History of Indian science fiction: How the genre, rooted in mythology and science, has evolved over the years
Community plays an important part, and it will eventually define if India’s sci-fi movement and its proponents survive the struggles of everyday life to leave small, but intriguing legacies of wonder and disbelief.
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?
In Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson blends fact and fiction in a remarkable narrative around climate crisis
It’s a roller coaster of a book, one of the most significant pieces of fiction on the climate and ecological crises thus far and must be read by all those in any position to act on what is clearly humanity’s biggest challenge.
If I ever get stuck in a time loop, I'd love to be on a film set every day of my life: Kathryn Newton
In an exclusive, Kathryn Newton talks about her new Amazon Prime Video sci-fi romance film The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, and choosing critically acclaimed projects like Big Little Lies, Ladybird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Arjun Rajendran's One man: Two executions is an ode to 18th century Pondicherry through inter-linguistic poetry
What Arjun Rajendran's poetry invokes beautifully is almost a haunting maritime imagery – of massive vessels anchoring at Pondicherry’s harbour, and the treasures, thieves, smugglers and pillaging pirates they brought ashore.
On Ray Bradbury's 100th birth anniversary, a reading primer to immerse yourself in the author's oeuvre
When it comes to prolific authors like Ray Bradbury, there’s not always an obvious choice that can open the door to seek out other books.
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris vs the Steven Soderbergh version, plus a diss about Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Thoughts on Solaris director Andrei Tarkovsky's dig at Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, where he equated the latter's sci-fi film to a "comic book."
Cargo director Arati Kadav on challenges of making an indie sci-fi film, and perks of a screening at SXSW
Arati Kadav's debut film Cargo, starring Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi, premiered at the 21st MAMI Mumbai Film Festival last year.
Gully Boy actor Vijay Varma cast as lead in Anand Gandhi's untitled sci-fi comedy web series
Vijay Varma's untitled show with Anand Gandhi is currently in pre-production
The future is sci-fi: Her and human-AI relationships — is dating Siri or Alexa necessarily a bad thing?
What if humans and AI could coexist harmoniously? Perhaps, our relationship with AI will be nothing but a natural extension of the platonic friendship we now share with Siri or Alexa. Only, it may not necessarily be platonic in the future.
The future is sci-fi: Metropolis' critique of capitalism endures, even if its solution to class conflict does not
Metropolis, 1927, has been regarded as a pioneering work of science fiction not only for its use of special effects or depiction of artificial intelligence (AI) but also for the political allegory at its core | From our #SciFiSeers series, where we look at the 2020s, as predicted by the pop culture of the past
The future is sci-fi: Children of Men's depiction of marginalised refugees is cautionary tale for our times
Rooted in contemporary political and social horrors, Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron's 2006 adaptation of the PD James novel has proved to be frighteningly prescient | From our #SciFiSeers series, where we look at the 2020s, as predicted by the pop culture of the past
The future is sci-fi: How Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex — Human Revolution foreshadowed humanity 2.0
We're not far from the transhumanist futures of Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Robocop | From our #SciFiSeers series, where we look at the 2020s, as predicted by the pop culture of the past
The future is sci-fi: A vision of the 2020s, seen through seven works of pop culture from the past
As we embark on a new decade, how do visions of the 2020s — imagined in books like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, films like Soylent Green, or even manga like Ghost in the Shell — match up against our reality? In this special series, we look at six pop culture artefacts from the past that foretold the future, providing a prophetic glimpse of the decade we’re now entering | #SciFiSeers
The future is sci-fi: Soylent Green, climate change and the slippery slope from capitalism to cannibalism
Even if world leaders respond to our plea to fight climate change with sneering comments, we — like Thunberg — must never stop from calling them out for their inaction. The future of humanity rests on it.
The future is sci-fi: On Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, AI and artificial empathy
If androids become virtually indistinguishable from their organic counterparts, how do we tell them apart? In Do Androids Dream of Electric, Philip K Dick proposed an alternate criterion: empathy.
Space and Astronomy in 2019: Unforgettable findings and events in space exploration, the universe
We saw the first black hole photo, many moon landings, the most distant asteroid ever imaged beyond Pluto among other spectacular wonders.
Ad Astra, High Life tell fundamentally human stories of the inner self with cosmic mysteries as a backdrop
The journey at the heart of Ad Astra and High Life is not one about unravelling the mysteries of the cosmos, but an introspective one on what grounds us to our own world.
In cli-fi, an imagining of climate change and the future in dystopian and utopian ways
With increasing climate change, a new literary trend cli-fi part of the science fiction genre, helps imagine scenarios that scientists' statistics cannot conjure.
Mission Mangal: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu's space film declared tax-free in Maharashtra
Mission Mangal was released on 15 August, alongside John Abraham's cop thriller Batla House, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.