As film critic, I have noticed that filmmakers - directors, producers, stars, actors - most of them, do not take kindly to any kind of negative comment in reviews of their films. There was an article in the edit page of SCREEN on this recently. My question is - why? We live [...]

Do you fiddle with your Blackberry when a film is running on screen? Do you discuss the price of stocks and shares when Kareena and Shahid Kapoor are romancing in Jab We Met? Did you ever pick up a fight with your girlfriend/boyfriend for everyone to listen to when Race in racing on the screen [...]

Recently, I was invited as ‘celebrity guest’ by a Bengali channel to participate in its daily cookery show. No one was more surprised than I. I do not consider myself remotely linked to the word ‘celebrity’ in a subjective sense though my profession makes me rub shoulders with celebrities every day. So, I asked myself [...]

I am just back from a gruelling ten-day Fellowship workshop on CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT - FEMINIST CROSSINGS organised by the Jadavpur University’s Department of Women’s Studies.

The workshop was held at Lataguri, right in the midst of Gorumara Wildlife Sanctuary in North Bengal. The environment was lush, green and very romantic. So, having to discuss, [...]

Where does one draw the line between journalism and public relations (pr) in the film industry? I am really confused after having spent a good 30 years as a film journalist. I experienced this schizophrenia among several Mumbai journalists many summers ago. But it was not as brazen as it is in Kolkata. You really wouldn’t [...]

I do not quite care for the word probashi prefixed to my Bengali identity. It is a heavy, emotional and cultural baggage I have been carrying, much against my wishes, all my life. For me, probashi is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. The Mumbaiyya Bengalis consider me a traitor because I migrated to [...]

Bengali cinema has never seen such a flood of releases within one year as it did in 2008. The year marks a record for new talents, new directors, young producers, a new genre of ensemble films, a few off-beat films, a few films for children, an animation film and films in languages other than Bengali but [...]

I was born, bred and educated in Mumbai. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai have shaken me completely and I find it difficult to concentrate on my work today. I am shell-shocked with the visuals the television news channels are showing round the clock and am deeply concerned about the total decay in the administrative and [...]

Cold shoulders. Plastic smiles cut-and-pasted from glossy toothpaste ads. See-through eyes. Smouldering looks. Conversations generously peppered with names like Bunuel, Godard, Fellini, Zanussi and of course, Elisio Subiela. The Nandan air rife with cigarette smoke that smarts our eyes before we can elbow into Nandan 1. Space dotted with video cameras from the numerous satellite [...]