Madhusree is a feature writer who loves Kolkata, is learning to love Mumbai. She loves to travel, write and bake
Articles by Madhusree Ghosh
Flying colours: How national flags took shape
Why so many tricolours? Why red-white-blue in Europe, and green-yellow-red in Africa? Every template has a story. Sample a few, in this week’s Now I Get It.
Updated on Aug 17, 2024 04:58 PM IST
I knew I was going to have to work a thousand times harder: Kal Penn
Penn, star of slacker comedies and lilting hits such as The Namesake, opens up (and comes out) in his new memoir. The book is clever, courageous and comedic. Excerpts from an interview.
Updated on Dec 17, 2021 10:55 PM IST
Jaa Simran, jaa: 5 lines to drop as DDLJ heads to Broadway
What could the iconic hit change, in its new avatar, set to premiere in 2022? Here are five lines from the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer to rework, rethink, or just drop.
Updated on Dec 10, 2021 10:50 PM IST
It helps that I can play a south Indian, Punjabi, Bihari: R Madhavan
Ahead of the release of his Netflix drama-comedy Decoupled on December 17, the actor discusses how he chooses roles, his take on the passage of time (he’s 51), and why he doesn’t have a bucket list.
Updated on Dec 04, 2021 02:43 PM IST
Unusual flight path: Conversations with a great Indian twitcher
Atul Jain lives to spot rare birds. If news of a sighting comes his way, he drops what he’s doing and hops on a plane. Last week, he flew from Delhi to Munnar for the day, to see the rarer-than-rare Eurasian blackcap, never seen in India before.
Updated on Nov 27, 2021 03:10 PM IST
Love, actually: How female novelists are rewriting romance in India
India’s romance writing in English is, unusually, dominated by men. See how that happened, and meet some of the women writing novels about desire and passion, but tackling love differently.
Updated on Nov 20, 2021 01:08 PM IST
Romance writing in 2021: What works, and what just doesn’t
HT Wknd spoke to women writers about what it’s like to write romance novels in India today. We also asked them: what still works, what doesn’t and what are the newest tropes. Take a look.
Updated on Nov 19, 2021 06:57 PM IST
Discover Indian superfoods with a unique forgotten foods calendar
Meenakshi Boopathi, a champion of buying and eating local, is working with NGOs to get word out that there are gems hidden right in your local markets.
Updated on Nov 13, 2021 06:58 PM IST
Baby hair is brushing back into style. Is it the trend for you?
Baby hair styling is making its way from red carpets to ramps to Instagram Reels. A look at who’s trying it out, why that matters and whether you should too.
Updated on Nov 13, 2021 08:04 PM IST
Sweet, sour, savoury and... sad? Making sense of the depression meal
Also called ‘down meals’, these are repasts characterised by ennui: ketchup with crackers, chocolate sauce on bread. The tragicomic combinations may be trending on social media, but they can also be a cry for help.
Updated on Nov 06, 2021 03:36 PM IST
Attack of the clichés: How to survive in a horror film
There are some things guaranteed to get you killed. It happens the same way, almost every time. So here’s a list of things to avoid, should you find yourself in a cabin by the lake, on a Friday the 13th.
Updated on Oct 30, 2021 07:22 PM IST
From graveyard ghosts to elevated horror: A Hollywood evolution
For decades, horror on the big screen relied on easily vanquished ghouls that represented our deepest fears, couched in comfy metaphor. Today’s elevated horror is stripped of comfort and pretence. The monsters are us, our way of life, and the systems we are inextricably locked into as they crumble.
Updated on Oct 30, 2021 07:28 PM IST
I like food fads. They can represent the peak of creativity: Chef Gary Mehigan
Best known for his 12 years as a judge on MasterChef Australia, Mehigan has a new book out. He talks to Madhusree Ghosh about pandemic food trends, favourite recipes, how authenticity can be overrated, and more.
Updated on Oct 23, 2021 01:09 PM IST
Keeping it real: Shyam Benegal on retirement, change, his first film in 11 years
In conversation with Madhusree Ghosh, Benegal, now 86, discuss his India-Bangladesh collaboration, changing tech, new platforms for storytelling and more.
Updated on Oct 15, 2021 08:22 PM IST
On a wing and a prayer: How women priests are setting new norms
What do the prayers mean? Who gets to perform the rituals? Women priests are translating, demystifying, easing away barriers, at weddings, house-warmings and other ceremonies.
Updated on Oct 09, 2021 03:45 PM IST
I like to play women who have a voice, or find their voice: Shweta Tripathi
The actress doesn’t see black, white or grey. She seeks colour in every character she plays, she says, whether it’s Shalu from Masaan that shot her to fame or Golu in Mirzapur.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:22 PM IST
A film should make all its viewers a little less lonely: Alankrita Shrivastava
The filmmaker behind Lipstick Under My Burkha and the subtle, layered Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare talks about how having more women behind the camera is changing how women are represented on screen in Bollywood.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:22 PM IST
Where have all Bollywood’s bad girls gone?
They were right there... drinking, dancing, scheming, and always coming to a tragic end. Amid a societal and economic upheaval, the vamp gave way to the villainess, as A-list stars of the ’90s played killers and stalkers. Today’s lead doesn’t have to pick between good, bad or evil. She can just be, well, a woman.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:20 PM IST
Women were seen as vamps when they started asking for their rights: Guneet Monga
The film producer associated with The Lunchbox, Pagglait and Gangs of Wasseypur discusses changes she’s seen in the industry, changes she’d like to see, how she picks her projects.
Updated on Oct 01, 2021 08:01 PM IST
A smiling Kashmiri effort: Preaching unity in words and deeds
Meanka Handu’s YouTube channel Asvun Koshur is preserving Kashmiri language with a dose of satire. She’s also reaching out to Kashmiri children from across religious communities, holding virtual sessions that aim to unite.
Updated on Sep 18, 2021 02:31 PM IST
In defense of boredom
Reclaim your vacant time, learn to use it better. It’s the ultimate act of rebellion in a world where whole industries depend on your scrolling, tapping and staring.
Updated on Sep 11, 2021 02:33 PM IST
It’s the great story of our time: Soumik Datta on making Songs of the Earth
Climate change, the story of a planet and its people, are the themes of the musician’s new project. It’s set to be unveiled at COP26 in November.
Updated on Sep 03, 2021 03:53 PM IST
‘Folk heritage on social media must be relatable, inclusive,authentic, relevant’
Preserving oral and folk traditions is also about preserving diversity because we lose so much in the loss of intangible traditions, says heritage educator Alisha Sadikot.
Updated on Aug 21, 2021 02:02 PM IST
Meet the seniors keeping India’s intangible heritage alive online
They’re taking to social media to preserve, in multimedia format, elements of culture that are typically conveyed person-to-person — heirloom recipes, oral histories, legends, ancient games, puppetry and more.
Updated on Aug 21, 2021 05:11 PM IST
Would you be friends with a Cyclops, and other revealing questions
Aminder Dhaliwal’s graphic novel Cyclopedia Exotica uses a fictional Cyclops community to explore the exclusion, subtle bigotry and everyday micro-aggressions faced by immigrants of colour.
Updated on Jul 24, 2021 05:34 PM IST
Reality bytes: Meet Payal Kapadia, who just won best documentary at Cannes
The 35-year-old’s film, A Night of Knowing Nothing, about navigating love, life and politics as a university student in India today, owes a debt to real life, Partition and her grandmother.
Updated on Jul 24, 2021 05:31 PM IST
It happened to me too: First-person accounts from Indian UFO enthusiasts
The US has reported the most such sightings, but India has had its fair share too. Here are tales of encounters with red discs, levitating aliens, lights in the sky and more.
Updated on Jul 03, 2021 03:11 PM IST
Hello from the other side: What the aliens on our screens say about us
The US report on UFOs is out and, predictably, adds little of substance to the argument. But our long-standing obsession with ETs has yielded a rich imagined universe anyway. In it are tales of destruction, conquest, love, horror and, ultimately, our greatest hopes, fears and flaws.
Updated on Jul 03, 2021 03:09 PM IST
An anonymous artist is calling out regressive practices within marriage
Smish Designs displayed her feminist art at a Mumbai gallery in March and is now posting on Instagram too. ‘Talking about the disadvantages of being an Indian married woman should be normalised. It’s a lived experience for a good fraction of the population,’ she says.
Updated on Jul 03, 2021 03:13 PM IST
Be kind, rewind: Cassettes are making a comeback
New releases in this format include music by sound artists, indie stars and icons like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa.
Updated on Jul 03, 2021 02:45 PM IST