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DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU CONSUME??

Citizenship Amendment Act: From the eyes of an atheist

Imagine a world where you get to enter Cafe Coffee Day only if you are a fan of Marvel comics. If you were into the Disney movies, you are welcome, even fondness for Japanese anime and K-Pop would do, but follow DC comics and you are not welcome. That is something on the lines of the recent Citizenship Amendment Act the Indian government just passed in both the houses of the Indian parliament. What it says, what it means... The Act says that certain refugees on the Indian soil belonging to certain beliefs and hailing from specific locations are welcome as citizens in the Indian republic but others are not. The Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Parsis specifically from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are welcome in India but not the same communities from Sri Lanka, Myanmar or China, and Muslims from absolutely nowhere. It is the first time when the Indian Parliamentarians openly told the world that you must believe in certain stories before you dream
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Article 15 trailer: does the anti-casteist argument work?

I recently saw the trailer of upcoming Anubhav Sinha film, Article 15 . It seems like a film exposing caste realities prevalent in our society- not that our society can be termed as one, rather a bunch of overlapping mixes of cultures- through the eyes of a somewhat outsider policeman played by Ayushmann Khurrana. It got me thinking. Does this narrative work. Of course Anubhav Sinha’s previous similar attempt to showcase society’s(bunch of overlapping mixes of cultures) communal underbelly did work for him and his film Mulk did make money, as i am told. But does that movie and this new one really put forward a convincing argument for the anti-communal or anti-casteist ideologies? I think, not. Both the films by Anubhav Sinha, Mulk and Article 15 (judgement on Article 15 is based on the trailer only, so could become off the point once the movie releases) appeal to the pity of those who benefit from the communal and casteist differences. The movies talk of how difficult the
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Inception: The Dream Is Real

Christopher Nolan’s Inception has emerged as one of the most favorite film of millennial nerds. The uniqueness of the film lies in the fact that it features in the list of indie mind bending thrillers and top-grossing mainstream sci-fi films at the same time. On one hand it is in league with movies like Predestination, Primer, The Man From Earth , etc. and simultaneously enjoys following like Star Trek , and superhero films. Since the day of its release, Inception has been analyzed and re-analyzed time and again. Its world and characters have long been subjects of debate, not to mention the cliffhanger climax, which have provided nerds with ample mental boners. But what I feel keep missing the discourse is why Nolan finds this story worth telling. What is the moral of this story. What is the dream world really about? Does it have a real-world counterpart? Is it possible that it exists solely for itself and has absolutely no reflection on the pop culture? Of course, it does. It i
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The Real Reason Why TikTok Is Banned

Recently we all found out that the Madras High Court banned TikTok application because it is indecent for children and it connects vulnerable impressionable kids to lurking sexual predators. If you read closely, the same argument applies to internet as whole and might even be used to ban internet as well. TikTok, not any more complex than Instagram or Dubsmash still gets a ban unlike the other applications simply for its content and not the company policy. It's like overthrowing democracy in India because there are too many corrupt politicians. But this is not really the first time that we have had such an approach to our problems. This really is the Indian way of dealing with any issue. The solution to every problem. Don’t talk about it. Ban it. We have caste discrimination in our country. A section of people are humiliated for what their ancestors did as a livelihood. So much that names of communities have been equated with swear words. How did we solve the problem? We
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No Celebration For The Festival Of Democracy

The election fever is soaring in the country with no one but politicians and media people going crazy over the supposed festival of democracy. Though they always find a reason to bellow through microphones, the season of election gives them a particularly bizarre energy. The powerful become vulnerable and the forbidden questions resurface. For the past one month I am being bombarded with advertisements and promises of Utopian worlds and fears of broken ones. I get calls from Arvind Kejriwal himself telling me what my problems are; Narendra Modi hopefully looks at me with innocent eyes from every web-page that I open. Suddenly everyone is a well-wisher. As an example, someone allegedly(they told me) from Aam Aadmi Party called me to inform me about my name being struck off the electoral roll. Though I was skeptic from the beginning, I played along and asked what I should do. The person at the other end told me not to worry in a completely mechanical tone, as if he had said the s
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Why No One Reads The Constitution

Recently, I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series, and incidentally found out that the Constitution of India is less than half of the length of the fantasy novel. This piqued my curiosity and I wondered why more people do not read the Indian Constitution; why is it such a feared document and left only for the evil group of people who academically study law. Of course Indian people were never fond of reading and the times of literary dominance in Indian culture dates back to days when not much was really written and all literary works were composed orally and passed through spoken words. But even the tiny reading community of India shies away from the document defining and describing the rights of the citizens. I tried to look into the reasons why it is not a readable book for Indians. The Indian Constitution is accepted to be the longest constitution in the world. That might seem a daunting fact but the document is nowhere a tome, standing
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Kesari Movie Review: Immense Nationalism, No Soul

Nationalism in film is nothing new to be appreciated or criticized. But what is lacking in discourse is the analysis of this film nationalism. Why haven't anyone as of yet attempted to trace a pattern to this sort of Indian film making? Are we afraid? Or are we really this “nationalistic”? Well we do cry when are soldiers die? That must mean something. Shouldn't it? Kesari is the newest addition in our long list of tear jerking patriotic cinema. And I don't write this sarcastically. Kesari is patriotic. And a few other things as well. Although the plot and dialogues try everything they have to prove that 36 Sikh regiment of the British Indian army did not fight on British orders to protect British forts but to prove their valour and worth and the great sacrificing spirit of the community, the songs talk of teri mitti mein mil jaavan and the sacrifice of the soldier. Pretty much what nationalism is about in its entirety. Interestingly, the songs reflect the
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