Softening up biases

The documentary Son Rise by National Award winning filmmaker Vibha Bakshi tells the story of ordinary men from Haryana who stood up for women’s rights Jitender Chhatar, a farmer, marries Kusum — a survivor of gangrape. Furthermore, he puts his life in danger by fighting relentlessly to put criminals behind bars and get justice for […]

‘My mantra is to let go’

For National Award winning filmmaker Arunaraje Patil, age is just a number and sky is the limit She was the first woman technician to be trained at FTII. She is a prolific filmmaker and a three-time National Award winner. Arunaraje Patil is also a well-known documentary filmmaker and a Padma Shri awardee. And the list […]

Poster art redux

The dismissive attitude to film posters in this digital age has had its day, and their revival as an art form is on the cards Capturing the theme and mood of a film in a single frame is not an easy task. Though film posters are often seen as mere publicity tools, they are much […]

Side effects of Netflix

Its an obsession, it’s a sensation, it’s taken over our lives —without any ad breaks A monotonous tone, wreaking havoc on the state of senselessness. It’s existence down to life’s ambiguously enshrined practice of waking up and living. My alarm is no different. It does its job, sometimes even when I don’t want it to, […]

Decoding female desires

Bollywood’s depiction of female sexuality onscreen is getting bigger and better, but we still have a long way to go A married professor in her early 30s, embarks on a sexual adventure with her 21-year-old student. A maid shares a sexual relationship with her master, who is about to get married. A middle-aged woman is […]

Streaming sensuality

Internet streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have given a platform to directors and writers to express taboo subjects like sexuality without the fear of being censored “Content is king. If the script demands sexuality and abusive language for the flow of the story, then filmmakers should show them on screen unabashedly, regardless of the […]

Khans eclipsed

This was a year of content-driven cinema, new age actors and surprises for the film industry. Big banner films failed to make a mark, while simple films with good content went on to become massive hits Year 2018 will go down in history as the year the Khans (Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman) finally got […]

QUEST OF A RESTLESS SOUL

Meet National Award winning filmmaker Gajendra Ahire, whose film Dear Molly is getting an Oscar screening in Los Angeles this month A young girl is looking for her father, taking cues from a trail of letters he had written to her. He last saw her when she was only five years old. This is what […]