Essays

Walking

“Is the neck of my top too low, are my breasts moving a lot, is there a bike ready to knock me down, are the neighbours noticing me too much?"

83 and Lessons on Sporting Victories

Kabir Khan’s 83 showcases how a record of the past responds to the cultural context of the present.

Coral Warriors: Keeping Corals from Losing their Colour

An Initiative to understand the recurrent mass bleaching of corals and make diving accessible.

Sir: Of Domestic Workers Who Risk Dreaming And Falling In Love

Rohena Gera’s ‘Sir’, while subverting the popular portrayal of domestic workers in Indian Cinema, is authentic to the core.

On Reboots, Reunions and Manufactured Nostalgia

“As a show or movie completes its run, viewers get to imagine the ending they like best. Reboots risk sinking this imagined ending and the franchise with it.”

MANU JOSEPH’S ‘DECOUPLED’ REVIEWS THE CRITIC

Characters are revived in each episode and the central predicament of the separating couple lives on even as the story makes excursions into Indian political life.

More Misses than Hits: “The Chair” on Cancel Culture

“The show attacks a bunch of little-over-teenage youths who really are the least of cancel culture’s problems, but are the most fashionable to attack.”

‘The Half of It’ and the Language of Love

Alice Wu’s second feature film is about finding the right words.

Lost and Found: A Tale of Goenchi Feni

Capturing the process of making traditional cashew feni in Goa

My Sustainable Wanderlust

What cycling through a never-ending pandemic taught me about eco-travel