Culture
A tale of two horrors: poop and aliens
I saw this tweet yesterday:
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Culture
Notes on 'Avengers: Endgame' (spoiler alert)
At the outset, I had a great time watching the film. It ticked all the boxes of an all-round entertainer. What follows are some specific thoughts I had of the film that shouldn't be construed as criticism or as gratuitous suggestions to 'improve' the film in
Culture
The fiction of men
After you find out that a male writer has been a lesser person than you thought he was, have you found it harder to read and appreciate his work? I bet you have. I'm sure it's the case with female, rather non-male, writers too but most
Culture
Fantasy and pseudoscience in Rajinikanth's '2.0'
Rajinikanth's film 2.0, which released last year, was recently uploaded on Amazon Prime and I finally watched it in its entirety. It is a dumpster-fire of masculinity, sexism and misogyny, which is not surprising after Petta was what it was. 2.0 also goes one step further
Culture
Poisoned trees bear poisonous fruits
Of late, there has been a clutch of Tamil films that have endeavoured to show the Hindu right-wing in poor light, associating its rituals with violence and oppression. The two most notable examples are Kaala and Petta, both starring Rajinikanth. Kaala was a modern adaptation of the Ramayana but told
Culture
Star Wars and the dynastic principle
Late last week, I picked up Ram Guha's Patriots and Partisans. I know shamefully little about India's modern political history – before and after Independence – certainly beyond the virtual borders of its scientific and technological endeavours. And to someone as receptive to new ideas on this front
Culture
Lord of the Rings Day
A happy Lord of the Rings Day to you! March 25 is celebrated as such around the world (though not by too many people, I imagine) to commemorate what still endures as an excellent work of epic fantasy as well as – by its fans – to commemorate Frodo's destruction
Culture
Singin' in the rain, Vadivelu version
Stanley Donen, who co-directed the famous 1952 Hollywood film Singin' in the Rain with Gene Kelly, passed away on February 21. Though it released to moderate success at first, the film went on to become a cult classic. The titular song, first composed in 1929 and which "inspired&
Culture
Are we obsessed with nominal identities?
In an interview to The Wire Science last month, Venki Ramakrishnan, the molecular biologist, acknowledged that Indians had a bizarre relationship with the fact that he was a Nobel laureate: I’d left India when I was 19 I gave a lecture in honour of G.N. Ramachandran in 2008
Culture
A tribute to Tolkien
Instead of dismissing it with a gracious modesty, I'm going to shamelessly record for posterity that The Master quoted in Anand Venkateswaran's essay on J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hindu Literary Review is yours truly. The full text of my quote to Anand, who is
Culture
Character development in DnD
In all the DnD games I’ve played, I’ve felt there’s a tension between allowing the story to progress and the characters all helping each other participate in that progression. For example, we as players play a game because we want to enact a story even while we
Culture
Mongolian folk rock
An online culture zine called Phantom Sway just discovered Mongolian folk rock and can't stop raving about it (I found the article because 3 Quarks Daily picked up on it). What the superficial review fails to mention is the depth of this genre – like all genres – and restricts