In 1979, Basu Chatterjee made Baaton Baaton Mein and unobtrusively brought to us the dating and courtship rituals of a community that was till then either caricatured or just overlooked in Hindi cinema. Nancy Perreira and Tony Braganza…
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Matriarchal manipulation in a patriarchal world is depicted unsparingly in Usha Priyamwada’s Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein (Now playing on Prasar Bharti). The mother resentful of her lecturer daughter’s comfortable life in her college residence because the younger daughters…
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“Start with hope..always start with hope. We went from being a shitty team to become one of the biggest dynasties in the sport and all it needed was one match to light this fire,” says Michael Jordan at…
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In 1947, my grandparents brought three children and the remains of an uprooted life from Pakistan to India in a train. One of those children was my mother. I grew up hearing a lot of stories about the…
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Three documentaries streaming right now show the ultimate culmination of the Bois Locker Room culture. And what happens when one gender is taught to mistrust its instincts of self-preservation and the other does not even learn something as…
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In Sudip Sharma’s Paatal Lok (Now streaming on Amazon. Co written by Sharma, Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra. Directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy), India’s disowned inhabit the headlines we turn away from. A young…
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‘AB de Villiers is the finest batsman of his generation:’ Virat Kohli ‘AB has become the most valuable cricketer on the planet:’ Adam Gilchrist The statistics tell barely half the story but, so far, AB de Villiers has scored over 14,000 runs in 98 tests for South Africa, more than 8,000 runs in 190 one-day […]
The unfortunate death of Phillip Hughes, who was hit by a bouncer while playing a domestic match, has understandably brought an outpouring of emotion and grief. Players across the world, cricket administrators, media, fans and the sporting fraternity have condoled the sad demise of the young player. He was in all likelihood, poised to replace […]
Losing a wicket is a far far better thing to strive for. No batsman would say that under normal circumstances, but given Phil Hughes’ death, he would certainly say that. **The sight of a fast bowler tearing into a batsman has been one of cricket’s most romanticized images, especially in the pre-helmet era. It was […]
It was a dank wintry evening of November 1993 and we had had our fill of Bengali sweets. My girlfriend and I were stepping out of a confectioner’s in Gol Park, Calcutta when I noticed a lanky, slightly slouching, man on the pavement fishing out a cigarette from one of his overloaded trouser pockets. He […]
In the middle of the spectacularly lopsided India-England test series, I was trying to steer a simulated Ashish Nehra on this rather dated computer game. It was tough – the left-armer was running in and from around the wicket, moving it away from the left-handed opener. At a friendly 125 kmph. The batsman (Taufeeq Umar, […]
Almost 10 years ago, when I used to stretch my meagre salary to watch two, sometimes three films a week in single screen halls and review them for The New Indian Express in Bangalore, a certain day remains easier to recall than all the others. It was the day I watched Anil Sharma’s Gadar-Ek Prem Katha and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, back […]
The thrum of Vande Mataram. The beating of a giant heart during the ‘reviews.’ The roar of a 1000 drums. Aamir Khan gesturing victory to the crowd to the tune of, “Rubaru, roshni hai.” A Pakistani woman praying with her eyes closed. Harbhajan Singh invoking the Sikh Gurus. A commentator screaming, “Out..OUT..Yuvraj Singh may have put India on the road to Mumbai!” The […]