Clik here to view.
The Spy Who Loved Martinis
The upcoming Bond film has a grim fate in store for 007. Olives are not the only fruit. Even as Hawkeye Pierce declared those of them doused in gin the only green vegetables he ate, a particular...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No Sense Of An Ending
Like in a breakup, Bollywood wraps things up messily. A girl I know grew up believing that The Sound Of Music ended with the “So Long, Farewell” song. What with parents turning off the videotape before...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The director you need to know
A brief introduction to the director of The Avengers. (And Firefly.) Back in the winter of 2007 and stretching right into early 2008, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, crippling both...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The legitimisation of the laffanga
Current Hindi cinema is firmly in favour of the uncouth. There’s a reason we call leading men heroes, and part of it has to do with them acting the part. They need to come through and pole-vault over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oh, those Bollywood boomerangs
However far life or Fridays fling ‘em, stars are just a comeback away. I was twelve when Karisma Kapoor ‘scandalised’ the nation with a song called Sexy Sexy Sexy Mujhe Log Bole. It was a rage and,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yash Chopra, storyteller to the end
I’ve always had a bone to pick with Mr Yash Chopra. A longtime admirer of his work, as most of us are —for he did it all, from breathless chases through crammed by-lanes to dreamily billowing saris in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jaspal Bhatti, the one and only
The first time I heard of Jaspal Bhatti I’d already stolen from him. I was nine and trying to make a movie with my best friend, Varun Bahl. We tried hard to write a funny enough script, but nothing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Kareena will remain Kareena
Even the Married Woman stereotype is red hot. The pallu that, in one strategic slip, changes gears from bashful to boastful. That oomph that comes from experience. That smile which knows which men to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Steven Spielberg brought Bollywood closer
It all began with a glass of water. We all have our own gateways into the wondrous world of Steven Spielberg. From the glowing doorway in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind to the first sighting of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rituparno Ghosh, tender as the night
I met Rituparno Ghosh earlier this very month when he invited me on the sets of his new film, Satyanweshi, in Calcutta. Ghosh and I shared some common friends and had tweeted cordially to each other...
View ArticleClik here to view.
So many heroes, only one Pran
So much lay in that smirk. Even if the smirk was frequently invisible behind a tough mouth. A mouth that was, in turn, protected from absolute inscrutability by a slight curling of the lip, toward a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Young love beats afresh with Shuddh Desi Romance
Shuddh Desi Romance begins like Annie Hall. Which is to say it begins unlike any other Hindi movie romance, ever. A character talks to the camera, equates relationships and commitment to Vikram and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A lyric for Lou Reed
(Because paragraphfuls of prose just didn’t feel right.) He stumbled and he rumbled, he fumbled and he humbled and he did it all drunk as a monk. He sailed and he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sachin From The Stands: Day One
(Reporting from the cheap seats, that last time.) The most curious thing on the ticket for the second match in the India vs West Indies test ‘series’ is a warning that “banners, flags etc” displaying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who dare compare to Peter O’Toole?
British actors have always taught us how to speak. We in India have never quite been able to cast off our post-Colonial hangover, and it is that — coupled with a rigid love for perfectly enunciated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Michael Matters: Our virtual vigil by Schumacher’s side
I owe Michael Schumacher my career. Writers write, quite simply, because they must. What they write, however, makes for a far more fiendish decision. I’d dabbled with journalism, copywriting, poetry...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Philip Seymour Hoffman: Goodbye, Master
That fat guy. The first time I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman was in Scent Of A Woman, playing an uppity prep-school bully. I vividly remember that floppy hair falling onto his round face, scrunched up all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harold Ramis: So long, beloved Ghostbuster
There is a cycle, and the sight of a man falling from it is often hilarious. Writing about it, on the other hand, is less so. Explaining a joke — especially a bit of timeless slapstick, as with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everything about The Oscars, 2014
In which I collate everything I’ve written about this year’s Academy Awards, and then present you with a singularly weird column. But we’ll get to that. First, the links: Previews: Can American Hustle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee: Art For Heart’s Sake
Sunday morning, I changed the caller tune on my phone. Moved from an English oldie to Har seedhe raste ki ek, the fabulous title song from Golmaal. About eight hours later, a colleague messaged me the...
View Article
