Kaveree Bamzai
Open Magazine
New Delhi, DL, India
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Past articles by Kaveree:
Bookending the Internet Boom
His first documentary looked at the virtual, alternative selves young Indians were creating in the era of BPOs, servicing clients with American accents. John & Jane was made in 2005, at the height of the internet revolution following the lives of young Indians in Mumbai working in call centres. Almost 20 years later, Ashim Ahluwalia’s … Continue reading "Bookending the Internet Boom" → Read More
Looking for Love with Yash Chopra
The Romantics | Cast: Aditya Chopra, Anil Kapoor Director: Smriti Mundhra | Hindi/English documentary | Netflix Beautiful young women driving big cars. Handsome, youngish men playing the piano and singing lovelorn songs. Big houses, bigger emotions. In 1965, when Yash Chopra directed Waqt, he set the stage for the ultimate Indian love story, one which … Continue reading "Looking for Love with… → Read More
‘I am not infallible. It comes with age,’ says Javed Akhtar
JAVED AKHTAR LOOKS at his life objectively as a “very tight screenplay”. He says, “I cannot pick and choose scenes.” And indeed, it is almost cinematic in its narrative. A child is born to Muslim college lecturers, the Communist Manifesto, not a verse from the Quran, is whispered into his ear. He grows up thinking … Continue reading "‘I am not infallible. It comes with age,’ says Javed Akhtar" → Read More
Merchants of Death
Merchants of Death| The Night Manager | Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala | Showrunner: Sandeep Modi | Hindi | Disney+Hotstar “I don’t care who sees me naked, I care who sees me cry.” Very few women in the Mumbai film industry can carry off this statement without making the audience cringe. Sobhita … Continue reading "Merchants of Death" → Read More
The Difficulty of Being Good
The difficulty of building cultural institutions has been brought home by the fracas around the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts in Kottayam. Started in 2014, it was headed by Shankar Mohan, one of the few cinema professionals in the country who was in the Directorate of Film Festivals of India (DFF); … Continue reading "The Difficulty of Being Good" → Read More
Indian Cinema’s Global Origin
Shree 420 (1955) was the first Hindi film to be dubbed in Persian after the Hindujas bought its rights for ₹5,000. Screened at Tehran’s Kucha e Lalzar cinema, such a large crowd gathered outside that its star Raj Kapoor had to be escorted out in a prison car. In 1957, it was the turn of … Continue reading "Indian Cinema’s Global Origin" → Read More
Thala Vs Thalapathy
THE LAST TIME Thala (leader) Ajith clashed at the box office in the same week with Thalapathy (commander) Vijay, was in 2014. The films were Jilla and Veeram. Jilla, where Vijay starred with Mohanlal, was an action comedy. Veeram, which is being remade as Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan with Salman Khan this year, … Continue reading "Thala Vs Thalapathy" → Read More
The Finest Cut
Movies RRR Director: SS Rajamouli| Cast: NT Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan Teja, Ajay Devgn | Telugu It is 1920s India. Malli is stolen from the Gonds by the brutish wife of the English Governor and their shepherd, KomaramBheem, is coming for them. Elsewhere, a revolt against the arrest of Lala Lajpat Rai sees Alluri … Continue reading "The Finest Cut" → Read More
Period Beauty - Open The Magazine
Qala | Cast: Tripti Dimri, Babil Khan, Swastika Mukherjee | Director: Anvitaa Dutt | Language: Hindi | Netflix Talent vs mediocrity, a divine gift vs diligence, genius vs persistence. It’s a subject rich with possibilities and creativity. Anvitaa Dutt, who made the sumptuously terrifying Bulbbul in 2020, has crafted an exquisite movie, which deals with … Continue reading "Period Beauty" → Read More
Bollywood’s Urban Legends
Meena Kumari willed all her diaries with her poems to Gulzar. Lata Mangeshkar was close friends with Raj Singh Dungarpur. Devika Rani told Yusuf Khan to change his name to Dilip Kumar. Dev Anand was about to marry Zeenat Aman when she decided to do Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978) with Raj Kapoor. How many of … Continue reading "Bollywood’s Urban Legends" → Read More
Heavy Lies the Head
The Crown Season Five | Cast: Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth Debicki, Dominic West | Writer: Peter Morgan | Language: English | Netflix The metaphors are everywhere. The Britannia is a creature of another age and needs multiple repairs. The Queen of England’s TV is old and gets only the BBC, which is struggling to shed its … Continue reading "Heavy Lies the Head" → Read More
Once upon a Time in Bombay
Shantaram | Director: Bharat Nalluri, Justin Kurzel | Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Fayssal Bazzi, Shubham Saraf | Language: English | Apple TV+ Bombay is changing so fast. There is a lot of money to be made here,” says Karla, the Swiss-American who bewitches our hero, Lin aka Shantaram (Charlie Hunnam). It is 1982, there is hope … Continue reading "Once upon a Time in Bombay" → Read More
Maya Memsaab - Open The Magazine
Good Bad Girl | Showrunners: Vikas Bahl and Chaitally Parmar | Cast: Samridhi Dewan, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, Gul Panag | Language: Hindi | SonyLIV Maya Ahuja is not a bad girl, she’s just in a hurry to get ahead. She sees more good in lying through her teeth, whether it is faking an illness to … Continue reading "Maya Memsaab" → Read More
10 Lessons in Streaming
– Bhopal is the centre of all action. Whether it is the malevolent clinical trials of Human (Disney+Hotstar), the charming family of Gullak (SonyLIV), or the education scam of Shiksha Mandal on MX, the Madhya Pradesh capital is where stories come to fruition. – If it is Bihar, reality is dramatic. Whether it is Maharani … Continue reading "10 Lessons in Streaming" → Read More
Open Secret - Open The Magazine
Maja Ma | Director: Anand Tiwari |Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Gajraj Rao | Language: Hindi | Amazon Prime Video She is a simple woman who has made theplas and rotlis all her life. She is why her husband gets elected society president. She is Pallavi, the quiet support of her daughter, who gave up her CA … Continue reading "Open Secret" → Read More
Breathtakingly Brittle
Blonde | Director: Andrew Dominik | Cast: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody | Language: English | Netflix “Marilyn is just a career, she doesn’t have any well-being,” says Norma Jeane, breathily, to her agent, who insists that he invented her. “You’re free to invent yourself,” says her friend and lover Charlie Chaplin Jr, “like you … Continue reading "Breathtakingly Brittle" → Read More
Devi Sri Prasad: Rock and Raga
Not everybody gets a call from Salman Khan in the middle of the night, who then proceeds to sing ‘O Saami O Saami’ into the phone. But if you’re Devi Sri Prasad, the musician of the moment, you get all that and more. “Salmanbhai always calls me himself when he wants a song. He is … Continue reading "Devi Sri Prasad: Rock and Raga" → Read More
Amit Sial: Heartland Hero
Every time Amit Sial would think of giving up and returning home to Kanpur, God would send him a sign. In 2010, after six years of being in Mumbai, it was LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha, where he played a somewhat sleazy journalist. “It was like a supreme power wanted me to persist. It was … Continue reading "Amit Sial: Heartland Hero" → Read More
Streaming Smart: Not Guilty
Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach Season Three | Director: Rohan Sippy | Cast: Saahitya Pansare, Sushil Kumar, Pankaj Tripathi, et al | Language: Hindi | Disney+Hotstar Delayed gratification is not easy to follow in this age of instant consumption. But fortunately, there are still things we have to wait for: a fine wine is good only … Continue reading "Streaming Smart: Not Guilty" → Read More
Mohan Kapur: Mr Marvel
“Back then, there was no Pakistan or Bangladesh. It was all one big country, India.” When Yusuf Khan, played by Mohan Kapur, says this in the lovely new Disney+Hotstar series Ms Marvel, he is speaking for the whole subcontinent, as it was, emotionally, if not geographically. As Kamala Khan’s dad in Ms Marvel, Kapur has … Continue reading "Mohan Kapur: Mr Marvel" → Read More