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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The twin towns of Mussoorie and Landour are famed for their scenic beauty and the rare winter line phenomenon. However, not many people know that they have a rich literary heritage and highest density of authors anywhere in the world. While Landour is home to many writers, the most well-known being Ruskin Bond, who shifted […]
I write because of an innate need to connect. I love it when someone relates to what I have written and they go, “That’s exactly how I feel!” Or shake their head and think, “Oh dear! That’s so true.” I love this unseen bond you make with the reader. It is exciting, exhilarating and addictive. Be […]
The mind fails to catch Ideas floating like sperms Waiting to be hit by conviction; To gestate and come to life Myriad images, like Vibrant butterflies Tempt; and then run amok, In the dark recesses of mind Across the hills and rivers, My thoughts run wild Then slip through my fingers Like bubbles bursting in the […]
Barbara Epstein calls reviewing a special skill. In India unfortunately, no skill seems to be necessary. Anyone, just about anyone, it seems, can do a review of any book, any author, any genre. To quote Doris Lessing: ` … a young man or woman, reviewer or critic, who has not read more of a writer’s work […]
A friend watching a film at home with me said something pertinent the other day. There was a time when actors just acted. They were expected to be just actors. They did not hawk their films by dancing at reality shows. The same holds true for writing. Marketing a book was not something authors did. […]
I could speak for myself. But would you believe me, if I told you? Writers have a room inside their head where whatever they want comes true. It’s like magic. Really! Only sometimes, things start going horribly wrong. But then that’s an occupational hazard. And since it’s happening inside the head, nobody knows. Thank God […]
A writer came to me with a script today and his own story was more interesting than the one he had written. I might have offended him by spending far more time listening to him about his own search for recognition than listening to the reams of material on his laptop he tried to engage me with. This young boy […]
I call myself a writer But do I have a right to? With words broken, thoughts unspoken, buried deep inside of me? And every word beaten back a thousand times.. then picks itself up; wounded, cursed and struggles to earn me a living… Every comma, ellipsis, verb, adjective sentenced to death, like me. My thoughts shackled to someone’s whim.. My pen screaming […]
If someone had told me on the morning of March 1, 2011 when Unboxed Writers was launched that we would be crossing 60,000 hits by mid-June, I would have smiled wistfully. Because, that kind of thing, doesn’t happen, does it? At least, not often and not to people who launch a dream without the luxury […]