Most serious film buffs know something special has been happening in Malayalam cinema in recent years. The wave has been driven by the auteurist visions of directors and producers like Lijo Jose Pellissery and Aashiq Abu, and stories that provide charming, ground-level views of a milieu without sacrificing big-picture commentary. Here are some favourites from …
Bengali filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri is a fan of the ingenious narratives emerging out of Malayalam cinema. “They have discovered a way to integrate mainstream and parallel cinema,” says Chaudhuri, citing films like Premam (2015), Kumbalangi Nights (2019), Jallikattu (2019), Android Kunjappan Version 5.25 (2019), Chola (2019) and Trance (2020). Describing the craft of actors like …
After hunkering down for three months, the major football leagues around Europe have emerged blinking into the sunlight, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes to find that everyone’s disappeared. The stadiums are empty, but we, outside Europe, watch the games as we always did-on TV, knowing that we’re both part of the problem and …
A quick guide to the Champions League. In the post-Covid finish to the Premier League season, expect to see a match on TV every night for the next several weeks. And, if you’re still not sated, UEFA has announced that the Champions League will be concluded in a made-for-TV special. All the quarterfinals, semifinals and …
Rahul Bose stands out in a milieu that has come to prize quantity over quality. Rahul Bose Rahul Bose stands out in a milieu that has come to prize quantity over quality. Unwilling to compromise in the latter half of his career, the actor finally said yes to a part in Netflix’s Bulbbul. Q. Bulbbul …
A Kolkata’s intellectualism can sometimes feel invented, but when it loves someone or something, it almost always does so effusively. Watching the documentary If Not for You, one is struck by how deeply the city loves Bob Dylan, its affection bordering on obsession. Dylan posters line the room of musician Susmit Bose, whom filmmakers Jaimin …
Let’s hasten through a perfunctory survey of J.K. Rowling’s new story The Ickabog. Available to read for free on her website, the story was revivified, Rowling writes, to help children around the world cope with the inevitable, oppressive boredom of lockdown. The last of the 34 instalments will be published on her website by July …
Just before the interview, Zeeshan Nabi, a 27-year-old singer-songwriter-composer from Kashmir, said he didn’t have Zoom, but would quickly download it. ‘4G is not banned here,’ he typed on WhatsApp, followed by a laughing emoji. ‘Here’ meant Delhi. “When you grow up in Kashmir, you go through stages. In the first, you’re naïve, then you …
The office of Studio Durga is hidden away in the basement of a once-busy residential colony in South Delhi. Days before the city went into lockdown, Rajorshi Basu and his team of 20-somethings folded their hands and said “Namaste” when we met there. “This is the one good thing to come out of the coronavirus …
Swara Bhasker often finds it difficult to watch strife from the sidelines. Having been spotted helping many migrants return home, the actor will next be seen in the web show Rasbhari Q. You recently helped several stranded migrants return home. What made you take the plunge? Getting home should not be a repository of privilege. …
