Telugu actor Sivaji did not set out to offend women. He set out to lecture them. And in today’s India, that distinction matters little. Both end the same way – with outrage, official notices, and a carefully worded apology. What he offered was not an argument but a sermon, a prescription instead of reflection. In…

Rahul Gandhi does not merely want to lead India. He believes he is entitled to rule it. The entitlement clearly is hereditary. His grandmother, Indira Gandhi, once believed that power was not something to be exercised but something to be possessed. When power went to Indira’s head, the Constitution was treated like an inconvenient speed-breaker,…

Fifty years on, Sholay still refuses to age. In fact, with Sholay: The Final Cut, it seems determined to stay young for another fifty. The 4K restoration with Dolby 5.1 sound does not merely preserve a classic; it revives it – frame by frame – into something that feels both archival and alive. I have…

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…