Bollywood Archives - Page 5 of 37

Gold: So You Think You Can Make Sports Films, Bollywood?

For a film about sport, Gold treats hockey as a mere formality in service of an Akshay Kumar vanity project. It only exploits the star’s various talents: enthusiastic comic timing, the ability to arouse nationalistic pride, and romancing a much younger actress.

Poulomi Das July 6, 2016

Bollywood

Manikarnika, Thackeray, and the Troubled History of Bollywood Biopics

Both Manikarnika and Thackeray will release tomorrow, and both bring to the fore why Indian biopics so rarely do justice to their subjects. Bollywood biopics have, at best, a testy relationship with reality. Fact might be stranger than fiction, but filmmakers can’t seem to resist embellishing the truth.

Dushyant Shekhawat July 6, 2016

Bollywood

11 Years of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: How Suri Taught Us Love Is About Letting Go

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which turns 11 today, is often mocked for its simplistic premise. But the film actually overturned quite a few tropes: Taani is the textbook definition of a tortured hero, while Suri’s “hep” alter-ego Raj is like the manic pixie dream girl, instrumental in triggering the hero’s profound transformation.

Runjhun Noopur July 5, 2016

Bollywood

Sridevi: The Goddess Who Reigned Supreme in the Age of Overstatement

In the late ’80s and ’90s, Bollywood witnessed the Age of Overstatement and Sridevi was its leading light: A classy embodiment of this period dominated by mismatched outfits, bouncy hair, and pelvic thrusts.

Tia Basu July 5, 2016

Bollywood

Before Haathi Mere Saathi and Junglee, Elephant Boy Started Our Jumbo Friendship with the Pachyderm

Hollywood director Chuck Russell’s Junglee – the story of a military veteran who fights a poaching ring in an elephant reserve – brings back memories of Haathi Mere Saathi. But much before the Rajesh Khanna-starrer, the 1937 British film called The Elephant Boy chronicled the friendship between man and the gentle giants.

Sayantan Mondal July 5, 2016

Bollywood

In a World of Kaushals and Khurranas, Where Does King Khan Now Stand?

Shah Rukh Khan is looking forward to capping off the year with Anand L Rai’s Zero. But in an age when Bollywood seems to have found new King Ks – in Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana – is the original King Khan’s dominance over our hearts and screens under threat?

Kadambari Srivastava July 4, 2016

Bollywood

From Tapsee Pannu, Ranveer Singh, to Yami Gautam: The 10 Best Hindi Film Performances of 2019

As everyone will tell you, this year has been a particularly unremarkable year for Bollywood. The silver lining has been the versatile, inventive performances that have come from the most experimental of films and actors. From Tapsee Pannu and Ranvir Shorey to Geetika Vidya Olyan and Ranveer Singh, here are the 10 best performances of 2019.

Poulomi Das July 4, 2016

Bollywood

Chhe Din, Ladki Not In: Will the Year of #MeToo Usher in a New Kind of Bollywood Hero?

No film in the ’90s had a woman character whose first “no” was accepted – instead her consent was treated as a challenge by the hero. But in a year when #MeToo ruled our cultural consciousness, will that old idea of what a Bollywood hero is supposed to be, change?

Manik Sharma July 3, 2016

Bollywood

Love Aaj Kal: A Lesson In Why Exes Shouldn’t Stay Friends After Breaking Up

When I saw Jai and Meera break-up with each other in Love Aaj Kal and still be involved in each other’s lives with the intensity of a married couple, I was convinced that every break-up deserved a break-up party. Today, I know that the biggest sham that Imtiaz Ali sold us was the idea that we should remain friends with our exes.

Jackie Thakkar July 3, 2016

Bollywood

Pataakha Review: What Vishal Bhardwaj Gets Right About Sisterly Love

Sisters are each other’s strength and weakness – you can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha understands this language of sisterhood, where throwing abuses, insults, and jabs at each other is par for the course.

Poulomi Das July 2, 2016