Posted inPOV
Eat, Drink, Be Merry For Tomorrow You Will Die
Sridevi didn’t know she’d be gone too soon. But had she known, would she have lived her life differently? I would.
Posted inBollywood
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.
Posted inBollywood
The Celebrity Death Syndrome: Mortality on Our Minds
Death happens. We ignore it, if we can. When we can’t, as is in the case of celebrities like Sridevi or a loved one, we rush deep into denial, frantically looking for scapegoats to explain the freak occurrence. And then we move on.
Posted inPop Culture
Why Madhuri Dixit Overshadows Bucket List
In the Marathi film Bucket List, Madhuri Dixit plays the sweet vahini from a regular upper-caste Maharashtrian Puneri neighbourhood. What happens when Bollywood’s most famous diva lands in an industry in the midst of a beautiful churn? Her stardom becomes a stumbling block.
Posted inBollywood
From Yash Chopra, With Love: The Man Who Convinced India Dil Toh Pagal Hai
Here’s the thing about Yash Chopra – despite the cliché that he is associated with, he never could be pinned down to a stereotype. Even as he defined the romantic canon, he went about redefining it with each film. Chopra was to India what Mills & Boon was for the rest of the world.
Posted inPop 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.
Posted inBollywood
28 Years of Lamhe: Bollywood Could Do with More Heroes Like Anil Kapoor’s Viren
Yash Chopra’s Lamhe is not “ahead of its time” for daring to show a salt-and-pepper Viren falling for a barely legal Pooja. What makes it unique, to me at least, is the man’s intense internal struggle, self-flagellation, and multiple desperate efforts to not act on the impulse. How often have we seen a hero who doesn’t feel entitled to the affections of the woman his heart desires?
Posted inPop Culture
Tumhari Sulu and the Real Housewives of India
The solitary afternoon of the homemaker is a deeply interesting space. And that is what Vidya Balan’s Tumhari Sulu delves into. It’s the only time of the day most housewives acknowledge the loneliness they harbour.
Posted inBollywood
30 Years of ChaalBaaz: The Sridevi Classic is Proof that Good Comedy Has Nothing to Do with Gender
ChaalBaaz is not a Rajinikant movie or a Sunny Deol movie. It’s instead a Sridevi movie. She is indeed the superstar, the good old “Michaeli Jacksoni”, who single-handedly drives the movie through her impeccable comic timing.
Posted inBollywood
So Long and Thank You for the Laughs, Sridevi
Heralded as Bollywood’s first “female superstar” in the 80s’, Sridevi was also Bollywood’s first heroine-comedienne. She taught us that it was okay for girls to be funny, that they could make you laugh.