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Wednesday, August 6, 2025
TopicBeyond the Reel

Topic: Beyond the Reel

Long before Mahsa Amini, Iranian cinema has fought hijab in small rebellions

From Abbas Kiarostami to Rakshan Bani-Etemad and Mania Akbari, for Iranian filmmakers it has been a carefully choreographed waltz of rebellion against stifling hijab rules.

India has no TV, OTT content for its nearly 50 crore GenZs. It’s still a millennial machine

From Rang De Basanti to TVF, millenials saw entire industries represent them in pop culture. For Gen Z, we have only scratched the surface.

The eyes, chico, they never lie — It’s Shefali Shah’s era and we are just living it

In a world of male character actors in OTT, be it Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi or Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shefali Shah has quietly blazed her way to the top.

If Tolkien’s work is the Bible, then Amazon Prime’s ‘Rings of Power’ is a litany of sins

Rings of Power is glorified fan fiction with a multi-million dollar budget.

Rajinikanth to Dhanush, how Tamil stars have portrayed politics of ‘freebies’

In his 1993 film Valli, 'Superstar' Rajinikanth urged crowds to diss freebies and ask for employment.

R. Madhavan is slowly fashioning himself as the Akshay Kumar of the south

Madhavan is fast walking into a political hall of fame inhabited by stars such as Kangana Ranaut and Akshay Kumar.

Modi, Ajit Doval are firing up movie and show plots too – FIR, Uri, Shoorveer

FIR is an example of getting things right in a national security-based thriller. The PM and NSA are not cardboard cutouts.

After Mammootty and Mohanlal, who? Fahadh Faasil is the new poster boy of Malayalam cinema

Fahadh Faasil won’t play your garden-variety hero. He’s bending the norms, creating his own multiverse and getting pan-Indian acclaim.

Gangs of Wasseypur ended plastic NRI dramas. Gritty small towns have ruled Bollywood since

Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur introduced audiences to masterful storytelling in small-town India and foreshadowed the raw creative OTT boom.

‘People’s man’ of Tamil cinema Vijay Sethupathi never plays a character. He becomes them

In Sethupathi's latest film 19(1)(a), his character is silenced by a bullet. But the actor is much like the film—he speaks only through his performances.

On Camera

The court is not Rahul Gandhi’s uncle. Its job is to protect rights, not preach

Which humanitarian crisis should be prioritised, which words are ‘simple’ enough to avoid hurt feelings, or who is a ‘true Indian’, are not questions warranting court input.

BJP MPs go full throttle against Trump even as govt hails enduring India-US ties amid tariff tension

New Delhi: While the Indian government has made a measured response to the 25 percent trade tariff imposed by Donald Trump, many in the BJP...

Trump feared India could arm BrahMos with nuclear warhead to target Pakistan in Op Sindoor—WSJ report

New Delhi: During Operation Sindoor, the United States which had received intelligence suggesting that India had launched BrahMos cruise missiles to strike targets inside...

Pakistan, Dhaka have played Washington well. Back home, Modi ecosystem has an inner conflict

To protect ourselves from Trumpian diplomacy, first we must introspect the bipolarity within our establishment discourse.