Pragyan Mohanty, Author at Arré

What Shyam Benegal’s Hari-Bhari Gets Right About Women’s Right To Their Bodies

While films like Padman and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha have ended up looking like glorified public service cinema with a male saviour complex, Shyam Benegal’s Hari-Bhari is a fine example of building a compelling story about women’s autonomy.

Pragyan Mohanty July 15, 2016

POV

How I grew up with Lata Mangeshkar’s voice

My Lata Mangeshkar connection would always be bound by home and nostalgia. I didn’t immediately take to her, and though her politics hasn’t always appealed to me ,her stature, her longevity and ultimately her legacy can neither be doubted nor denied

Pragyan Mohanty July 14, 2016

Bollywood

Farewell, Jagdeep. An Era of Gentle Goofy Comedy Passes With You

Even though the legendary Soorma Bhopali role immortalises him, Jagdeep was much more than just the funny guy in that comic subplot. He became the humorous voice in hysterical melodramas, he was the quintessential “hero ka dost” or the solid sidekick propelling the story forward with his bumbling ways, making the lead’s exasperatingly flawless personality tolerable.

Pragyan Mohanty June 25, 2016

Bollywood

What Yash Chopra’s Dharmputra Teaches About Calling Out Bigotry

For many anti-CAA protesters, the resistance is also about standing up to the bigotry of family and friends. It’s imperative how Dharmputra, a film made over five decades ago, has an answer for it: call out objectionable views regardless of who holds them.

Pragyan Mohanty June 21, 2016

Bollywood

Will Manikarnika Change Bollywood’s History of Dull-as-Dishwater Queens?

From Raja Harishchandra to Padmaavat, Bollywood has a history of depicting its queens as either pious and uncomplaining, or rude and proud, waiting for the hero to tame their ego. Now that Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika: Queen of Jhansi is due to release, can we hope to see more than a royal caricature?

Pragyan Mohanty June 8, 2016

Bollywood

Haasil: The Underrated Gem That Made Bollywood Take Notice of Irrfan Khan’s Genius

Irrfan has left behind a towering body of work where picking one performance feels sacrilegious. And yet it is the actor’s breakout role as the wily student leader Ranvijay Singh in Tigmanshu Dhulia's Haasil that will forever have my loyalty.

Pragyan Mohanty May 29, 2016

Bollywood

Before Murad, Saeed Mirza’s Salim Langda Was the OG Gully Boy Dreaming of “Apna Time Aayega”

Thirty years before Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy, another Muslim protagonist like Murad seethed away at class inequality. Personal and political identities blend beautifully in Saeed Mirza’s Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, making it a richer, more complex telling than Gully Boy.

Pragyan Mohanty May 23, 2016

Bollywood

Vishwatma: Bollywood’s Flashiest Story of Patriotism in Pardes

On Republic Day, we look back at Rajiv Rai’s cult classic Vishwatma, where Bollywood took deshbhakti to the diaspora. The film, which released 28 years ago, gave us the greatest masala national integration song, “Dil le gayi teri bindiya,” and reminds us of a time when no one was asked to prove their patriotism.

Pragyan Mohanty April 24, 2016

Bollywood

Why Purab Kohli is Bollywood’s Most Overlooked Dependable Performer

Back in 1998, Purab Kohli debuted with Hip Hip Hurray, where he played a studious 12th grader raised by a single mother. Last week in Typewriter, he essays a single parent to a school-going student. It is the actor’s eagerness to work without obsessing over billing, screen time, or stardom that makes him a dependable performer, even today.

Pragyan Mohanty April 20, 2016

Bollywood

Is Pataakha the Sisterhood Story Bollywood’s Been Waiting For?

In Bollywood films, sisters are always selfless; they are mostly bechara, often vidhwa. If they are twins, one is bold, the other is timid. Our films have mostly paid lip service to a bond as ubiquitous as sisterhood. Will Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha change that?

Pragyan Mohanty March 30, 2016