Subha Rao

3 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Subha Rao

Last week, when the world heard the songs of Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life at the audio launch, they found an AR Rahman album that catered to different moods all at once — among others, there was the rousing ‘Vinveli nayaka’ by Shruti Haasan, the lilting ‘Mutha mazhai’ in Chinmayi’s voice, and Charulatha Mani’s soothing-yearning-lament ‘Anju vanna poove’, which featured the tremolo technique drawn from the opera tradition.

2 months ago | hollywoodreporterindia.com | Subha Rao

Ashwath Marimuthu’s sophomore project Dragon, drawn loosely from his life and celebrating second chances, has been one of Tamil cinema's biggest hits in 2025 at the box-office. One person who was just not surprised at the reception was K.G. Jayavel, who brought to life, as creator and producer, the seminal show Naalaya Iyakkunar (Tomorrow’s Directors) that ran for six seasons from 2009–2020 on Kalaignar TV, and which set out to identify the auteurs of the future.

2 months ago | thenewsminute.com | Subha Rao

Agnyathavasi (Kannada)There’s an oft-repeated phrase people use after watching certain films — it is “slow.” I didn’t understand it then, I don’t understand it now. Labels help no one. Does life move in real time or at an accelerated pace? The issue of pacing strikes the audience only when they aren’t drawn into the world the director and storyteller have created. Agnyathavasi (translation: ‘a person in exile’) is a film that insists it will breathe — and wants you to breathe with it.

Mar 27, 2025 | thehindu.com | Subha Rao

In a world of reels and shorts, where edgy, dramatic recipes stand out, Julius Fiedler aka Hermann — a German who now calls the U.K. home — is an outlier. He makes a sincere attempt to pronounce the names of dishes correctly (the Tamil paniyaaram, for one) and cracks open a coconut expertly, much to the admiration of an audience far removed from where he lives.

Feb 27, 2025 | aboutamazon.in | Subha Rao

Suzhal—The Vortex season 2 plays a lot of mind games with the viewer. In a nice and intriguing way, though. As in Season 1, the cards keep flipping in every other episode (a total of eight), making you look at what happened and what might happen in a whole new light. Show creators, writers, and producers, Pushkar-Gayatri infuse the storyline with a certain mannvasanai (scent of the soil).