Dear Mr Spielberg, can we now put to rest this overstretched, bloated dinosaur franchise? asks Aseem Chhabra.
India is shining, although I will argue that it is a temporary acceptance until India once again makes a mega-successful film like RRR or another beautiful, moving, documentary like The Elephant Whisperers, notes Aseem Chhabra.
People move on, get attached to other people, ending a close bond. But we rarely see that on screen, observes Aseem Chhabra.
'Why was Top Gun: Maverick made? 'And the only reason I can think of is that the new film was made to emphasise and re-establish Tom Cruise's superstar status,' notes Aseem Chhabra who watched the Top Gun sequel at its premiere in Cannes.
'I thought of a suppressed country and a free world.' 'If we travel from one to another, what will that road look like?' 'What colours, music there will be? What kind of people would you see?'
'I know all good things have to end someday. But memories, especially film memories are special,' says Aseem Chhabra.
Aseem Chhabra remembers Master Chef Floyd Cardoz who died of coronavirus in New York on Wednesday.
The hits and misses of the week.
It was heartening to see so many women -- young and old, many in hijab and burqa shaking their bodies, raising their arms and singing with complete abandonment.
'I went to a school in Baroda, where if the boys harassed us, the teachers pulled the girls aside and said, "Oh, your skirts are too short".' 'They made us feel ashamed of having any sexual feelings or having bodies that were growing up to be a young women.'
'What the film shows is an India, which was headed in a completely different direction than where we are headed.'
'Once I left my photographs at Ram Gopal Varma's office.' 'I told a friend I was concerned no one had contacted me. My friend said, "Itni jaldi nahin hota idhar. Time lagega".'
'I guess things happen when they have to happen.' 'And the film got delayed by COVID a little bit. But yeah, it's been a decade which I do not regret.' 'I feel like I have grown so much, as an artist, as well as just a human being.' 'So much life experience to channel into films that I think is an advantage almost.'
The hits and misses of the week.
The death of his beloved wife was a blow Shashi Kapoor never recovered from, reveals Aseem Chhabra.
'This was a film, a story that had never been told before.'
Trade analyst Vinod Mirani gives us the weekly verdict.
'When democracy first came to Bhutan people had no idea and they were like 'What is that?' Oh it's that thing they have in India where the leaders are always fighting and arguing.' When I screened the film to Bhutan's film committee, they thought my film was good but they were concerned about that line. They wanted me to change that line. They said, 'We don't want to offend India.' I tried to tell them that Indians have a great ability to laugh at themselves but they insisted I change it.'
One could be anywhere -- huddled around a transistor radio at home in the evenings, walking past a neighbour's house, or waiting at a bus stop and Lata Mangeshkar's voice would reach us. Aseem Chhabra pays rich tribute to The Legend.
'The idea of this movie is to trace these journeys and not to blame.' 'We could have talked what happened in 1948. This is what the Israelis did. This is what the Palestinians and Arabs did.' 'We didn't want to go there.'
The Oscars is prestigious and all artists covet it but ultimately, the business of winning is ruthless and political. And India has seldom risen to the challenge, argues Sukanya Verma.
'I wish I could find a party that could offer the best of the three parties,' best-selling novelist Chetan Bhagat tells Rediff.com's Aseem Chhabra in New York.
Aseem Chhabra on his friend, the firebrand Nepali journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, who was arrested last week. Aseem, who has known Dixit for 35 years, believes the charges are trumped up.
The Oscars are only days away, and Rediff.com's Terrific Trio have already placed their bets.
The documentary released in India on June 6 this year.
'Agra is about sexuality and sexual repression, and the relationship of sexuality to the physical spaces that we are in.'
As 2022 readies to bid adieu, Sukanya Verma raises a toast to the 10 high points of the year.
The hits and misses of the week.
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