Entertainment

Since Lata was home last, her mother has joined a feminist book club, her baby-cousin Molly is about to tie the knot, Boro Jethu’s son Goopy has emerged from the closet, Momo has fathered two — two! — children, and Ronny Banerjee has cast Pragya Paramita Sen in his magnum opus.

There are actors and there are actors. Some are brilliant performers on screen or stage, some excel in articulation outside of it too. I meet Vinay Pathak in a posh Calcutta hotel little knowing that my evening in the staid coffee-room would turn out to be most engaging. Will there be a photographer too, he asks. Err... no, I tell him, this conversation is not specifically about his latest film or forthcoming films, or his plays. "Ah. I don't like to talk about my work either,"he says.

By the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi finished his address at the farmer's rally in Midnapore last week, somewhere in India one farmer would have committed suicide. At least that's what data suggests.

This round was soundly won by Rahul Gandhi. #SacredGames After a Congress leader from West Bengal filed a complaint, and it all made it to prime time, the crass reference to Rajiv Gandhi as a wimp (the "f" word it translates into in Hindi is the one that sounds offensive) got an admirably mature response from Rahul. His sensible tweet, which began with a swipe at the RSS/BJP, went on to say, "...I believe this freedom (of expression) is a fundamental democratic right. My father lived and died in the service of India. The views of a character on a fictional web series can never change that."

“There are so many lovely pictures of her, but this one speaks to me beyond my friends beauty....hope u all also give it love. @katrinakaif”. 

Actor Pankaj Tripathi had a successful 2017 with multiple releases and a National Award for Newton. Now, 2018 has brought with it interesting projects, including the Tamil film Kaala, Angrezi Mein Kehte Hai, Phamous, Kaalakandi, and the recent Netflix series Sacred Games. 

Director Gus Van Sant has revealed that he was keen to make Brokeback Mountain with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio but they did not want to be a part of the project.  

“Hichki is an universal film and the response that it is getting in the overseas territories is validating that the film’s subject is an extremely relevant one.” (Bharati K. Dubey) 

Sairat, the Marathi film which Dhadak is an official remake of, could have been yet another love story of a young couple on the run if it didn’t pack in a searing commentary on caste conflict and societal oppression. When it released in 2016, Sairat cut across regional and language divides to quickly become a talking point.

Sacred Games, Netflix India’s first original, has earned unanimous praise, and Rajshri Deshpande is getting her share of applause for playing the spunky Subhadra, gangster Ganesh Gaitonde’s (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) wife. Subhadra makes an entry only in Episode 4 of the eight-part series, but she’s made a huge impact.