Janani

Assistant Editor at India Today | Previously with Deccan Chronicle, Silverscreen. RTs and Tweets are personal

[Janani @JananiKumar92]

My sister’s four-year battle with cancer came to an end today. She didn’t suffer for a long time, which I think is a silver lining. She had a rarest form of cancer called Synovial Sarcoma, which affects the soft tissues... 1/2

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Patriot review: Mammootty is invincible, Mohanlal-Fahadh Faasil boost spy drama | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/zgSfrTpTZe

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Kara review: Dhanush's heist film knows the drill, but misses the jackpot | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/iBG2RjMnw5

[Janani @JananiKumar92]

@Ajumplakdibampa Thank you again 😄

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Chiyaan Vikram has 4 films coming. But is he addressing the right problem? | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/LgOnDA4NTw

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Explained: Why Vijay's #JanaNayagan couldn't have been leaked from editing table | By
@JananiKumar92 | Quotes from @Cinemainmygenes @editorsuresh
https://t.co/ASGbdQBOlr

[S.R.Praveen @myopiclenses]

Finally, after a long wait, my book titled 'Ticket to Kerala: The Story of Malayalam Cinema', which looks at the history of the industry as well as its contemporary works, is set for release this month, after the Kerala Assembly elections. The pre-order link is up on Amazon (https://t.co/uLerElum3E )

When Rupa Publications (@Rupa_Books ) reached out to me to write a book on Malayalam cinema for those outside Kerala who have begun discovering it, I felt that this was an opportunity to collect my thoughts on all that I have witnessed in these years, ever since I started reviewing Malayalam films for The Hindu in 2012, and as an avid movie buff since the early 1990s.

Reviewing involves the occupational hazard of having to watch an abnormally large number of bad films that one would usually avoid, given a choice. But the perks of reviewing during an industry’s purple patch are the inevitable good or great films that would release every month, at the least. That golden run has now continued unabated for over a decade and a half. Reviewing has given me a ringside view of the industry’s journey during
these eventful years of remarkable change and churn.

This book has been written with the intention of introducing Malayalam cinema beyond its immediate past to an audience outside of Kerala. The recent films from this sliver of a state in the southern corner of India has garnered much attention, much more than at any point in its close to a hundred years of existence. Yet, due to various reasons, the attention has been focused mostly on what has come out of the film industry after 2020.

The time I spent on writing this book, using every waking hour left after the daily work as well as all my off days during this period, has been richly rewarding. It gave me an opportunity to rewatch some of my old favourites, to watch films I have missed over the years, to read memoirs of filmmakers, actors and technicians, to meet and speak to some of them, and also to revisit all that I have written on cinema over the past many years. I hope that the book which came out of it will be as rewarding for the readers as the process has been for me.

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Neelira review: Someetharan's anti-war film is a portrait of war's human cost | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/TZ4Oog9TPF

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Youth, grit and a tea shop deal: The @KenKarunaas story Tamil cinema needed | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/ndJ70zhlzz

[Janani @JananiKumar92]

@Avinash_R13 @chennaimotorist 🤣🤣🤣

[Janani @JananiKumar92]

@Avinash_R13 The thagappa curse is following you from Mumbai I see 🤣

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Muthu Alias Kaattaan review: Vijay Sethupathi's murder mystery is a meandering mess | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/A5g0HNDvlP

[IndiaToday @IndiaToday]

Youth review: Ken Karunaas's school rom-com is teen drama done right | by @JananiKumar92

https://t.co/YHBAS2797R

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Youth review: Ken Karunaas's school rom-com is teen drama done right | by @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/s2TxwOz0ST

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Radikaa Sarathkumar's grandmother act and Rs 50 crore-run: #ThaaiKizhavi shakes Tamil box office | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/oMlL8oIffs

[Avinash Ramachandran @Avinash_R13]

Wrote something on the two L words that are employed to often pull down the Legacies of our actresses...

Time irundha, do give it a read... Maybe?

Nandri,
Ungal,
Naan

https://t.co/Ty9CADfsHK

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Cut, rename, comply: How censor board is shaking South cinema | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/Db9jZ2DuFp

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Not educated, but fiercely free: Tamil cinema finds feminist icons in matriarchs | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/v2DMLgUgyy

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

#ThaaiKizhavi review: Womanhood, wit and Radikaa Sarathkumar in all her glory | By @JananiKumar92
https://t.co/2u3Not3Q2u

[India Today Showbiz @Showbiz_IT]

Trisha's stand in #Vijay row is a refusal to be patriarchy's political weapon | By @JananiKumar92 | @trishtrashers
https://t.co/SYrQr1g5aQ