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 […]

Amazon unfriends outspoken actor

Swara Bhaskar is intelligent and doesn’t fit the pliant-flexible role that neo-liberalism assigns to women celebrities There is something freaky about the hysteria surrounding upcoming actress Swara Bhaskar’s utterances. The wrath directed at her is unforgiving, intolerant, and seeks to discipline. A young actress cannot cross lines without her career suffering, and certainly cannot use […]

No paeans to ‘jaan’

Film-makers seem to have fallen out of love with Mumbai, the city in which they live and work. No ode has been sung to ‘Bambai’ in the last two decades As home to Hindi film industry, Mumbai has hogged the space as backdrop of many films.The romanticisation of the city and various stereotypes that it […]