Saawariya & Ranbir Kapoor’s Bum

Am I the only one out there that’s a bit underwhelmed by the Saawariya phenomenon?
I really want to like this movie - award winning director makes a Dostoevsky adaptation enacted by a couple of well behaved star babies supported by two Bollywood megastars. Sounds good. Here’s my money… or maybe not?
The problem is, everything that [...]

After Aishwarya Rai, Manavendra Singh Gohil

Prince Manavendra Singh Gohil of the erstwhile kingdom of Rajpipla in Gujarat was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show last week. He represented India in an episode titled Gays Around the World.
The who, the what, the huh? Exactly.
Chances are you’ve never heard of Gohil or perhaps remember him best from tiny articles buried deep [...]

Review: Jab We Met

Just two months ago, if you’d told me I’d not only go to see a Kareena Kapoor-Shahid Kapoor flick in a theater but have a good time watching it, I’d have wanted to know what you’ve been smoking. Except that’s exactly what happened and I feel no guilt whatsoever.
Director Imtiaz Ali’s sophomore effort, Jab We [...]

Tehelka Over Narendra Modi

On Tuesday I wrote the following about Narendra Modi after he walked off a talk show when quizzed about the Gujarat riots of 2002: I don’t know whether I should be alarmed that a Chief Minister with national ambitions is so utterly wrapped in cotton wool that he sincerely believes only a couple of people [...]

Standing Alone in Mecca

 

If you look at Asra Q. Nomani as a human being, she is an outstanding success story. Born in Mumbai, she is today a respected journalist who has worked for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times; she covered Pakistan in the aftermath of 9/11 for Salon.com; she was a [...]

Narendra Modi Dehydrated by Karan Thapar

I’m sorry, but it must be said: “Yeh haath humko de de Thapar!”
Heh heh heh. Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad. But yes, it wasn’t anywhere near as awesome as what went down on CNN IBN the other day.
For those of you who don’t know, Karan Thapar is a long winded journalist who likes [...]

Kareena + Saif = $$$?

We really need to come up with a cool international symbol for the Rupee. At the least it’d help me out in situations like the above title. Oh well.
What I really wanted to do though, was inquire if you’re one of those people out there who watch a movie based on who the lead actor/actress [...]

So Dumbledore is Gay

Gay subtext has never been hard to find in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. You wouldn’t have to search very hard to come up with a lot of nudge-nudge wink-wink stuff about boys with wands. But that’s fanfic and idle speculation. The books themselves, though racially representative and thematically complex, never offer anything more explicit than [...]

Dropping the F-Bomb

“Well, I’m not really one of those feminist-type people, you know.”
Actually, I don’t know. I’ve heard the above statement from (what seems to me) legions of people on and off the internet and I don’t know what they’re talking about. What are they trying to tell me, that they’re against gender equality? That they think [...]

RIP: Deborah Kerr

I didn’t know her name when I saw her perform for the first time or even understand what was going on - but I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Her name was Deborah Kerr and the movie was From Here to Eternity. I was six or seven years old and [...]