Message Is In The Medium

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

It started with  Simmba , I believe, that Indian audiences began venting out frustration through revenge drama-comedies. (Dramedies?) It was triumphantly carried forward by  Uri: The Surgical Strike . The trend of the protagonist with all his swagger avenging injustice is toxic. The injustice, in the plot, is also what our hero decides and revenge, of course, is justice. It is a one-man show (reflecting politics, maybe). This trend furthers in upcoming Amitabh Bachchan starrer  Badla . Read: Is Uri: The Surgical Strike a propaganda film. (Movie Review) Read: Simmba- The great Indian aspiration of bullying. (Movie Review) There isn't anything wrong particularly in the movies due to their revenge theme. It is reflection of the society after all. But the trend in itself is quite dangerous. It speaks of the general anger and frustration in us all. Considering the earlier two movies were little more than escapist crowd pleasers, the state of people is all the...

Skimming through popular news and avoiding rampant hateful opinions, I stumbled upon a trivial news about filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia. He found grand success of films like  Total Dhamaal  worrying. Tigmanshu Dhulia has directed films like  Paan  Singh  Tomar  and  Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster.  He played the famous Ramadhir Singh in Anurag Kashyap's crime opus  Gangs of Wasseypur . It seemed unlikely an artist of that statute be jealous of a fellow filmmaker's talent. Yes, he could be jealous of a fellow filmmaker's bank balance, of course. So, I dug in. You see, I need to give out a long introduction for Tigmanshu Dhulia. He is not famous enough. Though, this could be a reason for him to crib about  Total Dhamaal , it surely was reason enough for the news portal to not give him even 200 words to explain his side. Nevertheless, it got me thinking. He says success of such films talk of poor state of the audiences. Poor state. Not poor taste...

Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul on Koffee with Karan Ever since Hardik Pandya appeared on  K offee  with  Karan , the opinion outlets have overflowed with opinions on feminism and social patenting. The cricketer's unrestrained confessions of his own life have tingled the debate on morality for celebrities. Why talk about it? While most outraged social warriors find Pandya's comments sexist, they don't have much issue with what he does in his private life. In fact, they appreciate the "all-rounder" for having safe sex. Their isn't even a problem with him having multiple sexual partners as long as it is consensual. The hidden sneaky sexism lies in  talking  about it. This is bizarre. Weren't we fighting for movies like  Lipstick Under My Burka  just last year which  showcased women owning and expressing their sexuality? Can we not see the social parenting that prohibited women from expressing themselves is at work here? Or is it because w...