Veteran Jazz singer Louiz Banks retraces the journey of becoming 'The Jingle King of India'
Louiz Banks on his musical journey: 'The thing about jazz is the freedom it affords you. There is no wrong note in jazz. Everything is right. You make it right'
Reading RRR as queer: Ram Charan, Jr NTR's buddy film has all the trappings of a conventional heterosexual romance
All the markers of the traditional love story are given to the men of RRR — a meet cute, a musical interlude intensifying affection, the exchange of a protective thread, a conflict, a chasm, a reunion.
Jalsa director Suresh Triveni responds to claims of his plot's convenience: Coincidence was a conscious choice
"We could have made the plot convoluted — newer characters, more events — to be more logical. But my fear was that I would move away from my central character and their emotions," says Suresh Triveni.
Reading the courtesan as a queer figure: Suffering at the heart of spectacle in films from Pakeezah to Gangubai Kathiawadi
The fact that Gangubai Kathiawadi begins with Begum Akhtar’s voice crooning 'Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat' places this film as an offering to the silsila of courtesan culture and its queer association.
In conversation with Christopher Doyle, cinematographer of Wong Kar-Wai cinema: How we react to spaces energizes the film
"Wong Kar-Wai said, 'What we share together is what the film ultimately becomes.' It’s the open give-and-take of that process, or collaboration, the acceptance of mistakes, the time, energy, and often difficult choices that make the films," says Christopher Doyle.
Jhund music review: Ajay-Atul make ample room for innovation in Nagraj Manjule's familiar territory
Shadows of Ajay-Atul's past work remain in the music of Jhund, but you can also feel the palpable urge to reach beyond their grasp.
The curious contradiction of male muscularity in queer movies, from Dostana to Badhaai Do
Shardul's obsession with his muscularity in Badhaai Do makes him possess the markers of heterosexuality and strength, but also contradicts that by giving him a sensitive personality, one without agency, one whose muscle is mere armoury.
Badhaai Do movie review: Bhumi Pednekar, Rajkummar Rao in a refreshing addition to the increasingly sanitised queer genre
Badhaai Do is largely, and rightfully preoccupied with the sexuality of the characters, characters who are not paragons but people, they burp and fart and have loose anger and dark circles.
Gehraiyaan music review: Instagram Reels make the songs float on surface, but were they ever meant to plunge deeper?
The vocals in the music of Gehraiyaan are strangely unsentimental, almost anesthetic, a trend in the music we have seen right from Prateek Kuhad to Ritviz.
Pandit Birju Maharaj's ability to express 'feminine' threw light on the queer possibilities of Kathak
In a world where we use markers to assert gender — the length of hair on the head, facial hair on the face, the existence of breasts, make-up — how do we interpret gender when the same body is producing both the masculine and the feminine?
2021 Queer Roundup: Unassuming gayness of ACP Khan in Aarya over laboured representation in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
My hope for queer storytelling as we step into a new year is to be more irreverent, to see more easy queerness, more desire, and more queer authorship as opposed to only queer characters.
West Side Story movie review: Steven Spielberg musical is an empty spectacle
Energy is all Steven Spielberg's West Side Story has to offer. Not feeling. Rarely meaning.
Sooryavanshi, Satyamev Jayate 2, Antim: A queer reading of the testosterone-driven, hyper masculine cinema
"Sooryavanshi is a bland bursting of cars till the three men come together in the end. Finally, there is some heat. The palpable homo-eros is, of course, entirely unintended."
Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie review — Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace in a lazy, nostalgic follow-up to 1984 cult classic
Ghostbusters: Afterlife asks a profound question by merely existing. Why do we bring things back to hold on to cultural zeitgeist?
Hum Do Hamare Do movie review: Rajkummar Rao, Kriti Sanon's charm papers over weak conflict
Hum Do Hamare Do holds weak foundations with lazy character detailing but is saved by a better second-half.
Dash through? Rashmi Rocket’s comfortable feminism doesn’t ask the questions on trans sportswomen it needed to
What is the point of critiquing a film for something it was not even attempting to do? But I find in Rashmi Rocket's silence, a very convenient and thus disturbing thrust.
Tabbar review: Ajiptal Singh's debut show on SonyLIV is a stunning Shakespearean family drama
The tension rarely slips, and the acting, aided by Sneha Khanwalkar’s moody melodies, ground you to a world you begin to care enough to be devastated for.
Is Jeetu Bhaiya from Kota Factory queer? Notes on reading sexuality in narratives where it's not explicit
Anonymity in the form of subtle details is often afforded to queer characters, as they are to queer people in real life who do not want to talk about their sexuality.
Cinderella approaches queerness — but only cautiously and aesthetically
Billy Porter's casting as a genderless fairy godmother however well-intentioned, is rehearsed, unsurprising, and frankly, boring. When extravagance becomes routine, awe needs more than just a cautious, aesthetic nod.
Monsters At Work review: Pixar show is all horror and humour, froth and fright
Pixar is now walking the Marvel path of extending its IP into the web-series format. And the result is a kind, chirpy, endearing show in Monsters At Work.