'This is not a bolt from the blue.'

'I am not the kind of person who will stand up and complain. I have no complaints against anyone. If I've been away from the entertainment industry, it's because I am not into selling myself.'

Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2021.

The failure of Decoupled is that, as it deals almost solely in 'snapshots of insight', it fails to showcase how life flows, how the world goes round, how things unfold, feels Rohit Sathish Nair.

Two men smiling, eyeing each other as they briefly let their guard down, with no care of what the world around them is thinking, that has almost never been shown in a Bollywood film, notes Aseem Chhabra.

'Once Mohanlal's ever-swelling entourage grasped his enormous worth, once it realized that the innate Mohanlal appeal could be profited from, it set about to exploit, to make uproars, to create the Mohanlal brand.''And he wasn't meant to be a brand. He was meant to be an artist, a tireless explorer of the unique seas inside him,' asserts Sreehari Nair.

Gehraiyaan seems to be aurally thin, which serves as a clue to the larger issues plaguing the movie, observes Rohit Sathish Nair.

Bappida's softer more creative work got buried in the noise, rues Subhash K Jha as he picks the late lamented composer's most soulful songs.

Subhash K Jha celebrates Ajay Devgn as the movie star turns 53.

Ram Gopal Varma is 60 today, April 7.Subhash K Jha plots the once brilliant film-maker's declining movies graph.

What did Alia have that Ranbir's previous girlfriends did not? Mom Neetu Kapoor's blessings, observes Subhash K Jha.

'If I don't act for a week I become edgy, restless and moody.'Subhash K Jha salutes Manoj Bajpayee, actor extraordinaire, on his 53rd birthday.

Get your lowdown on what's going on in the world of movies with Subhash K Jha.

'I don't think my troubles would have happened if she was with me. I kind of lost my way after she was gone,' Sanjay Dutt once told Subhash K Jha about his mother Nargis, the legendary actress who passed away this day 41 years ago.

If Irrfan could have been our finest professor of empirical philosophy, and Nawaz is our foremost poet of that space halfway between the gutter and the stars, then Jaideep Ahlawat has to be our greatest artist-scientist, asserts Sreehari Nair.

RRR isn't the "spectacle" it is made out to be, argues Sreehari Nair.

<em>Ms Marvel</em>'s first episode did not bore me, but it made me question the very existence of the first Muslim superhero, observes Subhash K Jha.

Ranveer is loud, but not shrill, notes Subhash K Jha.As in singing, in acting holding your pitch in the higher notes is a Himalayan task.Ranveer resides on the highest notes of the musical mountain and still manages to be coherent, fluent and persuasive.

Pellissery's women continue to express the beauty in our common humanity. And often, these women go so far into expressing our hopes, desires, absurdities and follies that they end up acting at variance with the ethical prescriptions of our age. And this, I believe, is precisely why they remain "invisible" to a whole bunch of viewers, says Sreehari Nair.

I have heard cynics say that Priyanka Chopra Jonas as we know her today is the creation of a PR machinery, but that is rather a poor reading of a determined woman and the work she has done to get to where she is.Aseem Chhabra salutes the movie star on her 40th birthday on July 18.

Far from outraging any woman's sensibility or sense of modesty, Ranveer looks like he could do with a hot meal and a hug, notes Deepa Gahlot.

I cannot think of another Hindi movie that has, without so much as a hint of cynicism or speechifying, brought out that fundamental fact of Muslims being an integral part of the Indian culture while being at the same time a subculture with its own polite niceties, observes Sreehari Nair.

'Javed Akhtar, Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi have collectively brought more pride and honour to our country than the entire film fraternity put together.''Sir, the names you have taken are institutions, pillars of India's popular art, symbolising the very essence of humanism and nationalism.'

A little bird in the know of things tells me that Allu Arjun will most likely become the face of a global cola brand very soon.And he has jacked his brand endorsement price to an unheard of Rs 7.5 crore per day, leaving the likes of Virat Kohli and Ranveer Singh trailing by quite a margin, reveals Sandeep Goyal.

Nobody else needs to boycott Bollywood, they are doing a pretty good job of digging up their own foundation, notes Deepa Gahlot.

Long before she won royalty rights for playback singers, there was an undisclosed incident in Lataji's life where she not only put a male colleague in place, but also refused to sing with him thereafter.

Doctor G is outwardly all for women, but evidently has no interest in them, observes Sreehari Nair.

Sikandar Kher's Nishikant Adhikari is a solitary poet by the corner, trying to remind us that the honest plans of honest people don't always come to respectable ends, observes Sreehari Nair.

Smita has left behind a rich haul of films that showcase her enormous ability to offer us a glimpse into her soul each time she performed a role.

Ariyippu drives home the point that nothing can force you to leave the path of righteousness, discovers Utkarsh Mishra.

The composer thanked other artists for the making of the song.

More than anything else, Pathaan is a silent and subtle statement of Shah Rukh Khan about his place, his commitment to cinema and, if one can say, his politics, observes Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.

Shah Rukh had outgrown the roles that made him a star -- the menacing, obsessive lover in Darr, the regular guy in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na or the new age boyfriend in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.By the time he entered his 50s, he was struggling to find his feet, explains Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam is a masterpiece, and like most masterpieces of the cinema, it's a great act of folly, observes Sreehari Nair.

<em>Zwigato</em> urges viewers to think critically about the kind of unethical behaviour that food delivery workers have to put up with on a daily basis because of insensitive customers, observes Chintan Girish Modi.

The question 'Who was/were behind Aditha Karikalan's killing?' will continue to remain a historic mystery despite Mani Ratnam setting out to unravel it in his own way, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.

Kindness and compassion is all you need to survive and build your life. And that is what makes 2018's Kerala story so relevant, notes Divya Nair.

Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai reminds us that we haven't run out of instances where even the most vulnerable can secure justice against the mighty, applauds Utkarsh Mishra.

'He's always been an all-inspiring kind of director that nobody can surpass,' R Madhavan tells Subhash K Jha about Mani Ratnam.

'Cinema or the sentiment of a people, disgusted by contemporary politics and wanting to feel whole by collectively recalling a moment of great difficulty that was also a cause for togetherness?', asks Shyam G Menon.

Even as our tier-2 and tier-3 cities become increasingly well-mapped, and well-documented through myriad tech-driven data, the Indian film-maker's dominantly urban gaze turns to regions not crowded by data, area codes, or directions, observes Debarghya Sanyal.

'The pride of the devoted Seinfeld fan is that he happens to love a show that doesn't take his love for granted, so that even on repeat viewings he is never really sure what directions an episode might take,' observes Sreehari Nair.

Konkona Sen Sharma's short Mirror in Lust Stories 2 is a rare thing: A feminist film that is also very, very funny, states Sreehari Nair.

Rocky Aur Rani is definitely Karan's most subversive project, discovers Aseem Chhabra.

The narrative is faithful to the source, American Prometheus, but what makes it absolutely spell-binding is Christopher Nolan's technique, notes Shreekant Sambrani.

When the movie started, the crowd went wild.They cheered for Sunny Deol and booed the villains.They laughed at the jokes, cried at the emotional scenes and whistled and cheered at all the action.Rajesh Karkera records the audience reactions at a screening of Gadar 2.

As Independent India turned 76, so did the ethereal Raakhee I know better than most, says Subhash K Jha.

None of R D Burman's collaborations was as rewarding and resplendent as with Gulzar, who turns 89 today, August 18, 2023, says Subhash K Jha.

What is noticeable in both movies is the willingness with which both the ageing stars -- Kamal is 68 and Rajini, four years older at 72 with a kidney transplant that he has not shied away from acknowledging -- have learnt to respect their age and bodies, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.

We are back to being a country that talks about box office numbers as the measure for what an audience's real feelings about a movie are, laments Sreehari Nair.