darshana Rajendran, Basil Joseph, Aju Varghese in the lead roles.  Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is a reflection of the society around us. If you've seen The Great Indian Kitchen, you'll have an ide...