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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Memory is nothing but a compound a distillation an essence a coming together seeping together staying together of everything that the eyes drank the skin tasted the breath sang the soul heard and never forgot and that is why when breeze mixes with rain you suddenly smell pine needles and distant snow and damp roses […]
It is just rain it falls in streams, rivulets fills gutters batters shivering dogs and frightened cats and cemented trees gasping for breath on city pavements it falls outside my window waiting for me willing me to walk to the curtains and part them I don’t stir and stay glued to my 8:30 pm spot before […]
Sometimes silence hems frayed seams paints on plain surfaces daisies and sunflowers that have not bloomed yet brews tea with lemon and mint bakes a marble cake first thing in the morning **** dusts forgotten corners replaces fading cushions sees rare things like generous, forgotten trees shedding gauzy petals on fuming bonnets **** when boxes […]
To me.. small things are big a kernel is a tree already a tree..is a meadow a meadow..is spring and spring..all of life and everything is just one thing that path strewn with yellow flowers the roof top baking in the sun red chillies on carts dogs by the roadside cats on window sills that lake […]
I promised myself that I would never write about Baby Falak or Baby Afreen. To write farewell notes to battered to death babies is such an inadequate response. We feel sorry, revolted, angry, maybe shed a tear or two. Write sentimental or passionate elegies and we go back to our lives and our realities. And […]
Watching Naseeruddin Shah as an exploitative superstar in The Dirty Picture may have reminded you once again of the many faces and skins and voices and bodies he inhabits as an actor. The film also made me recall some encounters I have had with the actor who never says the typical things, and never bothers […]
This is one of the most memorable interviews I did..and primarily because the actor in question was just herself and unaffected to the core. Though dated, the piece showcases a remarkable woman and a gifted performer. You know, you are in the presence of a real actor when she walks into a room and suddenly […]
Note: This is a press release. Turntable Productions is an initiative by young students Shoury Gupta, Prateek Handa and Medha Bankhwal to bring commercial worth to theatre as a performing art and incorporate it as a form of entertainment, interaction, a professional career option and learning in the schedules of Delhi residents . Turntable Productions […]
“Aajkal kisi ko wo toktaa nahin, chaahe kuchh bhi kijiye roktaa nahin ho rahi hai loot maar phat rahe hain bam aasmaan pe hai Khudaa aur zameen pe ham aajkal wo is taraf dekhtaa hai kam” (God no longer chides anyone No matter what we do..He just watches on.. all the mayhem..all the bomb blasts.. […]
Note: I have had the privilege to interview theatre personality and actor Arundhati Nag many times over a decade or more and this piece recalls many conversations about her life and work. You saw her award winning turn in Pa recently and even if she comes for a few seconds in an advertisement, you know, […]
Note: I met Shernaz Patel in 2007 and it was a moment of personal significance considering, I grew up watching her on TV in the best years of Doordarshan and had read about her, without ever imagining that I would be interviewing her, one day. It was hard to look at Shernaz Patel and not […]
Note: I met Aoife Mannix in 2007..the memories still linger though..of her robust world-view, her radiant poetry. After Aoife Mannix’s revolution changes the world, there will never be any wars because, “bullets will bounce where they come from, leaving no scars, just a trail of jelly beans.” Soldiers will only wear birthday suits. There will […]