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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Exhausted, hungry and dust laden. That’s how we reached Kohima, capital city of state of Nagaland, at about 5:30 pm after a treacherous two hour ride from Dimapur and additional eight hours from Shillong, in a rickety shared taxi. ** The sun had already set and it was quite dark. There were no electric bulbs […]
There was a lot of Victor Fleming and Gone with the Wind in Mehboob Khan’s Aan even though the first film came in 1939 and the second in 1952. The sunsets, the panoramic sweeps of the earth and the sky joined by a twisted tree in the middle, long shots of horses running fretfully, […]
The other day I was caught in a downpour or maybe I caught it. I could have walked back into the office but then there is something I would have missed. The feeling of being stoic and vulnerable together. Of not being insulated from experiences that make us human and real. A long time ago, […]
I watch her as she adjusts the cushions on her bed, wraps the blanket around her little body, hugs her teddy tight and looks at me eagerly and asks ‘Won’t you come to bed with me Mamma’. I lie next to her in bed, my face resting on the side of her shoulder, her tiny […]
Before we get into whether Mohit Suri’s Ek Villain has snatches of the Korean thriller I Saw a Devil, or shades of Jack Reacher, let us first deal with Remo Fernandes. Yes, Remo of O Meri Munni and Humma and countless memories of Goan susegad. So here he is, trying to fill the shoes of […]
The best way to travel back in time is to step in to any of the Irani cafes in Mumbai. Many have written about their old world charm, the no-frills ambiance, the authenticity and the distinct personality of this vintage generation. Their stoic presence is a pleasant reminder of Bombay that was. Koolar & Co. at Matunga […]
Nestled in a cane casket, hung a foot or two above the ground, and wrapped in embroidered cotton cloth, the baby slept peacefully. This is a rare sight to see and that’s why it caught my attention amongst the many other photographs displayed in an art and culture magazine. Times have changed. ** Recently, I […]
When I was a little kid, I remember often noticing grown-ups having conversations with very serious expressions on their faces. They were usually huddled around a table or standing outside a meeting place, discussing about the discussion that just took place. I always wondered what it was that they were talking about. I wondered if […]
I am using the present continuous tense here instead of the past tense, because I feel I lose something every day. This past year I have won a lot of trophies and also lost a lot of relationships. And while victories have taught me about hope and faith, it is the loses that have […]
Freedom is raising your hands to the sky and saying, “I am done.” Freedom is running on the beach, falling and saying, “This is it.” Freedom is listening to a tune, weeping and saying, “This is all.” Freedom is letting the waves wash your feet and saying, “You washed my miseries away.” Freedom is sitting […]
Not only action but also inaction can hurt. Violent action is direct and has obvious forms like killing, injuring, beating, taunting, mocking, and insulting whereas violent inaction can be subtle and indirect. Violent inaction can be both intentional, I call it Manipulative Passivity and it can be unintentional which may be termed as Ignorant Passivity. Both can hurt significantly […]
A couple of years ago, film maker Tom Shadyac, known for blockbuster comedies like Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams and The Nutty Professor walked into his luxurious new 17000 sq ft Beverly Hills home which had more bedrooms, bathrooms and uninhabited spaces than he would ever enjoy and he had an epiphany. That this success was just an idea […]