Gulabo Sitabo: A tale for fragile egos
Na jaane kya man mein aayi upar wale neBanwayi har ek choohe ki billi ek So go the lyrics of Gulabo Sitabo, Shoojit Sircar’s new directorial venture which released on Amazon Prime on June 12 2020. The…
Pataal Lok: Despair and disparity
His parents have given him the unfortunate moniker — Hathi Ram, which means an elephant. Jaideep Ahlawat, who plays Hathi Ram Chaudhary, a middle-aged cop with the Delhi Police, does remind you of an elephant. He is…
Kedarnath: The wrath of nature
In the opening scenes of Kedarnath, the camera pans the mighty Himalayas and I gasped at the landscape. Complementing the stunning visuals of the magnificent mountains was the resounding score of Amit Trivedi’s Namo namo shankara. The film…
Dark Circles: A poignant debut novel
What do your parents bequeath to you? Do you look like them? Behave like them? Think like them? React like them? How intertwined is your present existence with your parent’s pasts? Dark Circles is a novel which…
Manmarziyaan: The evolving notion of love
Anurag Kashyap’s new release Manmarziyaan explores love in the age of evolving social mores and morality. The first voice in the film sings: Kaala na safed hai, Ishq da rang yaara, Grey wala shade. And this sets the…
102 not out: Seasoned acting, but weak screenplay
Umesh Shukla’s directorial venture, ‘102 not out’ is a celluloid adaptation of a Gujarati play of the same name. The story revolves around the sweet and sour relationship between 102 year old Dattatreya Vakharia (Amitabh Bachchan) and his 75 year old…
Irawati Karve’s ‘Yuganta- The end of an epoch’
Just finished reading Irawati Karve’s ‘Yuganta– The end of an epoch‘. It is an English version of the original Marathi book written in the 1960s. In a series of compelling essays, she draws sketches of the most prominent…
An Unsuitable Boy: Karan Johar’s autobiography
Finished reading Karan Johar’s autobiography ‘An Unsuitable Boy’. Like KJo’s Koffee with Karan, the book doesn’t pretend to be remotely cerebral. It is chatty and you almost feel as if Karan is talking to you. Like he says- he…
Pink: Mandatory viewing
What happens one night when three independent working girls go to a rock concert? What leads one of them, Meenal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), to bash a glass bottle over a guy’s head? Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Pink’- a movie…