Is this a case of biting the hand that feeds it, or that of a remarkably principled stand against one of the world’s scourges? YouTube and Facebook (and other closely allied plat...
She Can Pole Dance Too
She’s not wearing a classical bodice, nor does she have a starched, frilly tutu around her, but those pointe shoes doth confuse the mind: does the leotard-fitted Jacqueline Ferna...
To Resurrect A Guru
The casting director of Satya Sai Baba deserves a medal, we think, for seeing a haunting shadow of the late godman in India’s foremost singer of popular bhajans, Anup Jalota. Yet...
Madam, Interrupted
A cutesy sailor’s cap mounted by badges and brooches; a pristine cashmere set off by the pale denim of her hot pants; a classic photographer’s pose held in frame by the intense...
Back Amongst Us
We approach Kim Sharma with a breezy hello, with a tone of familiarity reserved for old acquaintances. For back in the early noughties, when Kim was in the thick of new Bollywood r...
Pocketful of Roses
Looking impossibly boyish, we have seen him over the years in one of these three attitudes—chalking his cue in quiet contemplation, eyes fixed on coloured orbs and the pockets th...
Shower of Joy
They manned up, stonewalled, attacked in spurts, stole stealthy runs, extracted errors from the Australians, relished their sagging shoulders as the sun stooped to a close. Thus, I...
High Note For ‘Foo’
Another happy occasion; another happy couple. Grizzled and brawny, yet possessed of a charm that spills out of good-natured eyes into that warm grin, Farhan Akhtar reaches out for ...
An Unofficial Rose
Akbar, the greatest Mughal, and his son Salim have had their young love stories celebrated in Bollywood. It’s time for the next padshah to glory in and mope about his love. Enter...
Following The Wind
We see the slightest crease furrowing that fine forehead, a wee narrowing of the eyes—or is it the sunset that casts its kind light into them?—and a barely perceptible pursing ...
Home’s Where His Heart Is
A situation out of an eyebrow-raising Hollywood script: A young man, stuck in a foreign land during a great crisis, is sheltered in the home of his girlfriend, who is the daughter ...
Light Of Her Life
The one constant, toxic element in all nationalist-nativist movements across the world is the obsession with racial purity. Inter-community marriages—harbingers of compassion and...
In Perfect Plumage
The one thing that British royalty does really well—even better, we’d argue, than nodding, smiling and occasionally shaking the proffered hands of their lord-loving subjects on...
Infinity Pool
If you thought you’d get away from our continuing series of bathing beauties displaying their skills in magnetic Maldives—where they’re drawn, by some inexplicable herd insti...
Lava By An Ocean
“This time last year,” as she captions it, the seas around Hawaii went into a frothy roil, beating those unflappable, volcanic black rocks with unforeseen force. The reason of ...
We Wanna Woo Her
It’s the signature gesture that generations of romancing Bollywood actors have fallen back on when running out of moves in songs—arms outstretched, head thrown back in deliriou...
His Latest Cap
It’s not just those confounding shades, Ranveer Singh’s selfie has more in common with those holidaymakers in Maldives—look harder, and you find a sedate sea in low tide. Tha...
A Shine On Miley
@elblakee, sumptuously sinuous as she is, never imagined her moves would land her real time with a favourite popstar. As Indian youngsters try their damnedest to forget the bumptio...
His Role, His Throne
The 19th century poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s epic verse Maghnadvad Kavya took as its protagonist Meghnad, Raavan’s son, painted him in human, humane light and gave him cogen...
Story of a Stray Lock
We were drip-feeding you with our bathing beauties in Maldives, in various attitudes of repose, as the light played on the water at different times of the day. We just can’t stop...