Lit-fests: an evening in Kolkata (and Jaipur)

After a relatively placid three or four months, I have been back to spending a great deal of time on hospital duty, and generally being on ...

The naayak as gaayak - on stars who sang for themselves

[ From my Mint Lounge column ] Reading movie magazines as a child, it seemed to me that whenever a Hindi-film actor was asked about his or h...

52 films to light up your life

The most fun thing I did during my recent Mumbai trip was an informal little group conversation for Outlook magazine . Satish Padmanabhan g...

Angry captive goddesses in Madhureeta Anand's Kajarya

[ From my Mint Lounge column ] I haven’t watched Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses yet, but the other day I caught a remarkable, under...

Updates, photos: discussing Hrishi-da in Kolkata and Mumbai

For anyone interested, here are a couple of updates about recent events involving the Hrishikesh Mukherjee book . (I realised I have been pu...

My dad was Darth Vader: a Star Wars confession

[ Here's a piece I did for Mint Lounge's special on Star Wars ] If you’re a ten-year-old encountering a sword-and-sorcery epic, it i...

Just be yourself: Dharmendra in Guddi, and other reflections

[ Did this for Mint Lounge ] Dharmendra turns 80 on December 8. This can be hard to believe if the image in your head is of the pranksters h...