By Venky Ramachandran For the religious Indian, satsang is the divine communal space where collective catharsis unfolds. For the cineligious Indian, cinema theater is the divine communal space (filled with dark matter) where collective catharsis unfolds. Both serve the same purpose. They bring those who know a certain truth (sat) together (sang). Isn’t that why […]

By Pranav Jain Pranav Jain is an incoming civil servant and also a columnist. Yaaron, dosti badi hi haseen hai, yeh na ho toh kya phir bolo yeh zindagi hai? Koyi toh ho raazdaar, be-gharaz tera ho yaar, koyi toh ho raazdaar… – KK Bollywood, more than almost any other international or regional cinematic tradition, […]

The stars are fine, the stunts are fine, the globetrotting is fine, the spy stuff is fine, the twists are fine – but the film’s big enemy is that it goes on and on. The rest of this review may contain spoilers. I liked the first War installment quite a bit, and one of the […]

Rajinikanth gets to play a dignified character in an action-drama that (mostly) hits the right notes. This is a star movie that respects the star, and does not resort to pandering. The rest of this review may contain spoilers. Fifty years ago, almost exactly to this date, one of India’s biggest star-actors made his movie […]

By Ponc One is never a stranger to Mani Ratnam’s men—the soft-spoken Chandrakumar, who marries the girl who doesn’t want to get married; Sekhar, the doting Appa who harbours a tiny secret of epic proportions from his family; and Thiru, the idealistic writer who wants to be a dad even before he has a wife; […]

By Pranav Jain Pranav Jain is an incoming civil servant and also a columnist. There was a time when you didn’t just ‘catch’ a movie. You made a plan, you dressed for it, and you discussed it days in advance. And when the day arrived, the destination mattered almost as much as the film. In […]

Today I presented to our Yr 10 students about what to expect in the Yr 11 Economics course in 2026. As we don’t have an external exam in Yr 11 it gives us the ability to include other areas that… Continue reading →

Though the central characters are teenagers, this lightly melancholic story is not your average “teen movie”. It’s about three sets of fathers and sons in “those innocent days”. The rest of this review may contain spoilers. Satyajit Sharma plays the father of a schoolgoer named Anurag (Aryan Singh Rana), and I think many of us […]

“Anirudh recalled that just two days before the interview, he was stuck on two lines while composing a song. Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, he logged into ChatGPT, bought the premium version, and explained the theme of the song. Within seconds, he got ten suggestions. He picked the one he liked most and […]

This remake of Mari Selvaraj’s ‘Pariyerum Perumal’ makes some interesting changes in tone and treatment. There’s a love story, a gender angle. All of this makes the film engaging on several levels. The rest of this review may contain spoilers. When Sairat was remade as Dhadak, we got a bland star-launch vehicle. Dhadak 2, based […]

In economics issues of competition, growth, and the distribution of their benefits have long been central concerns with the growing concentration of market power in the hands of corporations. Governments are faced with significant economic challenges: In the US since… Continue reading →

The cleanly written film is about a Chosen One. It is also a story about brothers, and a spy thriller. But these various strands don’t merge satisfactorily. The rest of this review may contain spoilers. Kingdom opens with a short story, and then tells a longer story set 70 years later. There are parallels. In […]