It was an honor to receive the Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) Award for the Best Children’s Film from the President …
Lessons from Driving Lessons
A couple of years ago a close friend gave me a feature film treatment to read. This was probably the …
The Birth of Tamil Cinema
How old is Tamil cinema? When was it born? An automobile spare part dealer, Nataraja Mudaliar, was so fascinated by …
Badmaash Company and Dabangg with Pocketmaar – Where Does It All End?
My husband’s aunts were visiting us. One is 72, the other 81. They like to watch Zee News every night …
Round and About – II
With Wanted last year and now Dabangg, Salman Khan seems to have found his winning formula. There’s no one who …
Step Treatment
Karan Johar has stated in an interview that filmmakers are forced to look towards foreign films for content, because there …
New Theatres: A Cinematic Equivalence of Literature
New Theatres, a Kolkata based film studio, was one of the premier filmmaking institutions that promoted cinema as art and …
Why Can’t Critics Be Critical?
As a film critic, I have noticed that filmmakers – directors, producers, stars, actors – most of them, do not …
Politics in Madhopur
Raajneeti is what happens the morning after a particularly greasy, spicy, mass-produced dinner the night before. In Madhopur, everyone struggles …
A Tale of Two Cities
Recently I bumped into an old friend of mine at a suburban mall in Bombay. We knew each other from …