Rima Kallingal Interview: It's frustrating to be reduced to labels like 'bold and beautiful'
More than a decade into her film career, actor Rima Kallingal refuses to be boxed by industry expectations. Although she was last seen in Neelavelicham (2023) on the big screen where she was also the producer, Rima's name continues to make headlines for the interesting projects that she chooses to work in. The short film Lalanna's Song (currently streaming on Mubi) is one of them, where she plays Miriam, a quiet, yet fierce witness to religious hatred and prejudices in the heart of Mumbai, along with Shoby (Parvathy Thiruvothu). 'This piece was liberating,' shares Rima. 'As both a human being and an artist, these issues have always troubled me, and it gave me a medium to confront those concerns directly—to look them in the eye,' she adds.
In this interview, Rima elaborates on these themes, why the ripples of the Hema Committee report haven't died down, exploring different platforms to share stories, the importance of creating inclusive spaces for art, and more…
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The Hindu
10 hours ago
- The Hindu
Reviews of ‘Thug Life' and ‘Housefull 5'
Around Tinsel Town >> HC hears case on Kamal Haasan's remark on Kannada; veteran actor postpones 'Thug Life' release in Karnataka After a major controversy erupted last week surrounding veteran actor Kamal Haasan's remarks on Kannada at the audio launch of his latest film 'Thug Life,' the actor's banner Raaj Kamal Films International approached the Karnataka High Court for the release of 'Thug Life' without disruption in Karnataka. The petition further added that the banner is not willing to screen the movie in the state unless an encouraging dialogue takes place with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. Following the same, the HC suggested that Kamal apologise for his remark and end the controversy; however, the veteran stood his ground and refused to apologise, opting not to release the film in Karnataka on June 5. The 'Vikram' star asserted he has always stood for the equal dignity of all Indian languages and remains opposed to the dominance of any one language over another. According to trade analysts, the actor is set to face a loss of ₹35 crore to ₹40 crore in gross box office revenue and a loss of ₹12 crore to ₹15 crore in producer share due to the postponement of the film's release in the state. >> Kerala Police drops Hema Committee report cases; Parvathy Thiruvothu slams CM over inaction The Kerala Police, earlier this week, decided to drop the cases that emerged from the Hema Committee's findings on sexual exploitation and the misogyny within the Malayalam film industry. According to official sources, despite repeated summons by both the SIT and the court, the survivors declined to provide statements in connection with the cases. This came just a day after actor Parvathy Thiruvothu publicly criticised the Kerala government's handling of the Hema Committee report, mocking the administration's delay in implementing reforms promised more than five years ago. Bollywood Aamir Khan confirms 'big-scale' superhero action film with Lokesh Kanagaraj, to enter production in mid-2026 Ananya Panday joins Kartik Aaryan in 'Tu Meri Main Tera, Main Tera Tu Meri' Aamir Khan says 'Mahabharata' could be his final film Diljit Dosanjh's 'Punjab 95' stuck in censor board limbo with 127 demanded cuts Dharma Productions issues statement after sexual misconduct allegations against 'Homebound' cinematographer Pratik Shah Hollywood Tom Cruise sets Guinness World Record with blazing parachute stunt in 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' Disney to lay off several hundred employees in film, TV, finance globally Luca Guadagnino in talks to direct OpenAI drama 'Artificial' for Amazon MGM Judge rules in favour of Justin Baldoni as Blake Lively's emotional distress case faces setback 'Stranger Things' Season 5 gets premiere date, split into three volumes Regional Cinema Nivin Pauly joins Lokesh Cinematic Universe with Raghava Lawrence's 'Benz' Actor Akhil Akkineni ties the knot with Zainab Ravdjee Prabhas' 'The Raja Saab' locks December release following multiple delays Tamil director Vikram Sugumaran passes away at 47 World Cinema 'One Piece' Live-Action Season 2 unveils first look at fan-favorite Tony Tony Chopper Kamal Haasan's 'Vikram' shines in Japan amid 'Thug Life' release Trailers 'Wicked: For Good' trailer shows Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande return for a grand finale at Oz 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' teaser shows detective Benoit Blanc take on his 'most dangerous case yet.' Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell revisit the past in 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' trailer Jennifer Lopez steals the spotlight in trailer of Bill Condon's retelling of popular musical 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' Trailer of Noah Hawley's FX series 'Alien: Earth' drops biggest Predator crossover tease 'Frankenstein' teaser shows Oscar Isaac in Guillermo del Toro's Mary Shelley adaptation Teaser of 'Gen V' Season 2 adresses Chance Perdomo's death Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan lead vignettes of urban love stories in trailer of 'Metro In Dino' 'Maareesan' teaser shows Fahadh Faasil, Vadivelu reuniting in an intriguing road thriller Essential reading 1) Chinmayi interview on 'Thug Life' song: 'Despite praise, I feel numb' >> The singer looks back at the 'Thug Life' experience and the last few years post the #MeToo movement 2) Jafar Panahi | The auteur of dissent >> The Iranian filmmaker, whose 'It Was Just an Accident' won Palme d'Or at Cannes, says he stands in solidarity with the women who clashed with the country's orthodox moral system 3) When Kamal Haasan changed his movie's title after finding no support from Jayalalithaa >> During a controversy over the title 'Sandiyar,' Kamal tried to meet the then Chief Minister, hoping to sort out the issue; however, she did not grant him an audience immediately 4) Darshana Rajendran interview: On how acting went from being a hobby to a full-fledged career >> The actor speaks about her Malayalam play 'Bye Bye Bypass,' which she says resonated with her, as at its core lies the idea of what a home is 5) Want information about any Hindi or Tamil film song? Ask record-collector T.S. Gopal >> An encyclopedia on music and a wizard at video editing, Gopal has been documenting film songs for the past 60 years 6) Five Kamal Haasan films that courted controversies >> What sets the latest controversy surrounding 'Thug Life' apart is that, unlike past instances, the row has nothing to do with the movie itself What to watch 1) Kamal Haasan's fiery performance aside, Mani Ratnam's gangster drama 'Thug Life' shoots blanks Read the full review here 2) Housefull 5 Read the full review here 3) Abhishek Banerjee's road thriller 'Stolen' is gritty but not revelatory Read the full review here 4) The Life of Chuck Read the full review here 5) Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren preside over 'MobLand,' a messy, magnetic enterprise Read the full review here 6) Radhika Apte elevates the punk black comedy 'Sister Midnight' Read the full review here 7) Jon Hamm is riveting in the black satire series 'Your Friends & Neighbors' Read the full review here 8) 'Moonwalk' is a heartfelt tribute to the breakdancing subculture Read the full review here
Indian Express
19 hours ago
- Indian Express
Kiss movie review: Varun Grover's ambitious directorial debut combats authoritarianism with empathy
Comedian-writer-lyricist Varun Grover's directorial debut, Kiss, contains multitudes. The ideas that it is preoccupied by can be upsetting, even terrifying. But, made by someone who has clearly benefited from therapy, the movie is able to comprehend, contest, and communicate these preoccupations with a necessary calm. Kiss was finally released for public viewing on MUBI recently, a full three years after its festival run first began. It isn't at all like Grover's feature-length debut All India Rank, although both projects are marked by a decency that seems altogether absent from our culture these days. Fascinated by the idea of cinema as a therapeutic medium, the 15-minute short stars Adarsh Gourav as Sam, a young filmmaker who finds himself in a rather awkward ideological stand-off with a couple of men after the dreaded 'censor board' screening of his latest movie. The two men are played by Swanand Kirkire and Ashwath Bhatt; they're meant to represent this unnamed censor board, but they may as well be the moral police that sends filmmakers to prison in Iran, the settlers who drive people out of their homes in Palestine, or the Romeo squads that torment young lovers in India. Kiss could be set in the distant future, for all we know. There is a certain dystopian quality to the movie. Also read – Tees movie review: Dibakar Banerjee's unreleased saga is ambitious, intimate, and incendiary Sam waits patiently for the screening to end, confident that his film will emerge unscathed from the censors' unnecessarily violent cuts. The men tumble out of the ravishing art deco auditorium. Something is wrong, Sam can tell. He asks them how it went, and they tell him. The two men simply cannot fathom why Sam would make all their lives difficult by including an extended same-sex kiss in his film; they're so outraged at the idea of sexuality that they haven't even begun to wrap their heads around the fact that the kiss takes place between two versions of the same character. It's like a lazy cop rolling their eyes in frustration at a petty theft complaint. So much paperwork; why can't people keep an eye on the till? They're openly disdainful of Sam and his artistic vision, although they don't quite have the vocabulary to verbalise their complaints. Were a gun to be put to their heads, they would probably struggle to explain why exactly they're so offended. Are they troubled by the simple act of sensuality, or are they more annoyed by the prospect of performing overtime just because little old Sam wanted a kiss in his movie? Conditioned to view art through the lens of someone who sits at a 'galla', the two men demand that Sam present the timecodes for the kissing scene. He tells them that it lasts 28 seconds, which strikes them as odd. They could've sworn that it went on for longer. Sam suggests that they watch the scene again, with their timers on, only to make a more informed decision on how to approach cutting it. The three men trudge back into the old-timey theatre, and watch the scene again. A work of art has been reduced to CCTV footage. Grover's camera doesn't get distracted by what's happening on the screen; he trains his focus on the faces of the three men. Each of them gets a different reading on their watch; the same scene lasts under a minute for Sam, over two minutes for one of the men, and over three for his colleague. Time, it seems, is relative. 'No good movie is too long and no bad movie short enough,' said the great critic Roger Ebert once. One wonders what he'd have made of Kiss. Read more – Maagh – The Winter Within: The finest Indian film of the year, the only alternative to all the Animals out there The movie doesn't limit itself to this one idea, though. Having established the premise, it goes for a grand payoff. Grover is, after all, a comedian; not to mention the writer of perhaps the single greatest Hindi film of the last decade. He understands structure better than most. Kiss is able lure us into its world with a clearly enunciated simplicity, before pushing the envelope ever so gently. Having trained the audience to expect the unusual, it takes the potentially divisive risk of swinging hard as it enters its third act. In the climactic five minutes, Kiss turns into what can only be described as a Nolan-esque reimagining of Ratatouille. Both Sam and Grover are addressing their traumas the only way they know how: through their art. They have a right to be disheartened by the world they inhabit. But neither Grover nor his alter ego resorts to retribution. It would've been easy for him to vilify the two men. He's in control; one turn of the dial here, one pull of the lever there. And et voila, he'd have a couple of two-dimensional villains. Certainly, most people seem to appreciate thinly written characters these days. But he approaches the story with a Javed Akhtar-level sympathy for the devil. Along with Rohin Raveendran's The Booth, Shazia Iqbal's Bebaak, and Faraz Ali's Obur, Kiss is an urgent reminder of the paranoia that contemporary India has been cloaked under. Kiss Director – Varun Grover Cast – Adarsh Gourav, Swanand Kirkire, Ashwath Bhatt Rating – 4.5/5 Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Vidhu Vincent counters Parvathy's criticism on Hema Committee Report: 'Don't shoot wildly just because you're a star'
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook) Filmmaker Vidhu Vincent has responded strongly to actress Parvathy Thiruvothu 's recent criticism of the Kerala government over the delay in implementing the Hema Committee recommendations. In a lengthy social media post titled 'Hema Committee Report and Government Action: Facts', Vidhu urged for a fact-based discussion and stated that 'sensible women like Parvathy should not pass judgments without understanding the truth. ' Stand Up gets off to a grand start Parvathy questions delay in action Parvathy, in a post tagging Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, questioned the lack of progress in implementing the committee's recommendations, stating, 'Now can we focus on the ACTUAL reason this committee was formed? Putting policies in place to help make regulations in the industry? What is happening with that? No rush? It's only been five and a half years since the report was submitted.' Her post triggered widespread debate, prompting Vidhu to lay out the steps taken by the state since the report's submission. Vidhu reacts - None of them were willing to proceed with police cases afterward In her post, Vidhu noted that even those who had testified before the Hema Committee—including Parvathy—were unwilling to take legal action later. 'It is a fact that even though actors like Parvathy and others gave testimonies... none of them were willing to proceed with police cases afterward,' she wrote, adding that both the Special Investigation Team and the Crime Branch confirmed that statements were later withdrawn. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 3BHK Transformation Possible for ₹4.5 Lakh? HomeLane Get Quote Undo She stressed that, 'Legal action requires the full cooperation and testimony of the victims/survivors—without that, it's impossible to pursue cases effectively.' 'Criticism is always healthy. But don't shoot wildly…' Vidhu further emphasized that the Hema Committee was not meant solely to register cases but to act as a foundation for a broader film policy. She detailed government efforts such as: over 20 rounds of consultations, discussions with over 400 stakeholders, and initiatives to empower women in film. Concluding, Vidhu added, 'Criticism is always healthy. But don't shoot wildly just because you're a star… That's what Kerala expects from aware and thoughtful voices like Parvathy and others.' Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
