To say that a new dawn is visible in Bollywood is a tad contrived, but somehow that is all I can think of when I think about Dibakar Banerjee, the director of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. Banerjee’s earlier film, Khosla Ka Ghosla came at a time when small-budget films with relatively unknown or character actors like Parvin Dabbas, Ranvir Shorey and Boman Irani were still treading a tightrope between appreciation and rejection, and yet, the honesty of the film, its complete rootedness, pulled it through, and got Banerjee a National Award. [Read more →]

If you’re looking for evidence of Bollywood coming of age, then please direct your glance somewhere far far away from Karan Johar. He has never claimed to be anything more than an entertainer, and that is exactly what he is. One wonders what it means when posters of a film say, ‘Karan Johar presents Dostana. Directed by Tarun Mansukhani.’ Is he merely a producer, or has he somehow stamped the film with the hoo haa Dharma Productions is famous for? [Read more →]

With the fuss around the almost-superhero – James Bond, relooking at this much-loved genre becomes inevitable. A strange dichotomy faces us today, technological advances are at an all time high, to put it crudely, with James Bond all but flying, it looks like very few things are unachievable; and yet, the demand [Read more →]

Edit Room humbly submits a film by yours truly and Abhimanyu Goel, the first in the Akasmat trilogy. Shot with a digital camera (Fuji Finepix s5700).

The notions of benevolence and benevolent subjectivity have been serving as important theoretical constructs in relating to the conditions of subalterneity in diverse cultural contexts. Gayatri Spivak’s theoretical addresses concerning the above have elevated the purportedly centuries-old feudal marker of benevolence into a post colonial marker par excellence. This seems not only a theoretically sound mode of [Read more →]

There is a greater need now than ever before to subject the so called golden age of Dravidian movement and the contributions of its key shapers like CN Annadurai and Periyar to critical theorising on a plane devoid of popular and often misleading  approaches. The popular and misleading approaches of the curious lay persons and media always root for the role of cinema in Dravidian politics,  the movement’s anti-Hindi [Read more →]

The early political films of DMK did not have overtones of explicit party propaganda. The messages of the party were subtly interwoven in the narrative threads of social melodramas albeit with verbal and visual references to Anna. The often talked about nexus between cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu is not the same as what it was during Anna’s times. Obviously, it has lost its steam and has become a refuge of opportunistic games of film stars yearning to become politicians without sweating it out from the scratch. [Read more →]

Sept.15 2008 marked the beginning of the centenary celebrations of the man who caused the birth of not only Tamil political cinema, but also the cultural politics of cinema in Tamil Nadu. C N Annadurai, also known as CNA, and affectionately as Anna or elder brother, was not yet another politician, another ideologue and another dramatist testing the socially surcharged decades of 1940-1960 in Tamil Nadu. He was [Read more →]

What Indian film consumers want

Screeen, a film weekly has conducted a survey on Indian film audience to learn more about their preferences and views. Find it here.

For every revolutionary idea, there is a capitalist waiting to appropriate it. Watch the credits in the end!