Dead Man Laughing: The Gujarati production Aane Bhi Do Yaaro is the funniest play seen in recent times, and that’s saying a lot because there are so many comedies produced in…

There was a startling photograph seen a few days back, of female scientists sticking on mustaches and thick beards on their faces, in a symbolic gesture to be taken as…

Reasons To Live: Richard Roper’s debut novel, How Not To Die Alone, is about a loner, who reminds the reader of the lead characters in Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called…

Wicked Women: In common usage, the word chudail describes an aggressive or quarrelsome woman—could be said to be the Indian equivalent of bitch.  But the origins of the chudail (often…

As a child, Kamlesh Mota auditioned for a school play, and expressed the intention of taking up theatre. His mother took him to the Bhangwadi Theatre in south Mumbai (a venue, now defunct,…

Hope Floats: Of all the characters in Angie Kim’s bestselling debut novel, Miracle Creek, Young Yoo gets the most  sympathy. The Korean woman comes to the US in the hope…

Fragrance Of Simplicity: Vidya Sinha, who passed away on August 15, was among a band of girls-next-door, who appeared in Bollywood around the same time in the Seventies; many of…

Rocket Science For Dummies Rating: *** When there are budget problems in the Mars Orbiter Mission undertaken by an ISRO scientist on a dare — because a NASA snob said it…

Trigger Unhappy: Rating: *** Delhi police could not have got a better PR job if they had actually commissioned Batla House. However, in the best stranger-than-fiction mode, Nikkhil Advani’s film is…

A one-woman stage presentation, Cast Off All Shame, by Ulka Mayur (in picture above), brought into focus the women Bhakti poets of India, who predated the feminist movement—as we know it…