Well, perhaps not so new if you knew it, naturally. But here I found some 400 pictures of the actress, a number of which do not come out in the English-based search engines, probably because the language used on the website is Cyrillic Russian (АКТРИСЫ БОЛЛИВУДА, meaning Bollywood actresses). If like me you're a fan of one or more o

First the story for those who don’t remember Basu Chatterji’s Rajnigandha (1974): it’s based on Mannu Bhandari ’s book Yahi Sach Hai. Deepa (Vidya Sinha) and Sanjay (Amol Patekar) are a young, aspiring couple living in Delhi. He’s a jolly, outspoken civil servant driven by Unionist ideas and hoping to get the job promotion which, accordin

Here's a beautiful and poignant little movie (2014) by Souvik Mitra featuring Soumitra Chatterjeee and Roopa Ganguly (above; I had seen her - much younger, it was 1989 - in Ek din achanak ); but what makes its beauty? Probably its story, its poetic charm, and the way the two actors revolve around one another, closing a circle of poignancy at the en

Difficult Daughters, by Manju Kapur, written in 1998, tells the story of Virmati, an Amritsar-based young girl, the eldest daughter of an middle-class Arya Samaj family in which nevertheless certain traditions weigh as much as in any other more backward looking ones of the time. It’s set against the backdrop of World War II and the India-Pakistan

Have you ever wondered why you were born poor and not rich ? (if it’s the other way round, you often don’t wonder) Have you asked yourself why this injustice continues in today’s developed world? And if you are a victim of this injustice, have you never felt that, up to a certain extent, you should be entitled to take (or be given) what you n

Alas, I was not the person who interviewed Nutan's son! But thanks to Seema, my desi Nutan-collaborator, I would like to indicate the recent interview which appeared in Filmfare. You'll find it here . It's by Farhana Farook, whom I'll thank in advance for a few significant extracts. What strikes first is Mom's presence and authority. It isn't that

Nutan, who loved bhajans and classical music, has written some poetry, of which I have collected a little over the years. Given her talent and the quality of what I present here, there must be much more, so I went to Lalitha Tamhane's book on Nutan Asen me, Nasen me, and there are indeed a few passages which explain her interest in poetry: "She kne

The great value of animation movie Bombay Rose (Gitanjali Rao, 2019) is multifaceted. The pleasure to watch it is constantly multiplied by such techniques as colour and black & white shift, eye-dimming, mythological or religious symbolism, dream sequences, film parallels, flashbacks, viewpoint transformation, and its deceptively simple artistry cre

Arvind Adiga's story has been turned into a movie, shot by Ramin Bahrani and which has just come out on Netflix. It's an excellent movie, which does full credit to the novel; I really have no negatives about it. The cast is great, led by a glorious Adarsh Gourav, and Rajkumar Rao. Priyanka Chopra isn't that bad either, surprise! In terms of critici

This blog has already reviewed collections of short stories ( here and here ) and rather similarly, this volume contains stories which revolve loosely around the theme of femininity and motherhood of desi women abroad. To be more precise, the 11 stories focus on the consequences of the cultural reality of matrimony on the lives and values of young