Pop Culture Archives

Aranyak Review: Too many cooks spoil this promising broth

Raveena Tandon was supposed to be the headline act in this series, but she is one of the weakest links in what is a serviceable show, almost entirely salvaged by the calm elegance of Parambrata Chatterjee.

Manik Sharma April 12, 2016

Pop Culture

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is a Middling Biopic Bar Madhavan’s Commitment

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, thanks to a committed Madhavan is one of those films that you don’t really feel like criticising too much, and yet there’s little about it that outlasts its runtime.

Pradeep Menon April 12, 2016

Pop Culture

Us Review: Jordan Peele Crafts A Haunting Tale About the Horrors that Lie Within America

Jordan Peele is an attentive filmmaker with the mind of an anthropologist and there’s ample proof of it in Us. The movie is primarily invested in uncovering what is at stake when our fractured past unleashes itself on a society that doesn’t want to recognise it anymore.

Poulomi Das April 12, 2016

Pop Culture

Beyond the Malayalam new wave: Classics that set Mollywood apart

Malayalam new wave cinema is all the rage right now, consistently putting out trendsetting films that have become a point of obsessions for cine lovers from across the country. But not just the new wave, Mollywood has produced some classics before as well.

Prateek J April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

Sacred Games: Sartaj Singh, The Man We Can’t Wait to See on Screen

Sacred Games with its supremely Sikh hero, is the stuff great stories are made of: Men struggling with their burdens, their goodness and their ghosts, and failing spectacularly at it. Will the Netflix series do justice to both the book and its brooding anti-hero?

Sharan Saikumar April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

The Indian Detective is Everything That’s Wrong with Russell Peters

The Indian Detective is filled with all the tired cliches that Russell Peters peddles in almost every comedy special. The Netflix show has finally made us acknowledge something: Why did we ever think Russell Peters was funny?

Poulomi Das April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

Disney’s Lion King 2019: The Most Diverse Cast Ever

The reboot of our childhood favourite, helmed by Jon Favreau, boasts of the most politically correct cast.

Arré Bench April 10, 2016

Pop Culture

Big Little Lies and the Truth About Women’s Grief

If season one of Big Little Lies was all about shattering the them-not-us illusion of what a victim of domestic violence looks like, season two tried to capture the hypnotic nature of grief. Poorly written they might be, but between them, Mary Louise and the Monterey Five perfectly encapsulate the messiness of mourning.

Sonali Kokra April 10, 2016

Pop Culture

It’s All Predictable in The Upside Down! Did Stranger Things Really Need Season 3?

The very elements – smart kids with a scientific bent of mind, a mysterious girl with psychokinetic and telepathic abilities, a monster who is difficult to defeat, and adults who carry immense emotional baggage – that made Stranger Things a phenomenon, are the things that are making it go from good to predictable every year. Truth is, it ain’t getting any stranger than this.

Runa Mukherjee April 10, 2016

Pop Culture

The Handmaid’s Tale & The Testaments: Margaret Atwood’s Cautionary Story for Women Across the Ages

At its core, The Handmaid’s Tale is a primer in individual resistance, the battle between the indomitable spirit and the grinding wheels of subjugation. As Aunt Lydia tells Offred and the other Handmaids-in-training, any outrage becomes acceptable once you lose the will to fight back.

Kahini Iyer April 9, 2016