カテゴリー: Bollywood
Karan Johar-produced film about Vikram Batra, who died in the 1999 India-Pakistan conflict, promotes him as a model citizen – with model looks to bootHot on the heels of Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, last year’s biopic of one of the hardier combatant…
A series of big films this year will focus on Indian military conflicts with Pakistan, reflecting an escalation of political belligerenceIndia’s military will take a starring role this summer. On 12 August, in time for Independence day on the 15th, Ama…
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s film has high ambition but dodges complexity in favour of overheated melodramaPartly set in the Mumbai underworld, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s boxing drama aims at Raging Bull grit but has an unfortunately irresistible drift tow…
The actor, who has died at 98, gave expression to the intense cultural complexities raised as independence met modernity – with respect, depth and subtletyRarely do Narendra Modi and Imran Khan agree, but the death of Indian film great Dilip Kumar unit…
Star of Indian cinema who pioneered method acting in BollywoodThe veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who has died aged 98, was the pioneer of method acting in Bollywood. The early Indian film industry had drawn its acting traditions from the stage, and the exp…
The star was a defining figure in post-independence Indian cinema and was one of the country’s first method actorsBollywood legend Dilip Kumar, who was a defining figure in post-independence Indian cinema, has died aged 98.Kumar had been taken to hospi…
From Mumbai noir to plantation Macbeth, Kerala’s more dynamic and independent-driven industry is responding urgently to the pandemicThe first occurrence of Covid-19 in India was officially recorded on 30 January last year in the city of Thrissur in the…
Balan excels as a resolute forest officer battling sexism and corruption, as well as nature, in the latest satirical thriller from Newton director Amit V MasurkarAfter the success of his 2017 political black comedy Newton, director Amit V Masurkar once…
Why use the door, Salman? Bollywood megastar goes back to basics, pummelling everything in sight including narrative cohesionWhat was originally scheduled as India’s big Eid blockbuster for May 2020 is opening a year later in cinemas everywhere but Ind…
Upper-caste actor playing Dalit politician Mayawati shown dishevelled and holding broom in publicity for new filmA picture of a woman holding a broom. Anywhere else, the image might pass unnoticed. But in India the poster for the film Madam Chief Minis…
The streaming giants are making bold TV shows but the threat of censorship looms largeThis year’s Emmy awards, one of the biggest nights in global television, was particularly historic for India. It was the second year in a row that several Indian tele…
Dhawan casts his son Varun in the role made famous in 1995 by Govinda, but little effort has been made to acknowledge the quarter-century sinceIt’s a tale of two Bollywoods this Christmas. Over at Netflix, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, repre…
Anurag Kashyap kidnaps the daughter of Anil Kapoor in a mock-doc thriller that skewers India’s showbiz sceneAfter an undistinguished pandemic year, Indian cinema closes out 2020 with a postmodern surprise, at once nifty and nasty. Shot under the radar,…
Bad-apple politicians put the squeeze on a hapless secretary in this tired pile of vengeful ghost mayhem Censorship may have been an issue in the past, but it’s striking how few horror films Indian commercial cinema has produced relative to those from …