close_game
close_game
Sanjukta Sharma
Articles by Sanjukta Sharma

Short Stream | Daadhi blends comedy and commentary on newsroom madness

Prashant Pandey’s film on TV news and identity politics is a winning combination of humour, pathos and satire

A poster of Daadhi: The Beard (2022)(PERPETUAL PICTURES )
Published on Oct 02, 2024 06:15 PM IST

Farmers on camera

How and why 8 months of the farmers’ protests inspired filmmakers to chronicle it as a social-cultural revolution

A still from Farming the Revolution by Nishtha Jain(Author)
Published on Sep 20, 2024 08:00 AM IST

Short Stream | Betelgeuse by Sunder Konar: In pursuit of the bright star

Sunder Konar’s Betelgeuse is a classic guerrilla project. It makes the compelling point that life offers a way out of grief and anger in unexpected ways

A still from Betelgeuse(Sunder Konar)
Updated on Sep 04, 2024 06:11 PM IST

Romance of the Indian Railways through chronicler Michael Portillo’s warm lens

India’s transformation from locomotives to high-speed modern trains is part of the story of Great Indian Railway Journeys.

A still from Great Indian Railway Journeys from the episode about Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya(BBC)
Published on Aug 14, 2024 09:00 AM IST

Short Stream | A look into the life of a climate visionary

A heartwarming documentary about effective climate activism — Babulal Gandhi is behind a man-made forest with astounding biodiversity in a region in Maharashtra

A still from Vinchurniche Gandhi (Aproop Films)
Published on Aug 01, 2024 08:15 PM IST

Bleeding vaginas don’t need bleeding hearts

The CJI’s view on menstrual leave rings true. After all, aren’t we that ancient civilisation that equates the female biological system with impurity, shame?

The big operating myth behind proposing menstrual leave without understanding the context and individual needs is that all women experience painful periods(DAVID TALUKDAR/AFP )
Published on Jul 15, 2024 08:00 AM IST

In Mumu Shelley, a heartwarming tale of finding connections in unexpected places

How two women, worlds and ages apart from each other, hang out on a night they are forced to spend together in this funny, absurdist tale

A still from Mumu Shelley(Batul Mukhtiar / Orange Peel Films)
Published on Jul 01, 2024 08:00 AM IST

Short Stream | In Son of the Soil, who is a native, and who is a foreigner?

Akanshya Bhagabati’s award-winning film on immigration, land rights and the sense of belonging is set in rural Assam

In Son of the Soil, Ali (Dhananjay Debnath) is a third-generation Bangladeshi immigrant in a village in Assam(Akanshya Bhagabati)
Published on Jun 01, 2024 05:37 PM IST

In Teen Adhyay, the birds' flight brings a contemplative approach to the pandemi

Subhash Sahoo’s documentary on the interplay of the natural and human world during the pandemic is an atmospheric chronicle that leaves a lot to interpretation

As seen in Teen Adhyay: A crow building a nest, laying eggs, the eggs maturing to hatch, and the new bird in flight(Subash Sahoo)
Published on May 03, 2024 08:30 AM IST

Chintu, a young boy living with HIV, is saved by unlikely heroes

Director Tushar Tyagi covers a wide canvas in this tear-jerker of a film, but its greatest strength lies in the way it conveys emotions with minimal dialogue

Chintu, the child actor, played by Arihant Angad Nayak, is the protagonist of Saving Chintu. The adult Chintu is played by actor Adil Husain. (Tushar Tyagi)
Published on Apr 02, 2024 12:49 AM IST

Kangana Ranaut: The unapologetic outsider in Bollywood

The actress’s outspokenness has proved to be her biggest asset and her Achilles heel in the film industry. How she makes use of her strengths remains to be seen

**EDS: FILE IMAGE** New Delhi: In this Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 file image actor Kangana Ranaut attends Dussehra celebrations, in New Delhi. The BJP on Sunday nominated Ranaut as its Lok Sabha candidate from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi. (PTI Photo/Arun Sharma) (PTI03_24_2024_000236B)(PTI)
Published on Mar 26, 2024 06:32 PM IST

The many worlds of Elk

A new biography by Ebrahim Alkazi’s daughter Amal Allana is a sharp spotlight on the father of modern Indian theatre

A Blind King by Alkazi(Author)
Published on Mar 16, 2024 04:23 PM IST

In Chithi, the past is not rose-tinted, but harks to stranger times

The short indie Bengali film with English subtitles is more than about personal memory. In it, the protagonist grapples with ageing, loneliness and past trauma

In its short running length, Chithi, [Bengali for letter] is able to portray an expansiveness of emotions(Author)
Updated on Apr 01, 2024 12:39 PM IST

In Binnu ka Sapna, an Indian man comes face to face with his toxic masculinity

Kanu Behl’s award-winning short film is a meditation on the lessons men learn as children watching their angry fathers and placatory mothers.

Kanu Behl behind the camera with lead actor Chetan Sharma, who plays the eponymous Binnu, sitting on a scooter in a behind-the-scenes shot during the filming of Binnu ka Sapna(Author)
Updated on Jan 17, 2024 11:44 PM IST

When Ram appeared before us all

How Ramanand Sagar’s 1980s morality drama transformed television consumption in India—and the nation’s imagination of the age-old revered Hindu epic

Ramanand Sagar’s TV show Ramayan is based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas.
Published on Jan 12, 2024 09:54 PM IST

Short Stream | In ‘Shera’, two boys set out to fulfil a small, wild dream

The film is an ode to Kumaon’s gritty residents, leopards included. Migration threatens to end a friendship, the wild helps to cement it in Arun Fulara’s short

A still from Shera(Arun Fulara)
Updated on Jan 14, 2024 12:25 PM IST

50 years of Shyam Benegal

As he completes five decades in cinema next year, a look at Shyam Benegal's incomparable oeuvre

Bollywood film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Shyam Benegal attends the special screening of his upcoming biographical film Mujib: The Making of a Nation, a biopic on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first President of Bangladesh in Mumbai on October 25, 2023. (Photo by Sujit JAISWAL / AFP)(AFP)
Published on Nov 28, 2023 08:30 AM IST

'This could be a Serbian new wave brewing'

A world cinema gem by a young Serbian filmmaker, Nina Ognjanović, was recently shown in Mumbai. An interview with the director

Jana Bjelica in a still from Where the Road Leads(Courtesy: The author)
Published on Nov 08, 2023 06:34 PM IST

LEGACY | Dariush Mehrjui: The slain pioneer

The murdered Iranian director inspired a generation of filmmakers and taught us that all cinema is political

Dariush Mehrjui was found murdered at the age of 83.
Published on Nov 01, 2023 03:34 PM IST

Conditions are ripe for climapocalypse or cli-fi films

A slew of recent shows and films show the way for climate change fiction—India’s entry to Oscars 2024 is a case in point; Martin Scorcese’s new film is another

A still from Mumbai Diaries
Published on Oct 21, 2023 08:27 PM IST

Why are Bollywood screenwriters still so miserable?

Hollywood screenwriters are on strike seeking better wages. Back home, a recent Delhi HC order on intellectual property rights points to a longstanding issue

Screenwriter and active Screen Writers Association member Anjum Rajabali (top row, extreme left) led a demonstration outside Netflix India's office in Mumbai on June 14 in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America members who are on strike. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)
Published on Jun 30, 2023 10:59 PM IST

Prithvi Theatre marks 40 years with a retelling of Prithviraj Kapoor’s plays

The festival will open with Sunil Shanbag’s reinterpretation of Kapoor’s Deewar, written in 1945.

Since it first opened, Prithvi has been a favourite haunt for some of India’s most talented actors. In this archival image, a young Amrish Puri lounges on its steps.(Photo courtesy Prithvi Theatre Archive)
Updated on Nov 04, 2018 01:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times | BySanjukta Sharma

What the first foreign show of the Progressives says about Indian art now

Curator Zehra Jumabhoy talks about the tradition-shattering group and what led to the exhibition

News of Gandhiji’s death by Krishen Khanna
Updated on Oct 06, 2018 09:06 PM IST
Hindustan Times | BySanjukta Sharma

From Satya to Sacred Games: The agony and ecstasy of seeing Mumbai on screen

As the web series based on Vikram Chandra’s novel premieres on Netflix, a look at how differently the city of its birth has been reflected in cinema through the years.

Gangsters, killers and smuggling at the docks... Sacred Games, based on Vikram Chandra’s 900-page thriller, is set mainly in the Mumbai of the 1980s and ’90s.
Updated on Jul 08, 2018 10:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | BySanjukta Sharma

25 years of Jurassic Park: Giant reptiles that walk on the screen

In 1993, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film Jurassic Park showed dinosaurs as terrifying predators. The sequels became more about saving the wild, but the franchise continues to rake it in

Laura Dern and Sam Neill come to the aid of a Triceratops in a scene from the first Jurassic Park film.(Getty Images)
Updated on Jun 24, 2018 07:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | BySanjukta Sharma

To Titanic, the most Bollywood Hollywood movie ever made

The film is 20 years old, the ship is still at the bottom of the sea. So why can we still not let go of James Cameron’s epic?

For years, the Titanic selfie been a favoured pose for couples, going by social media timelines.
Updated on Dec 24, 2017 10:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | BySanjukta Sharma

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha has nothing lofty but is unapologetically patriotic

The patriotism in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is primarily furthering one of the most widely publicised social change campaigns of the government, even as the rural hero exposes some of the pitfalls of the scheme

Actors Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar and Anupam Kher during a press conference on Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, New Delhi, August 9, 2017(IANS)
Published on Aug 11, 2017 11:20 AM IST
BySanjukta Sharma

Should the CBFC be made powerless? Will that stop Indians from taking offence?

Offence is our historical burden, an inherited right, which constitutionally elected governments over 70 years have protected and encouraged. It does not matter which political party we belong to or which side of the ideological axis we tilt towards.

Pahlaj Nihalani, the current chief of the CBFC has been under fire for many reasons. Most recently a documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was forced to cut the words “cow”, “Hindu India”, “Hindutva view of India” and “Gujarat”.(Hindustan Times)
Updated on Jul 20, 2017 07:21 PM IST
BySanjukta Sharma

Women can’t ask for condoms, no to ‘intercourse’: What’s wrong with censor board

Cinema is always the soft target. Censorship is an old gag in India; under this BJP regime, voices against it are louder than ever before. No sensible mind in the government would likely find any artistic or cerebral match in the CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani, director of asinine Bollywood films in the 1970s and 1980s

Pahlaj Nihalani ordered a ban on Lipstick Under My Burkha because he thought was too “lady-oriented”(Agencies)
Updated on Jul 03, 2017 01:09 PM IST
BySanjukta Sharma

Poll register

Of the 900 political parties registered with the Election Commission, some small, fringe parties stand out. Here are five that made us sit up and take note

HT Image
Updated on Apr 07, 2009 09:46 PM IST
None | BySanjukta Sharma and Seema Chowdhry
SHARE
  • 1
  • 2
  • ...
Story Saved
Live Score
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Friday, October 11, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On