Articles

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

People

In Search of Krishna in Vrindavan’s Secret Forest

Legend says that every night, Krishna descends upon a forest in Vrindavan to dance with his gopis. But in a town dependent on its faith economy, does it even matter if it's true?

Parthshri Arora April 3, 2016

Bollywood

From Fire to Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga: A Brief History of Homosexuality in Indian Cinema

In 1996, Deepa Mehta’s Fire was met with riots and outrage. Politicians leapt over themselves to denounce the film as a threat to Indian culture, plenty more objected to the film’s religious allusions. Today, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga has received the kind of acclaim and acceptance that, not so long ago, seemed impossible.

Kahini Iyer 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

Culture

#InMyFeelings, Kiki Challenge Ek Dhokha Hai. Here’s Why

Oh, the success you can achieve by tapping into people’s need to be validated on social media! This is the reason urban and rural Indians alike have taken to the Kiki Challenge faster than Ganesh Gaitonde took to Cuckoo.

Jackie Thakkar April 3, 2016

POV

Cringe-Pop and the Case of Irony Gone Awry

Omprakash Mishra is the perfect icon for a generation that enjoys everything ironically, where it is acceptable to be “so bad, it’s good”. Maybe it is time we retired irony and gave earnestness a chance.

#VALUE! April 3, 2016

People

Hit Hit Hurray

At a Bollywood “success” party, cheap champagne flows, selfie sticks are brandished, and our hero is determined to make it to the papers the next day. Arré is a fly on the wall.

Kripa Krishnan April 3, 2016

Coronavirus

Not Just Ramayana, Here’s 12 More Classic DD Shows We’d Like to See Brought Back on Air

Ramayana isn’t the only old gem in Doordarshan’s archives. Here’s our recommendation of 12 Doordarshan serials we’d love to watch again.

Ananya N April 3, 2016