Posted on March 11, 2011
A book review, for Tehelka, of The Popcorn Essayists: What Movies Do To Writers.
“AT ONE point in his essay, My Life as a Cabaret Dancer, Manil Suri is stricken by an existential conundrum that — I think it’s safe to say — isn’t likely to visit your average professor of mathematics who moonlights as a successful novelist: “By what stretch of imagination did I think it advisable to strip down to a bra in the middle of Brooklyn?”
Copyright ©2011 Baradwaj Rangan, Tehelka.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Bala
March 11, 2011
Erie coincidence .. Just started reading this.Finished with “Jellyfish” and while it didn’t do much for me , I would be interested in reading more of Manjula .God knows we need more Indian writers with a comic touch .Why is it that I can’t remember the last truly funny Indian book that I read ?(English August is the still the funniest in my book)
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bran1gan
March 11, 2011
Bala: That mock-conversation (about the title) at the end really cracked me up 🙂
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Bala
March 11, 2011
Yup..thought she would be sad to know that I hardly even thought of her title 😀 Seen any of her Suki cartoons ?
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Niranjan
March 11, 2011
Doesn’t Sidin also write for cricinfo?
That raises a question: Do movie reviewers in India also ‘want’ to write about cricket? Considering that these two are the ones that catch the Indian eye vis-a-vis entertainment, would writing about one also bring about a proclivity towards writing the other? Of course, strictly only for those who still live in India!
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Jabberwock
March 12, 2011
Niranjan: Sidin isn’t a movie reviewer – the authors in this anthology aren’t people who write professionally about films.
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Niranjan
March 13, 2011
Jabberwock: I guess so, but my earlier musing still remains. As I said, do they want to write about cinema too? Most people want to, in any case!
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