Browsing All Posts filed under »Bitty Ruminations«

Bitty Ruminations 91 – The erasure of (film) history

September 17, 2020

76

There are two reasons for writing this. One is awkshwayrd’s comment on the SADAK 2 thread, in response to my comment about Mahesh Bhatt: @brangan: There is a masterclass from you buried in the comments here. I’d never heard of any of these movies (MANZILEIN AUR BHI HAIN? AWAARGI? SAATHI?) and I’m a 80’s kid […]

Bitty Ruminations 90 – A Little Life

November 17, 2019

56

I’ve not had a very good run with fiction of late.  I can’t read the really junky books anymore. Once in a while, I may pick up a Harold Robbins or something, just for a change — but I prefer slightly (but not too) highbrow fiction. It’s almost always fiction. I am not much of […]

Bitty Ruminations 89 – Efficiency tips

June 25, 2018

86

I’ve always been a very organised person, and one of the tools that keeps me sane is making a list in the morning — all the to-do things, small and big, including the leftovers from the previous day. The idea is not to do it all, but just get a sense of what needs to […]

Bitty Ruminations 88 – Caste and ‘Kaala’

June 18, 2018

157

It’s usual to see increased levels of discussion when it comes to big films. It’s also not surprising to see more people chiming in to say “yes, I agree with you” or “I disagree.” But the Kaala discussions have been unusually sobering. When I wrote the imaginary Q and A, some regular commenters here felt […]

Bitty Ruminations 87 – Nepotism

July 20, 2017

206

Someone brought up the nepotism thing in the comments section, and I thought I’d add my two cents. Was the joke (by Saif, Karan and Varun) insensitive? Sure. Was it in bad taste? Probably. But these awards shows have a long tradition of jokes being made about the industry — that’s the shtick. And each […]

Bitty Ruminations 86 – Dunkirk

July 20, 2017

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I have a strange relationship with Christopher Nolan’s films. The last one I liked unabashedly, adored 100%, is The Prestige, which is the perfect “Nolan movie” in every way. It has his trademark gimmickry, but this gotcha-ness is folded beautifully into the story, which demands that gimmickry. I mean, it’s about seeing something you only […]

Bitty Ruminations 85 – Speaking to the ‘other’ India

June 25, 2017

35

Every time I read an op-ed in an English-language newspaper, every time I sit through a panel discussion at a Lit Fest or any other event, this is what strikes me: that you are preaching to the choir. The people in the audience have already bought into what you’re selling: women need to be respected, […]

Bitty Ruminations 84 – Nirmal Shekar

February 3, 2017

16

There are many tributes to Nirmal Shekar out there. I just want to talk about what it meant for a kid interested in words, in language, in writing, in self-expression to read someone like him. There’s the general tendency, today, to look down on writerly writing. It’s considered masturbatory. Write simply, in a way everyone […]

Bitty Ruminations 83 – Anil Kapoor

December 24, 2016

9

Just read that Anil Kapoor turns 60 today. Always a bit of a shock when one of the top heroes — and one of your favourites — from when you were a kid hits such a milestone (“where does time go?” etc.). But happy birthday and all that. PS: That’s one of my favourite songs from […]

Bitty Ruminations 82 – Video reviews

April 15, 2016

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So some of you may have seen the video review of Theri. We, at  The Hindu, aren’t abandoning the traditional review. (And I hope they never will.) But this is the future, and I can see why this is important to our digital presence. It was funny doing this. Came back after the film. Wrote […]

Bitty Ruminations 81 – Writing

April 15, 2016

4

After all these years, it’s amazing how much of a knot in the stomach there still is when you sit down to write something. You know vaguely what you’re going to write about, but you also know that there are going to be false starts, stumbles. Maybe the third paragraph is when you really get […]

Bitty Ruminations 80 – Anne Tyler

September 13, 2015

12

I didn’t know Anne Tyler was still writing books. I had many hours to kill at an airport recently, and a bookshop had a buy-three-get-one-free thing going. I don’t have the time to read three books (plus that one-free book) – but when has that stopped me? So I looked up, I looked down. I […]

Bitty Ruminations 79 – Search terms

January 7, 2015

41

Part of the fun in maintaining a blog is glancing, occasionally, at the search terms that led to said blog. By now, I am used to the fact that not everyone is going to land up here using search phrases like “hail the great awesome genius Baradwaj Rangan” — I get that. I get that […]

Bitty Ruminations 78 – The movie experience

June 27, 2013

35

This post doesn’t talk about anything that hasn’t been talked about in recent times, but it just has to be said. Again. And again. And again. How can people be so insensitive, so rude, so inconsiderate of the people around them? My worst horror, these days, are the smartphones the size of paperbacks, which, when […]

Bitty Ruminations 77 – Introverts

June 8, 2013

22

All this chatter about Naina’s introverted personality in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani just goes on to remind me of how little people know about introverts. Rather, how generically an introvert is classified as someone who’ll just sit in a corner and stare at the wallpaper. Like most things in life, introverts come in all shapes […]

Bitty Ruminations 76 – World Book Day

March 7, 2013

34

So this morning, I get a fit, and it is brought on — I think — by my nearing the close of the book I am reading. As pleasurable as it is to notch up another scalp, the bibliophile’s answer to compulsive womanising, something happens when there are fewer and fewer pages to be turned. […]

Bitty Ruminations 75 – 10 years

February 28, 2013

90

On Jan 30, 2003, I wrote this review for The Economic Times: Madras Plus. And that makes it a decade since I began reviewing (and indeed, writing) for publications, a decade since I shucked off a life in another continent and began another back home in India. Felt I needed to mark this on the […]

Bitty Ruminations 74 – Breathe!

February 4, 2013

90

Time for a “Note to Self.” The people who like what you write, the way you write, the people who understand where you come from, they’ll always read you. That’s not surprising, and the response to that can only be profound gratitude. But when people who don’t care for what you write or the way […]

Bitty Ruminations 73 – Aaha kaadhal

January 6, 2013

14

Every time we trot out the melody-is-dead argument, there comes a number that’s nothing but melody, effusive swirls of it, and seduces us into endless-loop listening. I love how Nandini Srikar sings this song, with its profusion of La and Zha words — she touches on them just enough, without turning into an didactic schoolmarm […]

Bitty Ruminations 72 – Kadal soundtrack

December 16, 2012

31

In this Twitter era, populated by ADD-ed twits, everything either “sucks” or “rocks.” There’s no median, no room for the “hmmm… not bad… interesting.” Reactions to the Jab Tak Hai Jaan soundtrack led me to believe that that was AR Rahman’s worst ever album, and it was nothing of the sort. Was it a middling effort? A […]

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