Dispensing unsolicited opinions since 2004
There was a time in the 80s and 90s when tariffs dominated national discourse. The World Trade Organization and the World Bank aggressively pushed globalization, the notion that goods and services would move freely across national boundaries as a win-win for both the rich and the poor. The resistance to this globalization agenda mainly came Continue reading Trump Tarrific
As a connoisseur of cringe, I have, over the years, kept a watchful eye on the Bangladeshi film industry: be it buxom dames charging at hanging tomatoes to the tune of My youth is like a red tomato, squeeze it and bring out the juice, but a few days later or Ananta Jalil reaching inside his Continue reading On What Is Happening in Bangladesh
One of the world s most persistent narrative tropes is that of the hero s journey. The hero, as a boy, bides his time, unaware of his calling, be it Frodo or Neo or Harry Potter or Luke Sky Walker, till he meets a mentor, be it Gandalf or Morpheus or Dumbledore or Obi-Wan Kenobi, who teaches Continue reading The Hero s Journey
Mumbai Indians: If the owners of Mumbai Indians could get Rihanna to dance at their pre-wedding, after her tweeting against them, make the three Khans lock steps together like marionettes on a string of cash, and leave Mark Zuckerberg to feel like yuppie middle class out-flexed by their richer cousins on the basis of the Continue reading IPL 2024: How The Teams Stack Up
Dhruv Rathee, India s premier Youtube content creator, recently posted a video titled Is India Becoming A Dictatorship? (The answer he provides is Yes ). That video garnered 6 million views in a day, numbers a Shahrukh Khan movie trailer would be envious of. Now, I usually do not take it upon myself to react to videos Continue reading On Dhruv Rathee s Video
There was once a Marxist scholar by the name of Gramsci. According to him, one of the biggest reasons why there had not been a revolution of the working classes, in the way prophecied by Marx and Lenin, was popular culture. Instead of spreading awareness about inequities and rousing the violent tendencies of the downtrodden, Continue reading Animal the Review
Losses in the World Cup are difficult to forget. When you win, you get swept up by the emotion of it all; the players become legends, and the plays become history, and it s all very kinetic, like first love. Defeats are different; they settle in like a bad flu, a long Covid of regret, and Continue reading The World Cup Defeat
Is Jawan a good film worth watching? If you even dare to ask this question, then you obviously aren t the target audience of this movie. Jawan is like the highlights package of a T20 game shorn of all superficialities of story, progression, and characterization, with every second of its running length devoted to creating a Continue reading Jawan: The Review
[Some mild spoilers] I am not what you would call a Nolan fanboy. I might have been once. But over the years, I have grown increasingly tired of Christopher Nolan as a director. That is because he, in my opinion, has taken his audience for granted. He has eschewed the telling of a story in Continue reading Oppenheimer: The Review
Now that I have seen Pathaan on Amazon Prime, I shall first doff my cap and give a salute to those who bought tickets and went to see Pathaan in the theaters as a form of protest, your own personal resistance to the Hindu majoritarian fascist-nationalist-patriarchic government and their supporters. Your contribution to the collection Continue reading Pathaan the Review