When In Madurai…: A Hindi film set in Madurai amidst a conservative Tamil family is an odd bird before its strange plot unfolds. The only difference between this and any…

Spiritual Quest: Some of Makrand Deshpande’s earlier plays were inspired by mythology and presented his own twist to well-known stories. In his more recent work—RAM, KRISHNA and the latest BUDDHA–…

The Family Trap: What has been used as a one-scene gag in quite a few films—a man in love having to produce a fake family– has been extended to a…

Seventy years ago, in October 1951, the first episode of a television show was broadcast, that changed the way TV comedy was written, produced, shot and consumed.  I Love Lucy, which…

Corona Chaos: French film Huit Rue de’l Humanite—English title Stuck Together—must be among the earliest, if not the first, full length feature film about the days of lockdown during the pandemic. Directed…

Runaway Brides: The films of Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao have more or less captured the market on problems of men in small North Indian towns. Babloo Bachelor, directed by…

This exchange really took place. At a dinner in the Beverley Hills home of Benedict Bogeaus, junkyard dealer turned movie producer, he declared to his showbiz guests, “We have a woman…

Hell On Earth: Dystopia is not that far into the future—we are living in survival-of-the fittest times. Korean writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk turns human fear, greed and gambling instinct into a terrifying nine-part…

Return to Coopers Chase: Last year, Richard Osman’s novel, The Thursday Murder Club, had become a bestseller. The funny and charming book, was set in a fancy senior citizen’s community called Coopers…

Raaj Kumar came to be known for playing urbane parts, but in one of his early films he played a starving farmer to perfection. On the actor’s 95th birth anniversary,…