TRENDS
70 years of Roman Holiday: Is this the sweetest film ever made?
Starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, Roman Holiday brims over with a sheer spirit-uplifting joy that transcends time and geography. It celebrates living life in the here and now without losing one’s moral anchor.
TRENDS
Why Christopher Nolan’s complex, science-y films don't bomb at the box office
Interstellar, Inception, and now Oppenheimer take up difficult ideas, and treacherous routes that go back and forth in time - so why do they work?
WORLD
Donald Trump is maxing out his outraged victim card, prison mugshot and all
On August 24, Donald Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Florida and had his mugshot taken as per procedure. And then, he made that mugshot of him glowering at the camera viral.
WORLD
2024 US Presidential elections: Indian-origin contenders Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley dial up interest
Donald Trump is set to win the Republican Party nomination for 2024 US Presidential candidate. And there are a lot of reasons for him to pick Vivek Ramaswamy as his Vice-Presidential running mate.
BUSINESS
Bullish on India | Why more IIT and MBA grads are returning to work in India
India’s is certainly the most vibrant growth story today among all major economies, and is likely to stay so in the foreseeable future as consumption increases and more global capital flows in.
TRENDS
From boson sub-atomic particles to bosenova supernovas, the Indian scientist who pierced mysteries of the universe
In late June, a team of American astrophysicists published a pre-peer-reviewed paper on the net. It claimed that massive “invisible” bosenovas may be occurring all around us all the time.
TRENDS
The Kevin Spacey shaped hole in the #MeToo Movement
The MeToo Movement has reduced sexual harassment in workspaces and helped many victims overcome the fear of social stigma if they speak out. Having said that, everyone deserves a fair trial.
TRENDS
Latest BBC series dashes Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations into barely recognizable bits
Extreme violence, gratuitous sex and heavy-handed politicizing mar this series from which all of Dickens’ wit and humour is clinically drained out to create a morgue-like atmosphere.
LIFESTYLE
Who is an intellectual?
'Intellectuals' occupy a space above the level where one can be proved wrong, in the realm of pure opinion, untainted by rigorous logic or labour, and they cannot be sacked, like our 'babus'.
TRENDS
Tribute: Milan Kundera was the greatest 20th century writer who did not win the Nobel Prize for Literature
All of Milan Kundera’s work is a sophisticated but inconclusive probe into what life is about. And death. None of the books consciously carry a blinding insight, though a reader may find some later...
TRENDS
Puzzles, truths and more reasons to re-read Alice in Wonderland as a grown-up
Plus, what climate change activists might find in a re-reading of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass.
TRENDS
26 years of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The book that lived
There has never been a phenomenon like Harry Potter in the history of publishing and certainly not such a rags-to-riches story as J.K. Rowling’s.
CRICKET
Why Bazball should be a management case study on keeping a positive, winning attitude
The principles of Bazball consider playing for a draw the gravest of all sins. Because, in the end, players get paid by their fans, who don't buy tickets or switch on the TV to watch a boring drawn game.
ENTERTAINMENT
India may never qualify for Best Picture with Oscars 2024 new diversity rules
To qualify, a film needs at least one main actor from underrepresented racial or ethnic group. So, an Indian film can never get nominated for Best Picture, unless the Academy decides that all Indians are an 'underrepresented group'.
TRENDS
Raising a toast to the man who wrote No Country for Old Men
More famous as the storyteller whose novel the Coen brothers adapted on screen, American writer Cormac McCarthy, who died this week aged 89, is not easy to read, his stories are about consequences, invoke horror and his world brutal, probabilistic.
WORLD
Is Joe Biden’s love for an errant son greater than the love for his nation?
If his son Hunter Biden has used his father’s position to enrich himself, the US President should not act like a typical Indian politician and prove that US politics is no better than India’s.
TRENDS
With films like Rajanigandha and Chitchor, Basu Chatterji was directing a massive shift
In Basu Chatterji’s films, the hero lives an entirely mundane life, isn't particularly bright or talented, and has no ambitions beyond winning the girl, getting a better apartment or promotion or pay hike.
TRENDS
8 reasons to watch Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on the big screen
Christopher Nolan shot Oppenheimer with wide-angle deep-focus Imax cameras, ending up with a final film print that is 11 miles long and weighs more than 250 kilograms.
TRENDS
Who is the greatest spy fiction author ever? It's someone you probably haven't read yet
Len Deighton’s espionage books can be broadly classified into two categories—the ones that feature an anonymous British agent (Harry Palmer in the films) and the nine-book saga of Bernard Samson.
TRENDS
Johnny Depp's 'Modi' and other bad-boy geniuses of the art world
Should we bring our knowledge of what an artist or a writer was as a human being to bear on their work? The simple answer is: No.
TRENDS
What is the West doing to its children?
To encourage six-year-olds to “discover their sexuality”, to expose them to graphic sexual material, is to force them into a grown-up world much before their minds are ready for it.
TRENDS
Why Satyajit Ray's Feluda stories are still so much fun to read
Satyajit Ray's whodunit stories also serves up travelogue and trivia while ensuring that all the bits and pieces fit together - Agatha Christie would have thoroughly approved.
INDIA
Same sex marriage pleas: Why India can't delay discussions on transgender rights any longer
Some issues will need to be ironed out. For example, how to disburse subsidies and policy benefits targetted at women if sex becomes a matter of self-attestation rather than biology.
TRENDS
LGBT rights: Is there a right age for people to decide their gender?
The American Medical Association is recommending that the US stop the practice of including a “male” or “female” designation on public portions of birth certificates, saying the marker can cause more harm than good for transgender, nonbinary and intersex Americans.
