Vaazhai Movie Review: Vaazhai, based on true events from Mari Selvaraj’s life, is a film deeply rooted in his land. It tells a tragedy that unfolds through the eyes of Sivanendhan, a school kid living with his mother and sister in Puliyankulam village near Tirunelveli. Mari wastes no time introducing the back-breaking labour of carrying banana plantains, a task doubly taxing for Sivanendhan and his best friend, who juggle this work with school, leaving them without a single day off.

The film presents picturesque snapshots of the countryside, with affecting sounds that marry the harshness of their lives with the mud that they come from. From the outset, it’s clear we’re in for an earthly affair that’s firmly grounded in the backgrounds of its characters. It follows Sivanendhan (Ponvel), a young Rajini fan, as he splits his time between studies and weekend labour. His best friend Raghul (Sekar), a Kamal fan, works alongside him to help repay a loan left by Sivanendhan’s late father. Despite the constant pain from their heavy labour, the boy remains focused on his studies and finds moments of joy, like his crush on teacher Poongkodi (Nikhila Vimal).

Kani (Kalaiyarasan), a local, fights for better wages and clashes with the upper-caste landlord, showing the village’s struggles. As the story progresses, a missing cow leads to a confrontation with a broker. The narrative thus shows the consequences of missing a day’s labour, juxtaposed with the relatively normal childish joys that these kids find in school.

True to Mari Selvaraj’s style, the film dives into caste dynamics. It sets up a whole ecosystem: villagers breaking their backs in the plantation, a broker playing middleman, and when Kani tries to organise a strike, the big boss shows up to smooth-talk their demands away.

Mari tries to win the audience over with some neat little moments. There’s a hilarious debate between the kids about Rajini versus Kamal that’ll crack you up. Then, there’s Siva’s cheeky move of swiping his teacher Poongkodi’s kerchief, which turns into this sweet bond. Cue a breezy scene of Siva hitching a ride on Poongkodi’s two-wheeler to the rice mill, complete with a catchy tune. These lighter bits, sandwiched between the tough stuff, are meant to hit you right in the feels. When it works, it’s a gut-punch — both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

But there’s only so much sympathy to go around. The film’s so busy painting this black-and-white picture of the downtrodden versus the village bigwigs that it forgets to add some shades of grey. Sure, Siva’s a great kid with potential, and yes, the villagers have it rough. But when the baddies are just your typical moustache-twirling landlord types who seem to own people, it’s hard not to roll your eyes a bit. The film’s begging you to feel bad, but by making everything so cut-and-dry, it actually makes it tougher to stay connected.

The acting in Vaazhai is a standout. Ponvel and Raghul, the young leads, deliver stellar performances that keep you glued. Their on-screen chemistry is top-notch, with Ponvel especially shining as he carries the bulk of the emotional weight. Nikhila Vimal nails her role as the kind, sympathetic, and attractive village teacher. Kalaiyarasan and Dhivya Duraisamy round out the cast nicely, helping to establish the film’s social dynamics.

Craft-wise, the film holds its own. Theni Easwar’s cinematography is a highlight, capturing the countryside and banana plantations with an eye for earthy details like animals and insects. Santhosh Narayanan’s score complements the visuals perfectly, alternating between airy lightness and oppressive heat to mirror the story’s emotional beats.

Vaazhai has got heart and looks the part, but it could’ve used a bit more grey in its village tableau.

Written By: Abhinav Subramanian

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” somebody once famously said in the movies. It made utterly no sense in 1970, but even less so now. In recent decades, the apology has become all the rage.

So at the beginning of Zoë Kravitz’s “Blink Twice,” when her tech-mogul protagonist, Slater King, sits on a TV couch and says “I’m sorry” for some unexplained transgression, well, it’s a familiar scene. Pick your offender, pick your year: Famous person issues ritual apology, gets off grid for a bit (in this case, a remote island with chickens) and returns, presumably forgiven. We’ve seen it all before.

Not that it isn’t fun to watch here — especially because Channing Tatum is so delightfully, charmingly smarmy in the role. “Blink Twice” is a big swing for him as an actor and even a bigger one for Kravitz, his life partner, as director and co-writer of this stylish, ambitious, buzzy film that seems to aspire to be a gender-themed “Get Out,” or a #MeToo-era thriller with echoes of “Promising Young Woman.”

And Kravitz almost pulls it off. With the help of a terrific cast, she offers strikingly confident, brashly entertaining filmmaking, until everything seems to break down in a mess of porous storytelling. It’s not the sudden intrusion of gore that’s the issue — this is a horror film, duh. It’s the sudden departure of logic. Perhaps you won’t be able to turn away — but, unlike in Jordan Peele’s or Emerald Fennell’s above-mentioned films, you won’t necessarily be able to explain what you saw, either.

But it sure is crackling fun, until it isn’t — which is a pretty apt way to describe the experience that Frida (Naomi Ackie, excellent) has. A cocktail waitress who designs nail art, Frida lives in a rundown apartment with roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat). When the two get a waitressing gig at a fundraiser, they cleverly plot to change into slinky dresses midway so they can mingle with wealthy guests.

Turns out, it’s a fundraiser for Slater’s firm, and when Frida trips, it’s the billionaire himself who helps her up. He introduces her to his friends, and soon, Frida and Jess can’t believe their luck — they’re on Slater’s plane, en route to his very own Fantasy Island.

The water is sparkling. The champagne is, too. Frida and Jess’ closets are filled with resort wear in stylish white, matching those given the other female guests: the flaky and/or stoned Camilla and Heather, and hard-nosed, sharp-elbowed Sarah, who has eyes on Slater and thus daggers out for Frida. (Adria Arjona’s Sarah is easily the most compelling performance of the movie.)

The food, prepared by Slater’s buddy Cody (Simon Rex), is impeccable. (His other pals are played by Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment and Levon Hawke, and his therapist by Kyle MacLachlan.) Alcohol is plentiful, sheets are soft, and there’s drugs, too — to be used “with intention,” according to Slater, whatever that means. Days are long, nights are longer, and soon nobody knows what day it is anyway.

But why is that, exactly? Well, all phones were confiscated upon arrival by Stacy, Slater’s ditzy assistant — Geena Davis, a hoot but somewhat underused (and one should never underuse Geena Davis). But something deeper seems at play. We’re trying to avoid spoilers, but as Jess tells Frida, “There is something wrong with this place.”

That would be easy enough to figure out just by looking at the oddly terrifying faces of the resort workers (shades of “Get Out”) who are surely hiding something. Also: why does Frida have dirt under her fingernails? And what happened to a red stain on her dress? Weird stuff is happening.

But Frida, still, is angry that Jess is balking. They’re on a gorgeous island, and someone important is courting her. “For the first time in my life I’m here and I’m not invisible, so please,” she admonishes her friend.

And so the pretense continues — that pretense, familiar in the Instagram era, of always having a good time. “Are you having a good time?” Slater asks more than once. “Yes!” says Frida, less convincingly as time goes on.

And when everything has gone to utter bloody, gory chaos, someone still suggests, eerily: “There’s a version of this where we’re all having a good time.”

There’s a deeper undercurrent here. Women, Kravitz has posited, are always expected to smile, play the game, pretend they’re having a good time — and, she says, to “forget” the bad stuff. And so forgetting is a prominent element in her film, one we won’t spoil.

In any case, there’s indeed a version of Kravitz’s film in which we’re all having a great time — most of it, actually. She just needs to stick the landing. We’ll all be eager to see what comes next.

“Blink Twice,” an Amazon/MGM release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for strong violent content, sexual assault, drug use and language throughout, and some sexual references.” Running time: 103 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Superstar Taylor Swift broke her weeks-long silence over the cancellation of three Austrian concerts due to a terrorist threat, saying on social media that she was “showing restraint.”

The 34-year-old, whose “The Tortured Poets Department” was Billboard’s 2024 midyear top-selling album, wrote on Instagram that she was “waiting to express [herself] at a time when it’s right to.”

“My priority was finishing our European tour safely,” Swift wrote Wednesday, “and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”

Swift had been quiet about the cancellations until Wednesday’s statement, fueling questions and criticism from some fans over her non-response.

Swift was scheduled to perform Aug. 8-10 at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium as part of the European leg of her Eras Tour.

Concert organizers expected up to 65,000 fans for each concert, with a potential 30,000 more outside.

Show organizer Barracuda Music announced on its website that Swift’s three sold-out shows were canceled as a precaution. Barracuda said it confirmed with government officials “a planned terrorist attack” at the venue.

“We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” the organizer noted.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”

Three men have been arrested, including a 19-year-old Austrian with North Macedonian roots and an 18-year-old Iraqi.

The main Austrian suspect had allegedly pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group online shortly before the planned attack, authorities said.

He was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill ‘infidels,’” Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Austrian Directorate General for Public Security, told the Associated Press.

Haijawi-Pirchner added that the suspect “wanted to carry out an attack in the area outside the stadium, killing as many people as possible using … knives or even using the explosive devices he had made.”

A week earlier in Southport, England, three children died in a knife attack during a Swift-themed dance class. A 17-year-old boy was arrested; prosecutors did not disclose a motive.

“These were just little kids at a dance class,” Swift wrote in a statement on Instagram. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

Swift wrapped up her European Eras Tour on Saturday at London’s Wembley Stadium. The tour began in Paris on May 9.

“I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together,” she wrote. “I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London.”