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When the going gets tough, we turn to our favourite guilty pleasures. But when entertainment is concerned, is there even any guilt to what gives one pleasure? In our new series Pleasure Without Guilt, we look at pop offerings that have been dissed by the culture police but continue to endure as beacons of unadulterated pleasure. * The years 2000 and 2001 were pretty revelatory to me, and it wasn’t just the hormones or moving to Mumbai that made me feel that way. It was more or so the kind of music that my brothers and I were being put on to, being ever the young and impressionable adolescents surrounded by slightly older kids who were scouring Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire et al for all kinds of music. One of those friends put me on to rock and metal in a big way. Among the biggest rock and metal releases burning up the charts at the turn of the millennium was Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water . I was also getting introduced to artists like Eminem, Link...

Scene Turner is a fortnightly column, in which Devarsi Ghosh looks at literary adaptations on film and television.   *   *Spoilers for Dennis Villeneuve's Dune below* Fifty six years after its publication, Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune has finally had a film adaptation that has worked with critics, fans, and newcomers to the series. The success of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune , starring Timothee Chalamet in the lead role of Paul Atreides, has motivated producers to greenlight a sequel , which was required in any case because the film is an adaptation of exactly one half of the book. How did a novel once considered unfilmable finally become a successful movie? To understand the depth of Villeneuve’s achievement, one has to consider why the novel was thought of as unfilmable, and how Villeneuve found a solution to problems that trapped his predecessors such as master filmmaker David Lynch ,   whose worst film is perhaps his 1984 adaptation of Dune . ...

Veteran actor Yusuf Hussain, who was known for his roles in films such as Dil Chahta Hai, Raees , Dhoom 2 and Vivah , passed away from COVID-19 last night, 29 October. The news of the 73-year-old actor’s demise was confirmed by his son-in-law, director Hansal Mehta. Mehta, who is married to Hussain’s daughter Safeena, penned an emotional note for his late father-in-law, mourning his demise. The Aligarh director said that he is truly an orphan now, and narrated how Hussain had helped him financially for the completion of his film Shahid . The Omerta  helmer added that Hussain was “not my father-in-law but a father," and said he owed his success and new life to him. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVoM2vuMFMe/ Mehta also wrote about his late father-in-law’s affectionate and humbled personality, saying that life would not be the same without him. Hussain’s demise was also mourned by other personalities in the Hindi film industry, who paid tribute to the veteran actor. Actor Mano...

Aryan Khan, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, stepped out of the Arthur Road Jail on Saturday, after spending four weeks in jail. Khan’s release papers had not reached the jail authorities on time on Friday. He had to spend another night in jail after his bail papers missed the 5:30 p.m. deadline yesterday, despite an anxious countdown that went down to seconds. Aryan came out of the prison shortly after 11 am, a day after a special court issued his release memo. According to Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail officials, the procedure for the release of Aryan Khan has been completed. #WATCH Aryan Khan released from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail few weeks after being arrested in drugs-on-cruise case pic.twitter.com/gSH8awCMqo — ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2021 Immediately after walking out of the prison, he entered a waiting car and drove to his house Mannat in suburban Bandra, 12 km away. Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan left their Bandra house, Mannat, early this morning t...

When the going gets tough, we turn to our favourite guilty pleasures. But when entertainment is concerned, is there even any guilt to what gives one pleasure? In our new series Pleasure Without Guilt, we look at pop offerings that have been dissed by the culture police but continue to endure as beacons of unadulterated pleasure. * As a teenage movie buff in the early-to-mid 1990s, a few years before the internet came into our lives, one of my prized possessions was a CD-ROM titled Cinemania, a collection of reviews, images, and biographical entries – along with never-before-seen things called “hyperlinks” that took you to another page on the CD-ROM when you clicked on a highlighted word. (Oh, wondrous technology!) Most fascinating, though, was the section with short clips – two or three minutes at most – from around 20 major films. Up to that point, it had been literally unthinkable that I could watch a video on my fat desktop computer. I hadn’t yet watched a few of these films, but...

Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar passed away on Friday, 29 October. He was admitted to a private hospital in Bengaluru on Friday morning after he suffered a heart attack. He was 46. The youngest son of Kannada cinema legend Rajkumar and Parvathamma, Puneeth started his acting career as a child artist. He also won the National Film award for Best Child Artist for his performance in Bettada Hoovu in the year 1985. The actor was last seen in the Santhosh Ananddram film Yuvarathnaa . He was set to start shooting from 1 November for Dvitva , directed by Pawan Kumar. The news of Rajkumar’s death, also fondly called as Appu, has sent shockwaves through India’s film industry. Celebrities and film stars have taken to social media to express their grief and offer their condolences on the sudden death of the actor. Check out the tweets here Shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic news of Puneeth Rajkumar's demise. One of the most humble people I've met and interacted with. Heartfe...

Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar passed away on Friday, 29 October. He was admitted to a private hospital in Bengaluru on Friday morning after he suffered a heart attack. He was 46. The youngest son of Kannada cinema legend Rajkumar and Parvathamma, Puneeth started his acting career as a child artist. He also won the National Film award for Best Child Artist for his performance in Bettada Hoovu in the year 1985. The actor was last seen in the Santhosh Ananddram film Yuvarathnaa . He was set to start shooting from 1 November for Dvitva , directed by Pawan Kumar. The news of Rajkumar’s death, also fondly called as Appu, has sent shockwaves through India’s film industry. Celebrities and film stars have taken to social media to express their grief and offer their condolences on the sudden death of the actor. Check out the tweets here Heartbroken 💔 Will always miss you my brother. #PuneethRajkumar — sonu sood (@SonuSood) October 29, 2021 OMG!!!!!!!! Nooooooo. This can’t be tru...

After Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in the drugs on cruise ship case on 28 October, the Hindi film fraternity erupted in cheers. Many celebrities took to social media to express their relief at Khan being granted bail. Director Karan Johar took to social media, posting a picture of himself with Shah Rukh Khan , with a heart emoji over their heads, in his Instagram story. This is the first time Johar has commented about Khan’s arrest in the drugs case. Khan’s sister Suhana Khan also  shared some throwback pictures of her and Khan with their father. The pictures from Khan’s childhood show him and his sister making funny faces with their father. The post, captioned “I love you”, received a lot of appreciation from celebrities like Zoya Akhtar, Sanjay Kapoor and Shanaya Kapoor. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Suhana Khan (@suhanakhan2) Suhana's friend Shanaya Kapoor also shared a throwback picture of he...

Songwriter-singer Zayn Malik and supermodel Gigi Hadid have reportedly called it quits after a long relationship. Confirming the same, multiple sources to People magazine have claimed that the couple has parted ways. “They are not together right now. They are both good parents though. They co-parent. Yolanda is of course very protective of Gigi. She wants the best for her daughter and grandchild,” shared a source with the magazine. Meanwhile, Gigi’s representatives told the publication that the model, 26, is currently focused on the best for Khai (Zayn- Gigi’s daughter) and also requested privacy during this time. Malik released a statement after a report claimed that Gigi's mother Yolanda was thinking of filing a police report against the former One Direction member. She wanted to do it because the singer had raised hands at her, according to unnamed sources. Later, Malik denied Yolanda's allegations. Taking to his Twitter account, Malik tweeted a statement asserting that...

Language: Hindi One of the most damning realisations while watching Jay K’s Dybbuk is coming to terms with how often packers-and-movers appear in Emraan Hashmi’s horror films. If one has seen enough of them, they’ll even spot a pattern. He’s offered a new position in some faraway exotic land, there’s a large house that will soon become a metaphor for their empty marriage. There’s a weird-looking help, intended solely as a prop to build up the eeriness of the setting. When he takes up the assignment, he’ll face some feeble resistance from his partner, and an exchange like this will take place: “What will I do all alone in a place like this?” “Whatever you wish…” *wide smiles* *cue ballad by Jeet Ganguli/Mithoon/Pritam* It’s more of the same in Dybbuk . He’s been offered a long-term project in Mauritius and the living room is already filled with boxes. We overhear Mahi (Nikita Dutta) having second thoughts, when Hashmi’s Sam comes up with the most ingenious ‘solution’ to ease her ...

Language: Malayalam No single life event brings out the best and worst in families in quite the way marriages and deaths do. This is why wedding and funeral films are such thriving genres worldwide. Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Ee.Ma.Yau (short for Eesho Mariyam Yauseppu , that is, Jesus Mary Joseph ) is a brilliant recent example of the latter from Malayalam cinema. Last year’s Paapam Cheyyathavar Kalleriyatte (Those Who Have Not Sinned May Cast Stones) directed by Shambhu Purushothaman belongs to the former variety – it was an amusing and often insightful critique of Malayali Christian society, but its sense of humour was drowned out by noise along with too many instances of tacky writing and production design. Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam (The Engagement is on Monday) is about the days preceding an actual wedding ceremony in a family in rural Kerala. The narrative covers the pennu kaanal (the practice of the boy coming to see the girl with his family members in an arranged marriage) an...

Language: Hindi It takes a moment to orient yourself heart-first towards Hum Do Hamare Do . This is because none of the initial scenes stick, their drama feels diffuse. There is a lazy, faux conversational quality to the moment — THE moment — when the hero, Dhruv (Rajkummar Rao), and the heroine, Anya (Kriti Sanon) first meet, first lock eyes, first speak, first kiss. Are they falling in love or loitering around a generic feeling? Similarly, when we are given a brief glimpse of the hero's orphaned childhood, his caretaker Purushottam Mishra (Paresh Rawal) and the caretaker's history with a past lover Dipti Kashyap (Ratna Pathak Shah) in one fell swoop of a scene, nothing registers as dramatic. You hope the film will explain itself, but you wonder if the set up needed to be this underwhelming. For a film that is rumbling towards the templated happily ever after, the foundations are shockingly weak. The weakness of the conflict is not a problem as much as it is an inconvenien...

Language: Hindi It takes a moment to orient yourself heart-first towards Hum Do Humare Do . This is because none of the initial scenes stick, their drama feels diffuse. There is a lazy, faux conversational quality to the moment — THE moment — when the hero, Dhruv (Rajkummar Rao), and the heroine, Anya (Kriti Sanon) first meet, first lock eyes, first speak, first kiss. Are they falling in love or loitering around a generic feeling? Similarly, when we are given a brief glimpse of the hero's orphaned childhood, his caretaker Purushottam Mishra (Paresh Rawal) and the caretaker's history with a past lover Dipti Kashyap (Ratna Pathak Shah) in one fell swoop of a scene, nothing registers as dramatic. You hope the film will explain itself, but you wonder if the set up needed to be this underwhelming. For a film that is rumbling towards the templated happily ever after, the foundations are shockingly weak. The weakness of the conflict is not a problem as much as it is an inconvenien...