The One Who Loves You So, writer and director Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke’s widely-anticipated original play, ran at Colombo’s Namel Malini Punchi theater in August. The play is a complex depiction of a short-lived relationship between two men, one “a wealthy Colombo trust-fund baby” and the other a British expatriate. Their relationship starts with an ordinary match … Read More
CIRCLE, a film by Jayisha Patel that premiered last weekend at the Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of a young girl in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, and the physical manifestations of intergenerational trauma. The film follows the story of Khushbu, a survivor of sexual assault, as she recounts her gang-rape at the hands of … Read More
Australian comedian Aamer Rahman released the first episode of his new webseries “Can We Kick It?” Wednesday on YouTube. And his first guest was New York City-based fellow comedian Hari Kondabolu. Rahman and Kondabolu meet up in the episode the day before Kondabolu’s Netflix standup special “Warn Your Relatives” is released. The two stroll through … Read More
Netflix’s first Indian original series, Sacred Games, has notably excited our country’s entertainment and art-loving urban youth — a generation that has grown up witnessing idle productions overshadow serialized entertainment. A deluge of media coverage, social media statuses and tweets, and passionate reviews from peers convey awe and admiration. Reviewers chimed that Vikram Chandra’s 2006 novel could … Read More
Fatimah Asghar’s much-anticipated debut collection of poetry spans the divide of Partition, community, loss, and love. Motion connotes a certain amount of freedom. It belongs in the air, in the depths of the ocean, in the fingertips of flames reaching for something greater, more infinite. But the movement of Partition relied on boundaries to restrict … Read More
In Marriage of a Thousand Lies, Lucky, the restless romantic, ruminates on queerness and notes that, “most people think the closet is a small room. They think you can touch the wall, touch the door, turn the handle, and walk free. But when you’re inside it, the closet is so vast. No walls, no doors, just empty darkness stretching … Read More
In a short 55 second trailer, Surina & Mel. shows us what television shows could look like. Even though it’s not out yet, Surina & Mel. from actors Surina Jindal and Melanie Chandra and former Family Guy writer Sameer Gardezi, has us excited. Besides having two South Asian women as the show leads, Surina & Mel. promises to show … Read More
There is something particular about hearing the same stories repeated again and again by family members. A loving frustration. There are the looks shot between siblings, across kitchen tables, of “this again?” There is the conviction with which a grandfather or a mother or an uncle tells the story, each time like it’s going to … Read More
“My Choice,” the infamous video released by the #VogueEmpower campaign in 2015, creates a narrative arc through visual and auditory spectacle. The two and a half minute film featuring Bollywood darling Deepika Padukone begins with slow shots cutting between a seemingly heterogenous group of ninety nine women. The music is sombre, ominous. The women are … Read More
At Hindu weddings, a line of married women take their turns whispering words of wisdom in the bride’s ear. I’ve watched this tradition take place countless times, and recently I was visiting my parents when my mom divulged the secret at a dinner table conversation. Apparently, the women all say the same thing – akhand … Read More
