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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Editorial note: Rachna Bisht Rawat is out with her first book The Brave. Read 21 riveting stories about how India’s highest military honour, Paramveer Chakra was won. Rachna takes us to the heart of war, chronicling the tales of India’s bravest soldiers. Talking to parents, siblings, children and comrades-in-arms to paint the most vivid character-portraits of these […]
And suddenly Jhansi Ki Rani has become a cinematic trigger. First Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s poem, “Khoob ladi mardani woh to Jhansi wali Rani thi” about the warrior queen was referenced by Rani Mukherjee’s Mardani (spot the connection?). In Omung Kumar’s Mary Kom, a wizened coach (Sunil Thapa) tells Priyanka Chopra’s Mary that her strength has […]
Being born an Indian means inheriting a big book of rules, principles and society norms as soon as we are born. We are taught from an early age that our behaviour reflects our family’s reputation and status, to listen and obey is considered a sign of goodness, to compromise and sustain a bad relationship is […]
Having made the heartbreaking choice of studying journalism for my Master’s degree instead of my first love English literature, I marched off to the University to master the art of reporting and editing. All was well, till I learnt that folks in the English Department next door were studying Dostoevsky. Knowing that I would be […]
It’s funny how before I even start running, I feel this insane urge to write about running. Okay, not about running really (no scientific approach is to be found in the ensuing paragraphs) but what it means to me. I want one those fancy running shoes, you know the ones that make your feet bounce […]
Do writers need social media?Chetan Bhagat apparently does but not JK Rowling or Salman Rushdie. However, Rushdie enjoys his Twitter feuds with critics and rivals, affording us enjoyable glimpses into his wit and his unvarnished human need to answer a jibe with a retort. The social media also is graced by the likes of the […]
On a routine day in a mall, while browsing for gifts for a friend, I heard shots..or crackers. It is hard to tell the difference but considering the world we live in, the mind begins to replay inexplicable campus and mall shootings, 26/11, stories of people running for their lives in the middle of a […]
“If I should have a daughter, instead of ‘Mom’, she’s gonna call me ‘Point B’, because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And she’s going to learn that this life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get […]
“Quit your job, sit at home and hunt for another one. Every part of your soul which seemed lost will come back to you. No need to hunt for it,” was my brother’s response when I brought up ‘Soul Searching’. ** He’s right, right to an extent that it can be used as a ‘quotable […]
Emptiness no matter how crowded life is with things and people… and what do I do with this silence that I hear even when so many voices are ringing? so many stand by my side …yet why do I feel I’ll fall ? so many answers everywhere but why is that one question missing to […]
Jonzie Kurian was effortlessly natural on air. His humour and sense of music never ever faltered because he understood the medium, grew playfully risque but never crossed the line and never faked an attitude or an accent. It all began when he won a wacky verse contest. The ‘grand prize’ was the chance to sit in […]
May 4, 2014 is a day that’s etched in my memory. It’s one when I had to live without the Internet in addition to being stuck alone in a one bedroom apartment . The only mode of communication I had was a primitive mobile phone that allowed me to send text messages and make phone […]