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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Nostalgia has a name. It is Ameen Saayani. For those of us who cut our teeth on Hindi film music via Binaca Geeta Mala (later rechristened as Cibaca Geet Mala) in the 70s, Saayani was the voice that brought it all together. The music of Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan and SD Burman. The liquid gold of mega […]
I have been thinking of pain lately. The pointlessness of it. The inevitability of it. Why some people court it and others shun it. Some hide it and others hide from it. Some people gather painful moments like they were spring flowers. Their life is defined by pain, what it did to them, will do […]
Around 12 years ago, I travelled for hours to a lesser known neighbourhood in Bangalore to find and interview Manna Dey. He lived on the first floor of an independent home and it was probably a rented space.and there were really no flourishes of fame and legendary success anywhere. ** This was a middle-class home […]
Music is a popular topic of debate in drawing room conversations, considering how conspicuously present it is at most get-togethers where music trivia begins to come out of your ears, after a while. Often, my heart goes out to the unsuspecting souls who have somehow managed to hold on to their romanticism about their kind of “good music,” only to innocently offer it to pontificating snobs for demolition on evenings like […]
The manic energy of trance has weaned a lot of young Hindi film music fans off familiar loops and the old robes of comforting grooves. It is not surprising then that Hindi film music as we knew it, has left the building and gone for a walk along unusual paths. ** Amartya Rahut’s addictive, mind […]
The thing about the past is that it never comes back and yet never really leaves. Shamshad Begum for instance is not just a Wikipedia note with a birthday and a death day. She is a memory for those of us who grew up with her songs. Though for all purposes, the woman who sang […]
In a world where a random shooting spree can take away 20 young lives in a school, what do we need from not just our law makers, law enforcers, politicians but our musicians, artists, writers, film makers? Through the ages, the arts have been the humans spirit’s escape from intolerance and violence. For cinema, music, […]
Pandit Ravi Shankar passed away today. Rajinikanth turned 62. Dilip Kumar turned 90 yesterday. Smita Patil passed away almost 26 years ago on December 13. Births, deaths. Years counted, measured, emptied out. filled up. This whole idea of time and that somehow it should be accounted for in terms of achievements, milestones, awards, body of […]
*** Winter evenings might be getting colder in Delhi now, but the festival circuit is surely hotting up. With a string of art and culture festivals lined up this season, where else would one want to be but in the capital city? From next Friday till Sunday, all roads will lead to the majestic […]
Tragedy does not respect fame or talent or abundance. It strikes with cold precision and takes away what it must. And also destroys the notion that the rich and the successful are impervious to loss. The suicide of writer Varsha Bhosle, is a blow not just because it is such a shocking tragedy but also because […]
One of the most awaited classical dance festivals in the city is back. Featuring specially designed, site-specific group choreographies, Ananya Dance Festival’12 – now in its 11th year – will light up the majestic Purana Qila monument in New Delhi for five evenings starting October 6. Organised by the Department of Art, Culture, Languages, Delhi […]
Yes Mubarak Begum is around. And no, she isn’t doing well. I know no one asked but it’s one of those moments in life when a question need not precede the answer. A few years ago, a dusty drive to Behram Baug in Jogeshwari took a colleague and me to the one room tenement […]