Kishore, our contemporary: 25 years on
His was a voice that was born with big, wide wings. It soared over the drably measured and the dourly mundane in an inspired, time-conquering trajectory entirely its own.
A lowkey Salman: Still a Tiger?
The past tense may not be entirely unintentional. Ek Tha Tiger is a reminder that films like Ready and Bodyguard, super successes despite being spectacularly vacuous, were necessary aberrations in the career of Salman ‘Dabangg’ Khan. He needed those films to woo his constituency and win it over so completely that he could attempt an Ek Tha Tiger without jeopardizing the producer’s investment.
Big screen machismo: How violent is too violent?
'Gangs of Wasseypur 2' packs quite a wallop as a finale to the gritty vengeance saga that began with the killing of colliery worker Shahid Khan by a rising mafia don and wannabe politician many decades ago in a part of British India that was no more than a speck on the map.
Bollywood's Shanghai dreams
A quarter and a bit into 2012, it seems the frenetic Mumbai movie industry is closer than ever before to embracing an alternative creative groove. Nothing could augur better for Hindi cinema as we know it.
How Sachin killed cricket for me
The cricket world wasn't fuelled by the sort of media frenzy that is whipped up these days every time the name of Sachin Tendulkar is mentioned in the same breath as Bradman.
'Pitching' it right: Gambhir has a serious problem
For whatever it's worth, struggling Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has a point. As a bruised and battered Indian team goes into the Adelaide Test to stave off a whitewash, the Delhi southpaw has let one fly.
Delhi: Capital gains
So you live in Delhi? But do you belong? Thank heavens you don't! It's a city essentially of migrants – of 'outsiders' who call it home and do so without having to look over their shoulders. Delhi belongs to everybody though not everybody who lives here belongs to Delhi.
Gulzar @ 75: A poet for all times
In a world populated by instant rhymesters, he is a master of delectable imagery and delightful poetic conceits. In an industry where mediocrity reigns, his words exude the purity of the rains at the end of a hot, sultry summer.
A happy Firth-day for a Brit tradition
Ever heard of Pontrhydyfen (pronounced pont-reader-ven)? It is a tiny speck of a village in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales where stage and screen actor Richard Burton was born in 1925.
Bollywood's real world-class Khan
The reigning Bollywood Khans – Aamir, Shahrukh and Salman – are a breed apart. As megastars with the power to pull in the crowds, they are the ones that keep this prolific movie industry on a roll. And now, we have another Khan – Tees Maar Khan
Gangor captures dark Indian reality
That is the title of one of the more talked about films at the ongoing 41st International Film Festival of India. <i>Gangor</i> is an Italian production set in Purulia, West Bengal.
Songs of love and humanity
Seasoned Bengali filmmaker Goutam Ghose has crafted a superb cinematic retelling of an epic chapter from the past to comment on an aspect of contemporary Indian reality that has bothered him ever since the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Subhash Ghai's tribute to Tagore
Veteran Bollywood producer-director Subhash Ghai�s alternative production banner, Mukta Searchlight, has now entered the domain of Bengali films to mark Rabindranath Tagore�s 150th birth anniversary.