Shame: Steve McQueen’s Shame - a deep dive into the psyche of a sex addict had Micheal Fassbender pull off a great effort. The inability to get aroused with romantic partners, the porn-addiction and his eventual spiral towards a violent climax was a gripping watch. Hunger: The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of … Continue reading What I Watched – November 2025
In his lecture on Othello, the critic Harold Bloom has this memorable line: “Shakespeare was the greatest theorist of sexual jealousy the world had ever seen before the advent of Freud and Proust”. While ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ had jealousy as one of its themes, it is in Othello that Shakespeare explores this in all … Continue reading Othello
During my travels earlier this year, Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was the book for the long train journeys. Austen was just nineteen when she wrote the first draft and published it when she was around 35. The book, like most of Austen’s works is a critique of English society during the early nineteenth century. … Continue reading Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’
A Brighter Summer Day: The Taiwanese auteur Edward Yang’s masterpiece was a four hour long drama. I would have enjoyed it better had I seen it in one or maximum two sittings. The story takes place in the early sixties when many families who had fled from mainland China after 1949 were still struggling to … Continue reading What I Watched – September 2025
Last week, I attended a heritage walk in Old Delhi exploring the Thugs of India, organized by Gaurav Sharma from India Heritage Trails. After the walk, I picked up Mike Dash’s ‘Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult’ and learnt quite a bit about this lesser known period of our history. Bandits and highway … Continue reading The Thugs of Hindustan
Coriolanus - a historical figure of Ancient Rome who lived four centuries before Julius Caesar, has a play on his life written by the Bard. Despite it being one of his lesser-known works, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading it. In a nutshell, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is a killing machine, who after winning many a … Continue reading Coriolanus
Julius Caesar (1970): I’ve been on a Roman history reading project for a month. This 1970 star-studded movie was a faithful adaptation of the play. But, the whole Roman setting and the costumes made it a bit too ‘period’ for my taste. Antony and Cleopatra: As in Julius Caesar, Charlton Heston also essays the role … Continue reading What I Watched – August 2025
Thudaram: was too dark for me. Honour killing isn’t a commonly explored theme in Malayalam cinema. The wait for Mohanlal’s magic continues. Shobana, on the other hand was totally wasted in the movie. Also check out this well-argued piece on Middle-Aged Women In Malayalam Cinema Thug Life: The duo that made the greatest gangster movie … Continue reading What I Watched – July 2025
“Two unlikely foes end up in love, and all ends well, after the hero, who is treacherously made to assume that his fiancée is unfaithful, repents when the culprits are caught.” This can be a one-line summary of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. I could easily think of so many Bollywood movies around this plot. … Continue reading Much Ado About Nothing
I’ve been reading up on the Cold War and the Iron Curtain and naturally ended up shortlisting John le Carre’s Karla Trilogy - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – for a reread. While James Bond was dashing, sophisticated, and sensual, le Carre’s George Smiley is a senior retired bureaucrat, cuckolded … Continue reading le Carré’s ‘The Karla Trilogy’
