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Beyond The Reel

Panchayat to Laapataa—villages on OTT are Gandhian simplicity or Ambedkar’s den of ignorance

From quiet feminism in Laapataa Ladies to TVF’s smash hit Panchayat, a nostalgia-infused Indian rural landscape has found a firm footing in the world of OTT viewership.

Why’s Bollywood obsessed with Tawaifs? ‘Heeramandi’ brings back the stereotypes

According to Pakistani film critic Omer Adil, filmmakers of the subcontinent have created a fantasy chimaera, a celluloid courtesan, which has nothing to do with tawaifs.

Why’s Bollywood obsessed with Vijay Mallya? Neeyat, Crew tap into a lingering fantasy

Crew trains its guns on Mallya from the get-go – showcasing his famous ‘gift packs’ and ‘welcome videos’, and dressing its on-screen stewardesses in Kingfisher-like red uniforms.

Bastar to Article 370—Bollywood propaganda movies boosting BJP soft power

As the country hurtles toward the general election, more propaganda films are set to follow: Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra, The Sabarmati Report, and Emergency.

Bollywood shows violence & pain but does it understand grief? It’s beginning to

Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi explores the aftermath of loss, Pagglait shows how death and grief don’t always go hand in hand while Goodbye delves into a dysfunctional family’s coping mechanisms.

With 12th Fail, Bollywood discovers Mukherjee Nagar stories. Classes, clamour, commerce

12th Fail shows a Hindi-medium aspirant in the world of elite English-speaking competitors moulded for sarkari naukri—and the deep-seated biases that lay in between.

Bollywood boomers never had it so good. Scripts making Neena Gupta, Shabana Azmi young

The ground-breaking character this year is Ammaji in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Khufiya. She is a smart inversion of the usual sanskari, satsang-going Bollywood mother.

Dirty talk to self-love — Thank You For Coming finally gets women-centric films right

The script by Radhika Anand and Prashasti Singh is complemented by Boolani’s directorial skill, which never panders to the male gaze.

In Vivek Agnihotri’s The Vaccine War, heroes are not the focus. Villains matter more

The film conveniently glosses over the plight of doctors, offering the simplistic view that one vaccine solved all of the administrative problems India suffered during the Covid crisis.

SRK changed from Pathaan to Jawan. It shows North-South divide in patriotic action films

Atlee and Shah Rukh Khan came out with blazing guns in Jawan to show Bollywood how a massy and political movie is done.

On Camera

Can Syria’s tiny Druze minority survive West Asia’s new storms? There’s little hope

Indians see West Asia as one uninterrupted wash of Islam, but the reality is more complex. For the Druze, support from Israel—where they are a recognised minority—is now critical.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

Not just AK-203, India & Russia to jointly manufacture AK-19 and PPK-20 for domestic use and export 

India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.

Strategic partner one day, tactical nightmare the next: India’s learning Trumplomacy the hard way

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.