Journalism of Courage
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Aakshi Magazine
Magazine is a New Delhi-based writer and holds a PhD in film studies.
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‘Dhadak 2’ and ‘Saiyyara’: Two romances, miles apartSubscriber Only
August 09, 2025 11:29 IST
While ‘Saiyyara’ is a somewhat traditional film, where masculine self-pity disguises itself as a romance, ‘Dhadak 2’ dares to challenge its audience by making visible the violence at the heart of a caste-based society
Sat, Aug 09, 2025
The incomplete feminism of ‘Mrs’ and ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’Subscriber Only
February 27, 2025 14:30 IST
Neither film can escape its limited view of caste
Sun, Mar 02, 2025
‘Girls will be girls’ and beyond: Our parents, their traumas and the films that empathise with themSubscriber Only
January 11, 2025 12:51 IST
This is what art does. It does not merely settle scores but challenges us to do the difficult work. To find within us the capacity to empathise. When you free yourself, you also free the other
Mon, Jan 13, 2025
In ‘Jigra’, Alia Bhatt plays a new kind of action heroSubscriber Only
October 20, 2024 12:45 IST
Unlike Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man, to whom he pays homage in his latest film, director Vasan Bala’s angry young woman is driven not by rage against an unjust system, but trauma and love
Sun, Oct 20, 2024
Salim-Javed in ‘Angry Young Men’, Yash Chopra and ‘Romantics’: The perils of nostalgia as PRSubscriber Only
September 15, 2024 06:50 IST
Perhaps when popular cinema loses its current self-consciousness, it might go back to making us feel seen again. With all our hypocrisies.
Sun, Sep 15, 2024
In the time of ‘Veer Savarkar’ and ‘Animal’, why ‘Manjummel Boys’ stands outSubscriber Only
April 12, 2024 14:41 IST
‘Manjummel Boys’ has no male superhero, only vulnerability and courage
Fri, Apr 12, 2024
Varun Grover’s ‘All India Rank’: The quiet joy of life beyond exams, of nothing happeningSubscriber Only
February 27, 2024 15:03 IST
The movie conveys a simple message — in adulthood, no one has the answers. And they certainly can’t be contained in the limiting space of exam prep
Tue, Feb 27, 2024
Yash Raj’s ‘nostalgia film festival’ and the uncomfortable, enduring charm of the theatreSubscriber Only
February 13, 2024 17:57 IST
While the trend of re-releasing older films may be a marketing gimmick meant to attract audiences, it evokes the preciousness of the cinema theatre experience.
Wed, Feb 14, 2024
What ‘Fighter’, released on R-Day, says about its audienceSubscriber Only
January 27, 2024 16:53 IST
The movie is another in a long list of war films that build a case for violence, revenge and aggression
Tue, Jan 30, 2024
Lesson from ’12th fail’: In a just society, UPSC obsession would be cruelty. We celebrate itSubscriber Only
January 08, 2024 17:58 IST
The movie is a reminder that there is space for those who win — and for those who stay true to themselves
Tue, Jan 09, 2024
‘Kaala Paani’: A show that remembers — and reminds us of the value of careSubscriber Only
October 31, 2023 17:24 IST
The seven-part series asks what it means to be human and live in this world when things seem out of our control. Each character shows us that there are multiple, contradictory and conflicting answers to this question.
Wed, Nov 01, 2023
When Dharmendra kissed Shabana: Love, rebellion and Hindi film songsSubscriber Only
August 16, 2023 17:30 IST
Songs are serious business in Hindi cinema, which don’t see audiences for who they are, but who they secretly might want to be. In its many song sequences, Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani too embodies this special, complicated relationship of Hindi cinema to its audience
Wed, Aug 16, 2023
Kathal, Dahaad, The Kerala Story and one question: Why do women run away?Subscriber Only
May 29, 2023 11:41 IST
While ‘Dahaad’ and ‘Kathal’ understand why someone might want to escape, ‘The Kerala Story’ treats the impulse as born out of ignorance. Women can only be trapped, misled and ‘converted’ to the other side
Mon, May 29, 2023
‘All That Breathes’: An unusual record of the lives of people living through divisive politicsSubscriber Only
April 05, 2023 15:29 IST
As violence escalates, some people nonchalantly go about doing the big work in small ways. They are thinkers and doers, not victims
Sat, Apr 08, 2023
With Zwigato, Nandita Das exposes the darkness behind the gig economy Subscriber Only
March 19, 2023 19:11 IST
The film explores the relationship gig workers have with their work — one that affords them no dignity, identity. It starts and ends not with what is, but with what can be.
Tue, Mar 21, 2023
Lagaan to RRR: Rajamouli’s Raj-era spectacle doesn’t need cricket — it relies on a shrunken, majoritarian nationalismSubscriber Only
December 19, 2022 12:45 IST
Golden Globe nominations and Western praise notwithstanding, the film is trying to claim legitimacy for its conservative politics by building false connections. Propaganda can be this literal.
Thu, Jan 05, 2023
In an age of cynicism, Monica, O My Darling’s sincerity is worth cherishingSubscriber Only
November 23, 2022 15:48 IST
Aakshi Magazine writes: The Vasan Bala film is not afraid to express its love without irony. In a different context, this is also one of the reasons the Korean K-dramas feel refreshing.
Wed, Nov 23, 2022
What a robot from Kerala, Bombay High Court and French and Indian films tell us about domestic labourSubscriber Only
October 30, 2022 18:01 IST
Someone’s labour and attention has gone into figuring out what works best in the household. And so dismissing that work is not good politics -- noticing it is.
Sun, Oct 30, 2022
What the success of Vikram Vedha says about the failure of the multiplexSubscriber Only
October 07, 2022 17:12 IST
Twenty-five years after the single-screen theatre was abandoned, the popular film is not willing to let go of the memory of the less sanitised, less exclusive experience. What had become undesirable is now being missed — only too late perhaps
Tue, Oct 11, 2022
With Brahmastra, a more Hindu-ised BollywoodSubscriber Only
September 18, 2022 16:00 IST
Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions has found a way to appease the market and Hindutva’s fantasy of policing Bollywood.
Tue, Sep 20, 2022
‘Dobaaraa’ does not feel like an Anurag Kashyap film. And that is goodSubscriber Only
August 31, 2022 17:31 IST
Like its self-aware protagonist, played by Taapsee Pannu, the film knows what it is not and does not try to be more
Wed, Aug 31, 2022
Lata Mangeshkar, heroine off-screenSubscriber Only
February 09, 2022 21:25 IST
Even within the limited patriarchal imagination of most film narratives, Lata Mangeshkar could transcend barriers
Wed, Feb 09, 2022
The vulnerable, credible women characters of Bombay BegumsSubscriber Only
March 13, 2021 03:00 IST
Unlike in hypermasculine shows, which are not interested in their female characters beyond their sexual beings, Bombay Begums’ women don’t have a straightforward relationship with their desires.
Sun, Mar 14, 2021
In ‘Bulbbul’, moment of dread is not about female demon, but husband inflicting violenceSubscriber Only
July 08, 2020 03:00 IST
The real horror, though, is that the sequence itself, shot in a painting-like style, becomes an uneasy reminder of how we end up immortalising acts of male violence, sometimes as courage, and in this case, as terror.
Wed, Jul 08, 2020Journalism of Courage
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