Poulomi Das, Author at Arré

Why Sushant Singh Rajput’s Byomkesh Bakshy Stands Out from the Rest

Dibakar Banerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is a masterful, atmospheric murder mystery but an even better coming-of-age film. Sushant Singh Rajput doesn’t essay Byomkesh as the standard brooding type. Instead, he captures a boyish charm that allows us to witness the making of a detective.

Poulomi Das June 1, 2016

Pop Culture

In “What the Love!” Karan Johar Proves that He Has No Idea about Love or Millennials

Part-Queer Eye, part-Splitsvilla, and complete trainwreck, Netflix’s Indian dating reality show What The Love! is little more than another opportunity for Karan Johar to brag about the list of famous people whose numbers he has saved on his phone.

Poulomi Das May 31, 2016

Pop Culture

2017: The Year That Destroyed ’90s Bollywood

This was the year our rose-tinted memories of the glorious ’90s died. “Oonchi Hai Building” is permanently sullied by Varun Dhawan and we’ll never look at Govinda, Sridevi, and Sanjay Dutt the same way again.

Poulomi Das May 31, 2016

Pop Culture

“Lover” is the Most Emotionally Honest Romantic Declaration By Taylor Swift in 13 Years

Right from the moment I heard “Lover”, the titular track of Taylor Swift’s seventh album, it felt like a kind of homecoming, that was at once, wholly familiar and deeply uncomfortable. In it, Swift finally sings of love and not about it, like a poet invested in creating poetry. Like love is not as much a lifeboat of her life, but life itself.

Poulomi Das May 31, 2016

Bollywood

Zero Review: Proof of Everything Wrong with the Cult of SRK

SRK’s Bauua Singh is a carefully orchestrated and subtle attempt to insult the intellect of audiences – exactly what makes Anand L Rai’s Zero even more manipulative than Sanju. The film might be the worst reminder of SRK’s incompetence in completely inhabiting a character.

Poulomi Das May 31, 2016

Bollywood

Dabangg 3 Review: 53-Year Old Overgrown Child Continues Romancing 20-Year-Olds

The first few minutes of Dabangg 3 do an incredible job of lowering expectations, foreshadowing in a way, the unpardonable daftness that makes up the film’s 162-minute runtime. Eventually it becomes clearer that this film is just an excuse for 53-year-old Khan to romance actresses half his age.

Poulomi Das May 30, 2016

Coronavirus

Why “The Report” is the Perfect Film for Janata Curfew Day

Adam Driver is excellent in The Report, a film about a Senate investigation into a post-9/11 CIA detention programme. It’s a movie that you need to pay attention to and if you are binge-watching while in self-isolation, we recommend it.

Poulomi Das May 30, 2016

Bollywood

What Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak Misses Out On, Parvathy’s Uyare Gets Right

Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak struggles to make the connection that an acid attack isn’t only directed toward defacing a woman’s face and crushing her aspirations but also erasing her from society’s conscience. Last year’s Malayalam drama Uyare starring Parvathy as an acid-attack survivor gets that right.

Poulomi Das May 30, 2016

Pop Culture

Jaani Dushman: India’s Only Superhero Film You Should Care About

In Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahaani, Bollywood got its first indigenous green-eyed superhero. Half-ichhadhari naag, half-assassin, full-time lover and slayer of perverts.

Poulomi Das May 29, 2016

Bollywood

How Soorma Almost Makes a Villain Out of Sandeep Singh’s Wife

In Soorma, Sandeep Singh’s wife – Harpreet Kaur in the film – abandons her husband soon after he is paralysed. She is also painted as a distraction for Singh’s goal-scoring abilities. I’ll let you guess what happened in real life. Hint: None of it.

Poulomi Das May 29, 2016