Ahead of The Big Bull, evaluating Ajay Devgn's record as a producer, from Parched to Bhuj: The Pride of India
Suppressed under the weight of chest-thumping vanity projects like Shivaay, Singham 2, and Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, there are also minor gems by Ajay Devgn Ffilms in Parched and Aapla Manus.
Coded Bias review: Remarkable documentary on Netflix examines racist facets of facial recognition systems
Coded Bias rounds up the troublingly ways artificial intelligence is being used around the world to assess the everyday lives of billions of people — intermittently reminding us of a long and grim fight.
Why Anand Gandhi's OK Computer is a commendable attempt at homegrown science fiction
OK Computer has delivered a worthy failure, at least, one that is intermittently enjoyable. Who knows what it could achieve with a better writing team?
Koi Jaane Na movie review: Kunal Kapoor's film is narratively weak with veneer-thin characters
Koi Jaane Na fails to get a single filmmaking discipline right, much less all of them
Godzilla vs Kong and the future of Kaiju cinema: Why MonsterVerse films herald new direction for the genre
Godzilla vs Kong belongs to the Kaiju genre of cinema that began in Japan in the 1950s, but has since spread across the world, especially Hollywood.
Remembering Shovon Chowdhury: Power, and man's infinite capacity to abuse it, was the writer's great subject
Through his books and op-eds, Chowdhury parodied bureaucratic doublespeak, the Bengali obsession with Durga Puja pandals, the idiosyncrasies of middle-class India and pretty much anything else that took his fancy.
Nancy Drew, streaming on Voot Select, takes the business of a ‘gritty’ reimagining a little too seriously
The Gen Z Nancy Drew has palpable baggage and series star Kennedy McMann does a good job of playing the hot mess that the show’s writers clearly want her to be.
How The White Tiger's hammy voice-over narrative adds to its white gaze conundrum
Voice-over (VO) work is not among Bollywood’s strong suites, and even though The White Tiger isn't a Bollywood film per se, it suffers the same problems of clichés as any other Bollywood film when it comes to voiceover narratives.
Gullak on SonyLIV belongs to TVF's new brand of soft nostalgia, family binge-watching, and small-town slowness
Until recently, the binge was a necessarily solo activity. Now, however, we are in the middle of the ‘smart TV’ boom. Parents are looking for things they can watch at home, but with their children watching, too.
Larry King, often misunderstood for his softball approach as celebrity interviewer, is a sizeable loss to television
Larry King, who lived through the radio and network eras, the cable boom and saw the birth of the social media epoch, was one of the last remaining links to several bygone eras.
2020, a year in reading: Amid the pandemic's disruptions of everyday rhythms, the narratives that transcended the din
The disruption of reading rhythms was among the smaller casualties of 2020, but these titles were some of the best in fiction, non-fiction and poetry that the year had to offer.
The Arvind Krishna Mehrotra interview | 'There’s a lack of historicity in way we think, talk, write about Indian literature'
In 'The Book of Indian Essays: Two Hundred Years of Indian Prose', Mehrotra collects some of the best Indian essays of all time — including works by old favourites like GV Desani, RK Narayan, Nissim Ezekiel and Shama Futehally, all the way up to contemporary luminaries like Pankaj Mishra and Amitav Ghosh.
Ludo and anthology cinema: How Anurag Basu's film compares to other international, Bollywood films of the genre
It’s fair to say that Ludo is more of an interesting, articulate failure than a triumph. It’s also fair to say that Anurag Basu’s failures are generally interesting and even instructive.
As TN uni drops 'Walking with the Comrades' on ABVP plaint, why Arundhati Roy's 2011 book is a must-read
In Walking with the Comrades, Arundhati Roy blends reportage with her signature polemic style to indict the Indian state for crimes against some of its most vulnerable citizens, the adivasis living in the forests of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and so on.
Saloni Gaur on a showbiz career at 20, and how Uncommon Sense is reminiscent of Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show
Structured like an old-fashioned ‘variety show’, Saloni Gaut's Uncommon Sense combines stand-up, sketches and other assorted comedic attractions.
Sean Connery's James Bond portrayal remains the gold standard; nobody else comes close
No matter his other films, Sean Connery will, inevitably, be remembered for the Bond years first and foremost.
With OTT platforms rapidly diversifying their content catalogue, genre enthusiasts are the priority
Genre content is about so much more than a loose set of interconnected tropes and visuals — it’s a way of engaging with the world on your own terms.
Chadwick Boseman passes away: The Black Panther star was an antidote to apolitical actors
Chadwick Boseman received his big breakthrough with Brian Helgeland’s 42 (2013), where he played Jackie Robinson, the first-ever African-American Major League Baseball professional.
What the Bloomsbury India-Delhi Riots 2020 fracas highlights about the pernicious cynicism in Indian publishing
It’s true enough that Bloomsbury has a track record of publishing Hindutva propaganda. Here’s the thing, though — so does literally every other big player in English-language publishing.
Rahat Indori passes away: Power, pathos of poet's verses illuminate his incomparable mind and personality
A garrulous, self-effacing performer with a powerful voice, he would often regale gatherings with anecdotes from his Indore childhood — the idiosyncrasies of Indori diction, plus the signature hyperbolic Indori storytelling style informed his work.