How sci-fi cuts us down to size (and shows us what we can be)

[ From my Forbes Life book column ] It takes a while to figure out exactly what Isaac Asimov’s “Does a Bee Care?” is about – short though th...

Birds and cages: on Phobia, a feminist horror film

Watching Pavan Kirpalani’s compelling, creepy film Phobia , about a young artist who has a traumatic experience and becomes agoraphobic – af...

On Sairat, and the importance of a good poem

[ F rom my Mint Lounge column ] It isn’t easy to identify the precise moment when the tone of Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat goes from lilting and...

"Julian Barnes said, go ahead and betray me" - Ritesh Batra on adapting The Sense of an Ending

[Did this interview with Ritesh Batra for Scroll . Would have liked a more in-depth conversation about the challenges of adaptation, but it ...

In defence of dialogue-baazi (notes from a session at the language festival)

At a recent festival hosted by Oxford Bookstore in Delhi, I participated in a panel discussion titled “Bollywood ki Bhasha: Devdas se Dev D ...

Reshaping reality: on Manoj Kumar Panda’s One Thousand Days in a Refrigerator

[Did this review for The Hindu] When you first encounter a writer who works in a language other than the one you’re discovering him in, you ...

The devilry of nearness: thoughts on caregiving

Rohit Brijnath has written this very moving piece about dealing with parents’ mortality – many good points elegantly made, well worth readi...