The opening scene of Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal has a young Mahavir Singh Phogat priming himself up for an office brawl. He has left wrestling but we are told, wrestling has not left him. And so like a fighter in an akhada, he crouches, his eyes focused and unblinking and makes a little gesture to pull […]
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Tag: aamir khan
The Politicisation Of Dissent
In Pyaasa, Guru Dutt’s 1957 classic, the protagonist Vijay (He too is an anti-hero who takes on the establishment but his weapons unlike the edgy Vijay we saw in the 70s are poems, not punches) goes wandering in the lanes where young women are being bought and sold as objects of sexual gratification and sings, […]
Why Are Women Trolled On The Net?
A certain section of Internet users need scapegoats and heroes. They need constant debate. About whether the cat is coming down or going up the staircase. Whether a dress is blue or white and gold. Whether Prince Harry was right in refusing a selfie with a fan. Some of us want to see the last […]
PK: Question Everything
Perspective. That sets what we see apart from what really exists. Like the blind-folded men who touched different parts of an elephant and proclaimed that a trunk was the whole elephant or perhaps the tail was, we see the world in our likeness. When in reality, as Rajkumar Hirani’s PK reminds a religious absolutist, “You […]
Kamla Bhasin: ‘Rapists Are Made..Not Born’
On November 19, Men’s Day was celebrated across the world and promotional videos by consumer companies tried to remind us of the men we could always count on in our lives.Coincidentally, in the season finale of Satyamev Jayate, various participants debated the meaning of a ‘good man’ and how misunderstood the idea of masculinity was in […]
Talaash: Layered Moments
Like Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance, the evocative opening sequence of Reema Kagti Talaash tells (co-written by Zoya Akhtar) a story in a tightly spun, unforgettable montage. Here the story is of the dispossessed and the marginalised. Invisible to a rushing, glittering- on- the- surface megapolis. The old woman with nowhere to go. The drug addict and the dog. […]
Bidding For Cinema..
In the first ever Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival auction of Indian cinema memorabilia, held at Imperial Hotel in Delhi last evening, Aamir Khan won the bid of as many as six rare cinematic items, as he set another precedent and became the first collector from the film industry. Over a telecom bid, in tandem […]
The Message And The Messenger
He raises his eyebrow. Flicks a tear off his sculpted, strikingly beautiful face. Leans forward. Cups his chin. He is not Oprah but we could be wrong. Satyamev Jayate is a well-intentioned show. It has got one thing right. The fact that in a country where we are oblivious to the obvious, a show about […]
Dhobi Ghat: Nuances, Layers And Pauses..
On Aamir Khan’s birthday today..we look back at one of his milestone productions..Dhobi Ghat… There is a moment in Basu Bhattacharya’s Anubhav when from a penthouse where the film is set (owned by Tanuja in real life), you see Mumbai or Bombay as it was in 1970s, waking up to a lazy dawn. There is […]
The Cult Of Filth?
“The film is strictly for adults,” said Aamir Khan in what looked like a mix between a Tata Sky ad and an anti-smoking campaign as the three actors of Delhi Belly teased him about ruining his own reputation. While MBA students are running after him to learn marketing tips, filmwallahs are scratching their heads, trying to figure […]
Ten Years Of Lagaan…
Almost 10 years ago, when I used to stretch my meagre salary to watch two, sometimes three films a week in single screen halls and review them for The New Indian Express in Bangalore, a certain day remains easier to recall than all the others. It was the day I watched Anil Sharma’s Gadar-Ek Prem Katha and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, back […]