Kangana Ranaut Archives

Like Kangana, Vir Das should be allowed the right to believe in the India he sees

Vir Das has made the culpable mistake of saying out loud, what he felt. But like Kangana Ranaut, however fictional or provocative, Das must be allowed the right to believe in the India that he sees.

Lakshmi Govindrajan July 20, 2016

Gender

India’s Convenient Feminism, Where Deepika is a Drug Addict and Kangana is Brave

The response to Payal Ghosh accusing Anurag Kashyap of sexual assault, has been very different from the time fans leapt to defend accused stars like Nana Patekar and Alok Nath, and defamed the women who gave accounts. Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut compared the breaking down of her offices to being raped and insisted she was being targeted as a woman, while referring to female colleagues as soft porn stars and fake feminists. Bollywood’s feminism is dependent on convenience.

Kahini Iyer July 17, 2016

Gender

Goodbye #WomenSupportingWomen. Welcome to the New Slanderous Sisterhood

Just a few months ago, the social media challenge of #WomenSupportingWomen had bathed us all in a hallowed glow. Now, as we see Kangana Ranaut and Navika Kumar tearing into Rhea Chakraborty and Urmila Matondkar every other day in our national blood sport, the idea of women supporting women seems almost quaint.

Kahini Iyer July 14, 2016

Bollywood

Manikarnika, Thackeray, and the Troubled History of Bollywood Biopics

Both Manikarnika and Thackeray will release tomorrow, and both bring to the fore why Indian biopics so rarely do justice to their subjects. Bollywood biopics have, at best, a testy relationship with reality. Fact might be stranger than fiction, but filmmakers can’t seem to resist embellishing the truth.

Dushyant Shekhawat July 6, 2016

Pop Culture

Cannes Film Festival: That Time of the Year When B-Grade Bollywood Celebrities Become Relevant Again

There’s no getting away from the fact that Mallika Sherawat’s and Hina Khan’s connection to world cinema is tenuous at best. Yet they are gracing the Cannes red carpet. As for the rest of the Indian delegation? To paraphrase a modern statesman: We’re definitely not sending our best people.

Kahini Iyer June 24, 2016

Bollywood

From Bollywood’s Boldest Star to Big Mouth: What Do We Do About Kangana Ranaut?

Kangana Ranaut’s latest release Panga stands overshadowed by the theatrics on display during her film promotion on Thursday. Ranaut said that senior lawyer Indiria Jaising should be thrown in jail along with the 2012 Delhi gang rape convicts for suggesting that they be pardoned. For an actor who has carefully pitched herself as the champion of feminism, her comments against Jaising are deeply misogynistic.

Kahini Iyer June 14, 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

Pop Culture

7 Years of Queen: The Complicated Legacy of the Film that Celebrated Feminism

Rewatching Queen is a surreal experience. For once, it isn’t because a movie has aged so horribly, you question your own sensibility and past self for ever liking it. On the contrary, Queen is a rare legit classic, as relevant today as it was in 2014. Queen’s legacy, however, is a complicated mess.

Runjhun Noopur June 6, 2016

Bollywood

Arré Checklist: How Protest Publicity Can Make Manikarnika and Super 30 a Hit

Now that Padmaavat has set the trend and Manikarnika is due to follow, the floodgates are open for protestors to come together against “offensive” films. Sinhal Classes will be perfect protest partners for Hrithik Roshan’s Super 30.

Dushyant Shekhawat June 4, 2016

Bollywood

Manikarnika Review: An Effective Revision of Your School History Book Chapter

As someone rooting for the success of Manikarnika, I was hungry for the movie to delve into the story behind the story. Did the exemplary Queen of Jhansi make mistakes? Did she have regrets? But the film only offers us Kangana Ranaut’s glaring dialogue-baazi and jaw clenching, and hammy plot devices.

Sonali Kokra May 25, 2016