Hachette’s The Bollywood Pocket Book Series, A 4-in-1 Set, by Diptakirti Chauduri: Get set Yes, it’s a pun. I mean you should get the set, buy the book, or rather, books. They look deceptively thin when ensconced in the hardcover box, but provide a substantial reading once you pull them out. Book one is about Iconic Dates, with Raj Kapoor and Nargis on the cover, under an umbrella. The author reminds us about the calendar of events that begin with Raja Harishchandra’s releas...

After Govinda, Varun Dhawan now launches another Dehati Disco song Ganesh Acharya and Varun Dhawan share a great camaraderie and the duo have always given good hits. In fact, Acharya, who is respectfully addressed as MasterJee, has choreographed more than 50 songs for Varun’s father, editor-director David Dhawan, during the early days of his career. Showing his support and love towards MasterJee, Varun recently paid a visit to The Club, at D.N. Nagar, in North Mumbai, on 11 May, and di...

Jabariya Jodi, First look: Swinging infection Jodi, literally, means a pair, in Urdu and Hindi. It also refers to husband and wife. Jabar or jabr is force, and jabariya, by extension, means forced or forcibly formed. So, we now understand the title of the upcoming film Jabariya Jodi to mean ‘Forced Couple’. As indicated above, the inference here is that the husband and wife were forced into matrimony. Nothing earth-shaking about it, in a country where thousands of such marriages t...

Super 30, Review: Inequality, equality and variable quality Two basic tenets form the paradigm of Super 30: a real-life story about a nondescript do-gooder who is a super achiever must strike a chord with audiences, and, secondly, any tale of a low caste and poverty-stricken protagonist, sacrificing his lady love and filthy lucre for the cause of educating fellow under-privileged ‘untouchables’ in his society, will have them rooting for the unlikely hero. How these doctrines pan o...

MIFF 2018, XVIII: Open Forum No. 4 ...

Siraj Syed reviews Anaarkali of Arrah: Item girl--“Spite ’em girl, Bite ’em girl” Ten minutes into this loud and raw film, you know you will root for the protagonist, an item girl plying her art in Arrah, a small town in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. An item girl is a woman who wears garish costumes, sings, dances, cavorts, titillates and tantalises on stage, to a public, sing-along audience, that joins her full-of-double-entendre lyrics, lusts after her and drool...

The Legend of Michael Mishra, Review: Legender Bender, alias What a Choke! A joke I read as a teenager went like this: After consulting doctor after doctor for two years, a man was unable to find a cure for his eyes popping out and a growing choking feeling. When it became so bad that he was unable to breathe properly, he thought the end was near, and decided to live it up during his last days on earth. So, he went to a tailor to get a new shirt and suit stitched. The tailor took a tape and s...