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Home
Arts & Culture
Cinema
CINE-POLITICS
Thalapathy Vijay’s grand political entry stumbles on basic ideological contradictions
His attempt to merge inclusive “Dravidam” philosophy with exclusive “Tamil nationalism” reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of Dravidian politics.
Ilangovan Rajasekaran
Book Review
Safdar Hashmi’s transformative approach to theatre as a democratic force
Through plays like Hatyare and Aurat, Hashmi tackled communalism and gender issues while building an inclusive, collaborative artistic practice.
A. Mangai
CINEMA
Could watching a movie change your political views?
Watching a docufilm about a wrongly convicted man boosted empathy towards incarcerated people, according to a new scientific study.
Deutsche Welle
The Big Screen
Charlie Chaplin: Keeping a comedy genius in business
The Chaplin Office in Paris is the guardian of the film icon’s legacy. Decades after his death it is busier than ever.
Deutsche Welle
News Analysis
Baba, Bollywood, Bishnoi: A Mumbai murder mystery
As the Assembly election approaches, a powerful ex-minister is gunned down for his “closeness” to a Bollywood superstar. Or was it a real estate feud?
Amey Tirodkar
Counter Culture
Can a film be progressive if it is too subtle?
Circumventing censorship with minor tricks doesn’t make a film progressive; it merely turns the capacity to evoke pity into an artistic virtue.
Prathyush Parasuraman
Art
Mind’s eye: How O.P. Sharma’s pictorialist approach and innovative darkroom methods redefined photography
Sharma’s retrospective at Triveni Kala Sangam showcases a career that transformed photography from documentation to high art.
Trisha Gupta
More stories from Cinema
Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024): The Rhodes scholar who became Nashville’s rebel poet
Kristofferson’s dual career as a respected songwriter and Hollywood actor cemented his status as a cultural icon who lived life on his own terms.
Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay
Bollywood’s shallow realism
Hindi cinema’s current embrace of realism isn’t inclusive. It shows the same power structures as before, just dressed up as middle-class stories.
Prathyush Parasuraman
Hema Committee report can be a catalyst for structural change in Malayalam cinema
The report’s release could facilitate the overhaul of workplace practices and address long-standing issues concerning women in all film industries.
Thulasi K. Raj
The conspiracy of silence in Tamil and Kannada film industries
Hardly innocent of sexual abuse, they now face pressure to reform as the Hema Committee report forces uncomfortable truths into the spotlight.
Subha J. Rao
Telugu cinema: A male stranglehold
A 2019 committee studied gender bias and sexual harassment in an industry controlled by patriarchal caste groups, but the report remains unpublished.
Ayesha Minhaz
Lights, camera, litigation: Hema Committee report spotlights Malayalam cinema’s gender battleground
The precarity of women and other marginalised communities in Malayalam cinema reflects Kerala’s hierarchical, feudal, and patriarchal society.
Aparna Eswaran,
Silpa Satheesh,
Arathi P.M.
Editor’s Note: A powerful, defining moment
The Hema Committee Report shows there is hope that the omertà enforced by powerful men in the film industry will be broken.
Vaishna Roy
Pushing feminism’s frontiers in Kerala
From movie sets to courtrooms, educated women are transforming gender norms in Kerala, bringing to light the limits of institutional or state feminism
J. Devika
It cannot get dirtier, it can only get cleaner: Bina Paul
National Award-winning editor and WCC co-founder believes that the feudal mindset existing in certain sections of the Malayalam film industry must go.
R.K. Radhakrishnan
Vijay’s GOAT is a film overburdened by its star
While this is not unusual for star films, what is exceptional is the limits to which GOAT stretches this.
Prathyush Parasuraman
It’s all about power and the entitlement to misuse it: actor Sreelekha Mitra
Actor speaks about rampant sexual harassment in Indian cinema, its normalisation across regional industries, and her personal encounters with abuse.
Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay
It cannot get dirtier, it can only get cleaner: Bina Paul
The National Award-winning editor believes that the feudal mindset existing in certain sections of the Malayalam film industry must go.
R.K. Radhakrishnan
SHOW MORE
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