Almost a week after its release, I finally watched the much-hyped Dhurandhar. Better late than never, especially when a film insists on occupying 3.5 hours of one’s life, presumably in the national interest. I broadly agree with Arfa Khanum Sherwani’s analysis and with other suitably ‘unbiased’ reviewers who have identified Dhurandhar for what it is…
There is no shortage of achievements that we Indians like to flaunt. The third largest producer of salt. Fourth-largest economy. First in WhatsApp forwards per capita. And now, if that meme with Kanhaiya Kumar’s beaming face is to be believed, we have secured the global gold medal in manufacturing traitors. A proud moment, surely. The…
Rahul Gandhi never misses a chance to target Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, usually as proxies for Narendra Modi. In his narrative, the two businessmen are bad guys who grew rich with government support. When the Hindenburg report surfaced, Rahul seized it like a gift from the heavens – demanding parliamentary debate, alleging corruption, and…
IndiGo did not shut down; it simply behaved like a Jaspal Bhatti episode that forgot to end with laughter. In Bhatti’s 1990s skit ‘S.O.S Airlines’, he is a baggage handler, a reservation clerk, a check-in guy, and a pilot. He keeps changing shirts and reappearing, a one-man airline with bad tailoring and worse planning. Complaint…
When Vladimir Putin, who has survived the Cold War, oligarchs, sanctions, and Western op-eds, decides to shower praise, he does it with the ease of a man signing an execution order: cold, clipped, and with devastating clarity. Yet, when asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Russian president practically turned wistful, declaring that ‘India got…
The government’s sudden retreat from its demand that every new smartphone must come factory-fitted with the Sanchar Saathi app is being sold as a magnanimous gesture in the face of ‘wide user acceptance’. In truth, it is an escape from a clumsy plan that provoked the sort of alarm usually caused by unknown numbers promising…
There he stands in the House, striking a pose that suggests he has just wandered in from a protein shake commercial. The white polo shirt is stretched to its limits, bravely clinging on as if participating in its own trust vote. Gone is the trademark khadi kurta – the last surviving reminder of an era…
The first thing I saw on my morning Facebook dive was a beaming Kunal Kapoor wishing himself a happy birthday from a lamp post in Mumbai. A celebrity garlanding himself on public property is not new in this country; what was new is that Kapoor did it knowingly, deliberately, and, to his credit, hilariously. Hoardings…
If political irony needed a brand ambassador, Prashant Kishor has just walked onto the stage, shook hands with the audience, and dissolved his own organisation before delivering the keynote. Jan Suraaj, the grand experiment that was supposed to usher in ‘good governance’, has now been swept away like monsoon water, swiftly and silently. After polling…
Rahul Gandhi has a remarkable talent for turning elections into performance art. His latest Bihar escapade took him on a literal ‘fishing expedition’, leaping into the water from a boat in the hope of catching fish with the locals. The optics were all there – the cameras, the choreographed spontaneity, the trademark earnestness – but…
