FIFA might be a corrupt body. But they’re also efficient when they need to be. With the Cricket World Cup starting tomorrow… and all the controversies surrounding the ticket sales… couldn’t help but compare it with my experience of procuring tickets for the Football World Cup. Here’s how FIFA sell their World Cup Tickets. Their…
Thoughts on Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Barbie really surprised me with how far it took the narrative. I fully expected a self aware film with an explicit narrative on gender politics. That wasn’t my surprise. But how much it went beyond that, was. I know for sure that we men don’t do a good job at all of running the world….
Here’s how Oppenheimer left me feeling…
There aren’t any major spoilers ahead. Certainly not too much that history textbooks haven’t already taught us. But, like me, if you don’t like another person’s opinion shaping your own before you watch a film… don’t read ahead. I was absolutely riveted by and marvelling at the craft. I had even tweeted at interval. Couldn’t…
The conundrum of voting for an Independent candidate.
In the last two state elections, I have been voting for an independent candidate in my constituency. A man named ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy. The last two times I had to spend on flight tickets to go to Chennai, vote and get back to Hyderabad. And many in my family and friends circle advised me to not…
What I think are my thoughts on Jathi Ratnalu… but I can’t be sure!
Spoilers ahead. Jathi Ratnalu, probably, has more jokes per reel than any film ever made. Jokes that work. Every single one of them! The surface level makes for such a bizarrely original and hilarious watch, that nobody will want to bother unpacking it. But scratch beneath the surface and there’s a bitingly witty, deliciously satirical,…
RIP Padma Shri Irrfan Khan.
I Remember watching him in The Warrior (2001) first. Well, if I discount the fact that he was in the absolutely fantastic Salaam Bombay that I had seen before. A 1988 film that I had only seen around the turn of the millennium. Honestly, I don’t remember Irrfan in it. Not until his Wikipedia page…
I know what you’re thinking…
Once again, a ghastly incident of rape and murder gets people discussing. Once again, many well meaning people think to themselves.. why would she go out late… why would should go alone… is a career/partying/ having fun so important? The opposite of that is a life long house arrest, basically. So are we going to…
The gender politics of culture.
First things first, please don’t let your kids read this. Some of the topics discussed in this blog are very adult in nature. I’ve never been trolled as much as for this one quote tweet. Initially it was fun reading some of it. Thankfully, I didn’t have the time to read all of it. Then…
It’s never, ever, ever your fault.
Dear young girls who are growing up trying to make sense of the world around you…. please respect people like Sowcar Janaki amma and Y G Mahendran sir and plenty of other ‘such’ people, for all that they have achieved in their respective fields. But please don’t be influenced by what they say about things…
Those were the best days of their lives… back in the summer of ‘96.’
Plenty of spoilers ahead. The film ‘96’ starts with a beautiful montage of Ram travelling around the country clicking photographs. You’d think it’s just meant to tell us what he does for a living. But it’s a little later that you realise it also defines who he is. And what his life is like. It’s…
True Story Bro…
It’s been a lifetime ambition of mine. One of the first items on my bucket list if you will. Something I’ve been dreaming about since the time I was smitten by football as a child watching Italia ‘90 on Doordarshan. Something I have desired since I had my heart broken when my all time favorite…
Thoughts on the unprecedented pre-release excitement around Arjun Reddy.
Rebel without a cause I watched ‘Rebel without a cause’ in my late teens. The movie fascinated me. I became a James Dean fan that very instant. But I couldn’t quite process why it fascinated me back then. I wasn’t sure I understood the essence of the film completely. And yet, subliminally I did. That…
Rahullabaloo 