Pop Culture Archives

7 Years of Lootera: Why Vikramaditya Motwane’s Period Film Feels Like a Personal Indulgence

In the last seven years, Lootera’s legacy has assumed a life of its own. Now, the film feels so much like a personal indulgence: It wordlessly captures a specific kind of yearning that we often fail to define during the length and breadth of our own lives. Even though we recognise it the moment we see it.

Poulomi Das April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

Why Aparna – And Not Sima Taparia – is the Unlikely Heroine of Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking

Indian Matchmaking reinforces worrying instances of gender discrimination as “tradition” and features a matchmaker whose only expertise is in advising women to “compromise.” That’s why Aparna is the only person worth listening to on the show, a woman unperturbed by the need to come across as likeable.

Poulomi Das April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

I Like Bigg Boss and I Cannot Lie

The raw human emotions on Bigg Boss are what you’re unable to display IRL. For the viewer hooked to the show, it is simultaneously perverse and cathartic.

Parthshri Arora April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

Brahman Naman & The Trouble With Tharak

For me, shifting from checking a woman out during my teens, to calling it objectification when I am almost pushing middle age, is where I think I grew up.

Arnav Das April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

Where Did Himesh Reshammiya Go? An Xposé…

A short decade ago, Himesh Reshammiya was performing sold out shows at Wembley and singing almost every second Bollywood chartbuster. Today, as the man — nay legend — celebrates his 46th birthday, it’s worth asking, “Where the hell did Himesh Reshammiya go?”

#VALUE! April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

Why We Need a Gay Dumbledore and Queer Superheroes

JK Rowling conveniently erased Dumbledore's sexuality in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald. This speaks of a frustrating trend in recent Hollywood films that tease the inclusion of LGBT characters only to thunderously under-deliver.

Poulomi Das April 3, 2016

Pop Culture

Last Day, Last Show: With Chandan Cinema Gone, Is This the End of Mumbai’s Affair With Single-Screens?

If you truly want to know what a Mumbai crowd is like there are only a few places you should go to: Wankhede Stadium or Chandan Cinema. But soon Chandan will give way for a shopping mall and a multiplex, with its history and unique stories being lost to time.

Jay Pikle April 2, 2016

Pop Culture

When Zaheer Met Sagarika: Bollywood and Cricket’s Ongoing Love Story

Since time immemorial, Indian cricketers and Bollywood actresses have been eyeing each other as potential mating prospects with the same level of attraction that Rohit Shetty reserves for destroyed cars.

Arré Bench April 2, 2016

Pop Culture

#Don’tSpoilTheEndgame: A Plea To All Spoilsports Who Ruin Films and TV Shows

Over the last few days, a few lucky social media users who got to see Avengers: Endgame before everyone else have been celebrating by live-tweeting the plot at everyone else. This is a new low for internet trolls, especially considering how far the Russo brothers have gone to keep the details of the film under wraps.

Nihal Bambulkar April 2, 2016

Pop Culture

Much Before Netflix’s Sacred Games, There was Powder

Like Sacred Games, Atul Sabharwal’s Powder revolved around a cop obsessed with nabbing a dreaded drug kingpin. It may not boast of the production values of a Netflix adaptation, but as a commentary on the pluralities of Mumbai, Powder was just as powerful.

Ajay Chacko April 2, 2016