Ramblings of a 20something girl

Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.  This quote from an essay by Oscar Wilde went through my mind when I saw an article in the newspaper (mentioned below) after watching the movie  Sthanarthi Sreekuttan.  . Sthanaarthi Sreekuttan is a Malayalam movie directed by Vinesh Viswanath in his debut, starring Aju Varghese, Saiju Kurup, Kannan Nayar, Anand Manmadhan, and Johny Antony, among others. The film follows the story of 7th-grade students at   K.R. Narayanan U.P. School in Kerala.  Sreekuttan (our hero), along with his best friends  Sharat, Anoop, and Anas, are the backbenchers of the class; t hey don't like to study (like every other kid), and would rather be out playing cricket or pulling pranks and inevitably getting into trouble. There is a constant struggle between this group and the good kids in the class, with whom they are always compared by the teachers. The most studious one, Ambadi, is their direct competition.  The main ...

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...

I visit Kerala every year.  I have to for three main reasons. 1) It's my birthplace. 2) My maternal grandparents live there along with most of my relatives and 3) During the summer holidays in school, we had to go somewhere for our vacations, and Kerala was the easiest choice. The annual trips to Kerala took a break in 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit the world. With restrictions on travel being issued everywhere, our hopes of going to Kerala were also dashed that year, and the following year, and the year after. By 2022, when the restrictions on travel were eased, we booked our tickets to Kerala ASAP because we could not wait any longer.  I have always been excited about going to Kerala. IDK. There's just something about going back to your roots.           Meeting familiar faces, having jackfruit (Chakka), bananas, coconut (Karikku) and other different kinds of fruits that one gets to see only in Kerala that people grow in their backyard, di...