Subscribe:
RSS feed
Browsing All Posts published on »July, 2012«
A fly in the bonnet
An insect goes about avenging itself on its human killer in the year’s most imaginative mainstream movie. Sometimes, watching a hugely hyped film a few days after its opening weekend can be helpful. The excitement that you’re among the first few people – okay, thousands of people, considering that these big movies are almost always […]
“Cocktail”… Old Fashioned
July 28, 2012
In the initial portions of Homi Adajania’s Cocktail, Meera (Diana Penty) is a freak, a misfit in the modern world. She’s been dumped by Kunal (Randeep Hooda), her cad of a husband who took her money with promises of a life in London and now wants nothing to do with her. In a desperate attempt […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A star is gone”
July 27, 2012
Some thoughts and recollections on the death of a pop-culture phenomenon, and the gradual dying of an era. When news broke of Rajesh Khanna’s death, and as countless Indians grappled with the shock with tweets and Facebook posts, I was wandering aimlessly around the stores at Hong Kong airport, having hobbled off a 16-hour flight. […]
The mirror behind the screen
July 24, 2012
When the events of fanciful popular culture make ugly inroads into our lives, the problem lies with us, and within us. Christopher Nolan couldn’t have dreamed up a better title for his new Batman movie. The Dark Knight Rises. With the merest of alterations, it transforms into a newspaper headline for the day after the […]
Coming soon…
July 21, 2012
Other links related to this book: Early word… The final cover… First copy… Interviews… Reviews… The launch… The paperback… The Tamil edition…
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Men and women of great character”
July 20, 2012
They are the satellites around the stars – and sometimes, they become the centre of the film’s universe. Have you seen Eat Pray Love? It’s the kind of movie where the heroine, who goes to Rome to rediscover the pleasures of food, is played by Julia Roberts, who looks like she’s never had a square […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “What a glorious feeling…”
July 13, 2012
One of the most beloved musicals of all time is sixty years old. And – no surprise – it’s not from here. One of the more heartwarming YouTube ads of late carried this announcement: “Turner Classic Movies Presents Singin’ in the Rain 60th Anniversary Event in Select Movie Theaters Nationwide on Thursday, July 12 at […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “When men met women…”
July 6, 2012
Nora Ephron, the rare writer who transitioned into a successful filmmaker, showcased a generation’s romance in all its passionate, prickly glory. Nora Ephron wrote a great number of highly regarded long-form essays, many of which acquired new readers when dredged up in the fond remembrances that appeared after the writer-filmmaker’s passing, but the piece I […]
“Maximum”… Bullets over Bombay
July 6, 2012
If someone makes a biopic about Amitabh Bachchan circa Zanjeer, they could do worse than entrust the part to Sonu Sood, who towers and smoulders like Bachchan – only the voice is different, less orotund, less prone to juicy rhetoric (even if his character, Pratap Pandit, is from Lucknow). Like that early Bachchan, Pratap is […]
Baradwaj Rangan 
July 29, 2012
30