Cinema
Breaking the fourth wall in Bollywood
May 16, 2021
Vikram Sabharwal slaps his wife Amrita at a party, owing to professional stress. Amrita is as shocked as the audience watching the film. She suddenly turns towards the screen and asks the audience whether they are waiting to watch the rest. She then says that slapping is not “...
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Towards gender parity in Malayalee cinema
May 7, 2021
Close on the heels of Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao becoming the first woman of colour to win an Oscar for best director, thousands of km away, in Kerala, two women filmmakers are set to make their own history, as agents of change in the male-dominated Malayalee cinema industry. ...
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World Laughter Day: Where did the political satire...
May 2, 2021
“Thankfully it came and went decades ago. I think it would not have released in the first place if it were to come today. I am also sure that people would have attacked the directors, abused the actors and for the female characters, it would have been way worse. Perhaps, that w...
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Irreplaceable Irrfan
April 29, 2021
Homage to a glocal star: It was not just the Indian audiences that Irrfan has left his mark on. He had made a name for himself in the global cinema through his numerous appearances in Hollywood
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Cinematising Shakespeare
April 23, 2021
While Bollywood will always be indebted to the English playwright, poet, actor and one of the world’s greatest dramatists, William Shakespeare for several successful films like Haider (2014), Maqbool (2003), Omkara (2006), and many others, the gems of adaptations of his plays i...
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Fair is still lovely & men rule Bollywood: AI...
April 15, 2021
“The USD 2.1 billion film industry continues to associate beauty with fair skin. The conception of beauty has remained consistent through the years in the Bollywood film industry centred in Mumbai,” reads a report by Indian-origin researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CM...
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Maithili cinema: Awards, appreciation but no viewe...
April 8, 2021
“Maithili cinema’s fate has not changed despite good quality content and awards that we have received in the recent past. We still struggle to get some time on television or even a theatrical release,” says Nitin Chandra, a Maithili filmmaker based in Bihar’s capital Patn...
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Shashikala: The exemplary second fiddle
April 6, 2021
Born in a small town, Solapur in Maharashtra, Shashikala had exhibited talent from an early age whether it was working as an artiste in a village fair at the age of five or moving to Mumbai to act in films at 11. However, that shift had happened due to a rough stroke destiny inst...
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OTT becomes voice of female driven content
April 2, 2021
While movies like Padmaavat and Lipstick Under My Burkha faced a lot of trouble during their production as well as theatrical release, online streaming services have provided filmmakers with a new platform to deliver female driven content to the audience. Most of these manage to ...
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Different colours of Holi on silver screen
March 26, 2021
From the symbol of ecstatic celebration in films like Sholay and Baghban to acting as a background for crime scenes like Damini, and for budding relationships like Ye Jawani Hai Deewani, the festival of colours has been aptly used as a plot device in Bollywood classic movies. Hol...
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