The 1975 drama

What Hindi cinema said about the turbulent years of the Emergency, which shook up the Indian polity 43 years ago on June 25 On 25th June, the country will hauntingly recall the 43rd year since Indira Gandhi government declared the Emergency in 1975 to negate her disqualification from electoral politics for six years — a […]

Wicked women

The Hindi film Veere di Wedding tells us that it’s okay for a woman to drink, smoke and have sex even if she’s not married Could it be that the Hindi film industry has finally stepped into the 21st century? That it’s realised that you no longer need to be a “good girl” to get […]

All night long

How the dancing uncle clicked and what would be his undoing (Revenge of the 80s) A 46-year old professor unknowingly dancing his way to internet fame, a bit longer than what Andy Warhol predicted as “15 minutes of fame’, may still not help the uncles and fufajis to shed their image of being seen as […]

Raazi: Portrait of a 20-year-old spy

We must not confuse loyalty to the nation with being an acolyte of the government of the day On a pleasant Saturday evening, fighting the introvert within me, who wishes to stay home, I decided to watch Meghna Gulzar’s spy thriller, ‘Raazi’. Alia Bhatt and the kids on screen amplified the brilliance of Gulzar Saab’s […]

The Bard of Bollywood

A young boy from Meerut had a dream of becoming a famous cricketer. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately), when studying at Delhi University, his thumb broke just a day before an inter-university tournament. Soon after, he lost his father. These two developments made him give up his dream of playing cricket for the country. Clearly, destiny […]

Weak Wicket

Why did a film chronicling the life of India’s most celebrated cricketer Sachin Tendulkar fail to leave a lasting impact? Exactly a year after the release of James Erskine’s ambitious docu drama Sachin: A Billion Dreams, jury is still out on why did the film chronicling the life of one of India’s most celebrated icons […]

Chronicling child abuse in cinema

Hindi films have portrayed child sexual abuse in their films time and again, whereas in India this hasn’t figured in as the key theme in world of letters As the recent spate of sex crimes against children hit the headlines and stirred national discourse, it would be relevant to see how Hindi films have engaged […]

Hard act to follow

Sohaila Kapur says she’d love to direct a Bollywood film some day. She has already made a mark in theatre and played character roles under top directors Sohaila Kapur is a well-known writer, theatre director and actor. Besides, she happens to be late Dev Anand’s niece and sister of famous film-director Shekhar Kapur. She started […]