From South Korean treats to internationally acclaimed series to home-grown delights, here are Sukanya Verma's favourite OTT shows of 2021.
This Khan superstar told Gulshan Grover, 'Go ahead, become a star in Hollywood.'
Bhumi Pednekar and Konkona Sen Sharma's ode to sisterhood, Robert Pattinson's amusing accent, Satyajit Ray's many masterpieces, Steven Soderbergh's breakout indie, Mark Ruffalo's good fight -- all this and more on Sukanya Verma's recommendation list on OTT this week.
'Where are the funny writers on Indian television and OTT platforms?' 'Where are the sitcoms?' asks Vanita Kohli Khandekar.
There is a certain wackiness to the narrative and the absurd characters that makes Jackson Durai a tolerable watch, says S Saraswathi.
'The colloquial language forced a turn to the recent past and I thought about the hangings of men like Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon.' 'Whatever their deeds, proven or still in doubt, did their deaths not deserve to be mourned by a sister, wife, or child?' A fascinating excerpt from Amitava Kumar's Writing Badly Is Easy.
Aseem Chhabra picks 10 fascinating films he watched in Macao -- a blend of Asian, independent, Hollywood projects and even a 66-years-old classic Japanese film that still stands the test of time.
Though it is a little too neat and a little too light, Rubaru Roshni is important because it is telling us stories of people who have experienced an 'Inner Migration' in their lives, notes Sreehari Nair.
Faraaz Hossain, 20-year-old, was one such extraordinary human being as he chose to die at the hands of the terrorists rather than leave his friends alone.
'The way the winners react and the speeches they deliver.' 'That is where the fun happens, when the actors and other winners let down their guard, challenge the system, talk about issues that should matter to us,' says Aseem Chhabra.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Kishore Singh on Jean-Michel Basquiat and his worth.
'Any Muslim who shows even the slightest hint of revolutionary thought is marked as 'infected'.' 'At that point, he is taken to the nearest Detention Centre where a procedure called Reconditioning awaits him.' 'Areas with a high Muslim population have been designated as Scheduled Religion Zones.' 'To be an active participant in this social cleansing ritual, there is only one prerequisite: You have to be an undying patriot whose friend and family is his country.'
'The government has said it has kept its powder dry to fight the true battle against the debilitating influence of the pandemic.' 'The release of the shocking economic data this week should act as the fuse for using that powder now.' 'Further delays will make the battle that much harder,' notes Shreekant Sambrani.
By some strange and bizarre twist of fate, Omar Mateen did exactly what he did not intend to do. He took the lives of gay people and made them extraordinary. He infused their stories with a poignancy they might not have possessed otherwise. He enabled the rest of the world to see themselves in their stories, to weep at the sheer waste of lives cut short, says Sandip Roy.
... you won't feel anything either.
When Jaws released in June 1975, it changed the way Americans watch movies, says Aseem Chhabra.
Yudh leaves things a bit too wide open, says Raja Sen.
Barcelona's amazing 6-1 victory over Paris St Germain on Wednesday that sent them through to the Champions League quarter-finals will forever stay in the memories of supporters, coach Luis Enrique said.
Joaquin Phoneix (Joker) and Renne Zellweger (Judy) should keep their fingers crossed, says Kumar Abishek.
Sukanya Verma lists the movies she grabbed at MAMI this year.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Here are our top 10 moments from this year's Oscars.
If the radical Islamic movement had been largely peaceful, Headley would have probably found another way to ensure real life excitement.' 'But I really do believe that his relationship with radical Islam is real. Very real.' 'It was a match for his desires.'
Spotlight is a powerful film, with a terrific ensemble cast, raves Raja Sen.
Images from Day 5 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.
'To me,' says Aseem Chhabra, 'the Golden Globes hold the most meaning as one gets to see stars celebrating, getting emotional, letting their guard down and showing us their regular human side.'
Crimson Peak is not for everyone, but the mood is set very early on, says Raja Sen.
Aseem Chhabra gives us the top films that enriched his year.
Sree Sreenivasan recalls his encounters with the pioneer of sound who passed away on Friday and gives a sense of how many lives he touched -- in big and small ways.
What is going on?! How can an amazing country like India face such highs and lows? Where do these brutes come from? Who are these people who are hijacking the goodness of this country? Who create them? Did we? Can someone please tell me what went wrong with India.
Sreehari Nair is *not* impressed by this lot of films at all.
'How can you blame poor Kabir Khan for the Tubelight fiasco?' 'We know that his Job Description expects him to work below full capacity, to sell his soul, and we know his SOP-sheet has the title: Design the next Salman Khan Project.' Sreehari Nair sees through Kabir Khan's cunning.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
20 years ago this day, May 11, 1998, India conducted its second nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan. In a fascinating interview on Rediff.com, K Subrahmanyam revealed how Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions.
'Sent off to interview him in the late 1970s I met him in a cafe in New Delhi's Regal Building called The Parlour. With impromptu send-ups of Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and the rich, gravelly tones of a well-known All India Radio Hindi newsreader called Devki Nandan Pandey, he soon had the whole restaurant listening in.'
Crackdowns on bloggers often signal the ominous rise of religious fundamentalism
'In Udaan and in Lootera, the initial sensations that drove Vikramaditya Motwane to make those pictures never quite travelled beyond the walls that contained them.' 'Here, in Trapped, this sensations-strangled-by-the-walls feeling becomes the movie's real tune,' says Sreehari Nair.
Brilliant cinema at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, raves Sukanya Verma.
