Articles

Cannes Film Festival: That Time of the Year When B-Grade Bollywood Celebrities Become Relevant Again

There’s no getting away from the fact that Mallika Sherawat’s and Hina Khan’s connection to world cinema is tenuous at best. Yet they are gracing the Cannes red carpet. As for the rest of the Indian delegation? To paraphrase a modern statesman: We’re definitely not sending our best people.

Kahini Iyer June 24, 2016

Bollywood

The White Tiger Review: It’s Adarsh Gourav’s Show All the Way

Adarsh Gourav, in his debut feature film role, is up to the task of being the glue that holds The White Tiger together. His character is both the flawed hero and the unreliable narrator, existing on society’s underbelly first out of choice, and then out of compulsion.

Arré Bench June 24, 2016

Pop Culture

Neal ’n’ Nikki: When Mini Skirts Made For Movies

Neal ’n’ Nikki came to our screens and changed our young lives forever. It was exhilarating to see characters speaking like we would do, talking about sex and boning like we only did with our friends in hushed tones.

Parthshri Arora June 24, 2016

Bollywood

Hichki: A Cliche-Ridden Film that Underserves Rani’s Comeback

Hichki suffers from the same condition that afflicts most films with a social message: a severe case of good intentions that justifies the lack of risks. And there’s only so much heft Rani Mukherji can afford a half-baked comeback role.

Poulomi Das June 24, 2016

POV

“Kuch Ho Sakta Hai Kya?”: How Every Scam Begins

While we publicly bemoan Harshad Mehta or Nirav Modi or Vijay Mallya getting away by scamming the country, a tiny part of us also says “wow”. Only in India can a person be met with respect for being a large-scale racketeer.

Ramjaane June 23, 2016

Pop Culture

Netflix’s “Unbelievable” Sets a Template for How to Sensitively Deal with True Stories of Rape

Netflix's Unbelievable, that comprises a record of both, how an investigation can go utterly wrong and how one carried out with the highest diligence can afford justice, feels like a defining show of our times. Based on real-life rape cases, the show is as much a reminder of the lapses of law and order as it is a plea that any system is as good as the people enforcing it.

Poulomi Das June 23, 2016

POV

Surf Excel Outrage: How to Make the Perfect Ad for Supersensitive Indians

The Surf Excel Holi ad seems innocent enough, but somehow the idea that two children of different faiths could be cordial in a fictional setting triggered a very vocal section of social media. The only safe option is a 30-second PSA explaining the benefits of participating in Holi on our souls narrated by Amitabh Bachchan.

Arré Bench June 23, 2016

Pop Culture

Not All Those Who Wander are Lost: Tolkien’s Tonic for the Millennial Quarter-Life Crisis

When faced with a crisis, some people turn to religion and seek divine deliverance from their problems. I’m not religious, but I do have idols, and out of the entire pantheon, JRR Tolkien is the one who rules them all.

Dushyant Shekhawat June 23, 2016

Sports

Why Our Fathers and Mothers Cheer for Brazil at the World Cup

For second-generation Indians, football has existed like a good book, only in translation, with Brazil writing the most musical of sentences and poetic of thought all along. For them, Brazil’s preposterously stylised brand of football is the only version of the game worth watching.

Manik Sharma June 23, 2016

POV

Kolkata’s Durga Pujo: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

I am back in Kolkata, caught in the centre of the rotating carousel in the great carnival of Durga puja. I hate it and love it in equal measure.

Runa Mukherjee June 23, 2016