'Jaffrey played all his roles with a characteristic elan and amiability: He looked like a clever, all-knowing, winking Super Mario, gloriously grey around the edges. Irresistible, really.'
'There's nothing in the 2019 campaign air, the chunavi hawa that tells you it's a wave election, for anyone,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'After being a housewife for 13 years and a mother of three, I was put on stage with Shah Rukh Khan! I was trembling on stage and did not know what to do. From singing bhajans with Anup Jalota, I was doing hip-hop and item songs!' Baby Doll singer Kanika Kapoor tells us her inspirational story.
'No matter how casually his characters treat sex or bare every inch of their extraordinarily fit bodies, Aditya Chopra is too much of a romantic to pull off flippancy as the face of love,' feels Sukanya Verma.
The growth of a credible, objective news media business in India requires political will and a belief in free speech.
Ironically, amid these struggles, interest in these taxi services has grown, as concerns over women's safety have escalated.
A homoeopathic state of mind pervades our thinking in governance and infrastructure-building. Do it in small, harmless doses, but nothing bitter, sharp, or bloody, says Shekhar Gupta.
'No one institution can cleanse it: Not the courts, government or activists.' 'And least of all the Indian Police Service,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP's defeat in Delhi could turn into a larger national swing, but Prime Minister Modi and his party have enough time to tweak the party's policy agenda and project a more humble, secular, and inclusive image, say Ravi Agrawal and Harmeet Shah Singh
Himesh Reshammiya, the only valid reason for Teraa Surroor's existence, does not show any expression. Not even one. Not even a quarter, notes Sukanya Verma.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP's panicky return to basic-instinct majoritarianism in Bihar has pushed Muslims back into the 'secular' basement, says Shekhar Gupta.
'I don't know about being superstar, but one day if I become like Shah Rukh Khan, I will not mind that. If I get the kind of films that I really want to do, and if I manage to survive in this industry, I will become somebody like that.' Sushant Singh Rajput talks movies.
Sukanya Verma revisits Gulzar's Ghalib and finds Barsaat, and Free Love!
Here are some of the top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities...
'There is need to invent another enemy.' 'If you can add Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely.' 'You might even have a 'nation in grave danger' story by the summer of 2019,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Things are off to a good start when a lead movie character appears for the first time against strategic music or swaggering drama and the audience bursts into wholehearted whistles and applause.
Considering that all sides to the game feel being targeted by the BJP-ruled Centre through taxmen and their ED/CBI counterparts, both factions may not rule out the possibility of patching up after a time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'So far the youth were Modi's strength.' 'It now seems under pressure, and for good reason: Crisis in education, jobs, slowdown in manufacturing, and thereby trading,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
'I don't come to the film with an agenda. I come to a film with a story. When the story excites me, I go bonkers.'
Rama Krishna Sangu, partner, Manohar Chowdhry & Associates, Chartered Accountants, and a member of the Indirect Tax Committee of ICAI, fielded readers' questions on GST on Rediff Chat.
'Imagine a situation where an upright officer refuses to carry out a chief minister's or a central minister's orders that he considers wrong.' 'Can he be summarily thrashed at a meeting at your residence, or in his own office?' 'If AAP legitimises political violence, there are many, many, tougher political leaders elsewhere to draw the wrong lessons,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
The proposed ban on cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh may hit luxury goods, jewellery sales and real estate.
Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
'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.'
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
Bollywood inspired weddings, Dharmendra's cringe-worthy attempt at realism, Sridevi and Aishwarya's painful connection and more in Sukanya Verma's Super Filmi Week.
'Modi and Shah know their politics. That is why the alarmed switch to reservations, and raising the threat from 'vote bank' politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
"Will anybody want a servant that who is on vacation when needed at home? And nobody knows where he is," he continued.
'Kishore Kumar lived like a king and knew that he could get away with anything. It's as simple as that.'
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities
Shekhar Gupta's anthology is a valuable addition to our understanding of the seeming muddle that is India... The experience of reading his columns is more like a chat with a friend in the afterglow of an enjoyable drink, but never frivolous, says Shreekant Sambrani.
'The loose use of words like foreigner or Bangladeshis obscures the fact that the post-Partition migration to Assam has been of both Hindus and Muslims.'
From the Aadhaar verdict to #MeToo's arrival in the country to the entry into the Sabarimala temple -- India had a newsworthy 2018. As we step into 2019, these are the top moments from the year gone by.
Indians took to social media to pay their respects.
If you don't have power in a game you are masters of, the world will walk all over you, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'That the commandments to officialdom were issued by a BJP functionary and not a minister is a reflection of the Yogi government's work style.'
