Read with interest Coming Soon, Filmi cbms. Films like Veer-Zaara and Tere Pyar Mein only reveal the feudal mindset on both sides in treating our women as possessions, a proxy for our false notion of family honour.
V.G. Prakash, Sydney, Australia
Today’s generation seeks fast cinema, like fast food. Bollywood will have to keep pace and churn films with sensible scripts (Tell Me a Tale Anyday). Looks like India is finally fed up of actors and actresses running around trees!
K. Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
Your article The Dub Foundation has been an eye-opener. I never knew that my 5-CD Legends series of Talat, Hemant and Manna actually have blank CDs, since, as you discovered, they don’t have the oeuvre to go beyond CD4! Oh, and that mimicry episode of Kishore Kumar—I was sadly under the misconception that he was copying S.D. Burman’s style through the latter’s Nishithe Jaaiyo Phulo Bone O Bhomraa/Dheere Se Jaana Bagiyan Mein O Bhanvra (first occurred in Paanch Rupaaiyyaa Barah Anna from Chalti Kaa Naam Gaadi). Jokes apart, such lacuna-ridden writing (as in a thing), seriously justifies the label critic. It’s in a critical condition as far as logic, statistics, knowledge and musical insight is concerned. I am not from an Old is necessarily Gold and New is necessarily Crap school. In fact, I feel Kailash Kher has a unique voice. I still believe there is a future to Hindi lyrics beyond Gulzar and Javed Akhtar...in the able hands of Nusrat Badr, Prasoon Joshi, Swanand Kirkire and Piyush Mishra. I still believe when Sonu Nigam doesn’t go into apoplectic pyrotechnics, he can deliver the goods....
Srijit Mukherji, Bangalore
After criticising Indian singers from the last seven decades, you write about a Kailash Kher as the man who’ll save us from this tedium. How misinformed can you get? As if this wasn’t enough, Kher is quoted as saying that he "doesn’t have a role model". Wait a minute, isn’t this the same guy who wants to sing like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan?
Mou Mukherjee, on e-mail
It’s ironical that DUB when transcreated into Roman script means both ‘soft green grass’ as well as ‘sink’! When the song was well-crafted, it was like a mellow, deep carpet that one got into; in the absence of creativity, the songs just sank (and stank?).
Harsh Rai Puri, Bhopal
It was a pleasant surprise to meet Mr Mehta in person, so to speak, and to see his self-mocking portrayal of his brief career as a movie critic (When I Was a Film Critic...). Though as a film fan, I have to echo Iqbal Masud’s assertion that a film critic must take his job seriously.
Ghulam Y. Faruki, New York
Mr Mehta in confession mode? First Laloo and now this?
Muralidhar, Omaha, US
If Ash and Rani are Bollywood’s Barbies, Salman and Sunny are its GI Joes. And SRK, the toy-next-door.
P. Chandra, Portland, US
Your cinema special (May 30) was a wholesome read and a welcome break from the weekly grist that is the Indian political circus. Give the Advanis, Ambanis, Sonias and Musharrafs 10 issues but give us a collectors’ item such as this one once in a while.
Subhash C. Katra, Ghaziabad
First, you become short-sighted —vernacular cinema gets just cursory mention—then you focus entirely on Bollywood fare and pass it off as a complete analysis of Indian cinema. Worse, you make it an anniversary special! And don’t get me started on the opinion poll. The whole feature sucked as much as a regular Bollywood flick.
Vijayender Chaudhry, Bangalore
Reading the May 30 issue, I got thoroughly confused about which magazine I had in hand. I pay to read what is not spoken about, for insight into the happenings in the country, analysis and thought-provoking columns, not Bollywood bakwaas and good-for-nothing news.
Uday Gosain, on-e-mail
Walking past a theatre screening a new-age Hindi movie with the determination not to step in and be held captive to a feast of sickening visuals is an exhilarating experience that comes free. Three cheers to present-day Hindi cinema!
Manu Rajan, Bangalore
Earlier, janta went to the ‘pictures’, now they go see ‘flicks’. The heroes, heroines and villains are all there but in diluted versions. I miss the rebel (Zanjeer, Deewaar); nowadays I sometimes even fail to understand who the protagonist is.
Mayank Chauhan on e-mail
Vinod Mehta’s obsession with Bollywood has made us suffer 68 pages of rubbish, that too as a 10th Anniversary Special! What is the mot juste of Outlook? Is it a politicised Stardust?
Bipin Jhaveri, Jamnagar
Why don’t you change your masthead to Outlook North of the Vindhyas? Hello...Bollywood does not equal Indian cinema! And you are not doing anybody any favour whatsoever by promoting this stereotype.
Rahul, Maine, US
World cinema is still streets ahead of the puerile outpourings of five decades of mainstream Hindi cinema. Get real. So okay, from zero to one is a 100% improvement; but most of it is at the level of school drama. Take the much-hyped tale of the physically challenged girl (Black) where Big B hams the role of an eccentric teacher. No one seems to have been shocked by the appalling violence involved in disciplining the girl. Was that a teacher or a broncobuster?
M. Karlekar, Calcutta
I was most agonised to see the remarks on Rani Mukherji’s performance in Black (Plastic-Coated Prima Donnas). I’m not a Rani fan or anything but she hasn’t created a "caricature of disability". And her voice is neither intolerable nor does it lack expression. You have gone overboard.
Nikita Deshpande, Mumbai
If our actresses are supposed to look like they just stepped out of Vogue, than why fault them when they do a great job of it? I appreciate the fact that you remember our past legends. But we also have to remember the sensitive portrayals, the lyrics and the cinematography that ‘commercial’ films of yesteryear had. If some studio finds it worth recapturing, we’ll find the interplay of performance and audience reaction leading us again into an ‘upward’ cycle rather than the ‘downward’ one. Then we’ll get the stories, roles and actresses we want.
Narasimhan M.G., Hyderabad
Ajay Devgan a "middle-level gulli danda player"? I think you forget that he is a two-time national award winner and one of the most intense actors of our times. As for Rani’s performance in Black, it was all about accepting disability and celebrating life despite it. The question worth asking is: should the disabled be always portrayed as morose, dull individuals?
Ruchi Nagar, Chandigarh
Who is this geriatric? He writes as if he’s writing after a lifetime of closely watching the progression of Hindi cinema...over the last 15 years! Hindi film actresses are "stars" than real "actresses" because the roles require them to be just that. If you want "actresses" like Madhubala, Meena Kumar, Nargis or Waheeda Rehman, you have to get roles like Mother India, Saheb Bibi aur Ghulam, Sujatha, Kora Kagaz, Mughal-e-Azam etc.
Jignesh, Wilmington, US
Are our films worse off for the apparent lack of actresses and actors? Is a film an actor’s medium at all? Is it the director’s? When a film costs Rs 20 crore to make, I would claim it is solely the market’s (or producers’) medium. The point is all these actors do not matter as much to the success of a film. This is as true of Bollywood as it is of Hollywood.
Ankur, New Delhi
Outlook’s absolutely right, but neither Ms Rai nor Ms Mukherjee would bother reading your article, because 10 out of 10 stars are completely illiterate, self-absorbed creatures who don’t have any stomach for criticism.
Deepa G., Mumbai
The scene is changing (The Great Indian Reel Revolution) but we do need to work on storylines—original, credible ones (Tell Me a Tale Anyday). The article that made my day was Rahul Bose’s Met Cinderella at the Movies. Bose epitomises a completely different genre of actors—an artiste who studies, understands and truly appreciates cinema. Kudos for a piece written from the heart.
Krishna Tiwari on e-mail
I entirely agree with Rahul Bose’s Cinderella premise. I want to feel that magic—it’s the kind of cinema all of us have been cheated of. The upliftment, the soaring of the spirit—where has it all gone?
Vimal Krishna, Munich, Germany
Bose is like the ethereal coachman who is the shrashta (observer) of Cinderella’s rise and fall and rise, like the b.o. collections, aka initials, these days.
H.R. Puri, on e-mail
I believe the public likes the same stories (The Defanged Love Story). If they had been bored by the same stupid family dramas, then they would have put these directors and producers out of business. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened...yet. On the other hand, the ‘alternative’ movies mentioned have just made average profits, if at all. Ultimately, if the scenario is to change, then the public should take action.
Kaushik Adya, Hyderabad
You were quick to neutralise the ink of Aamir Khan (The Method, The Madness)—the best actor of his generation, with the banal eulogy on Shah Rukh Khan (Devdas in Pardes), none of whose performances stand the heat of scrutiny and who is there on the firmament just because of his power equation with equally talentless film-barons like Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra.
Sumant Bhattacharya, Ghaziabad
It sort of speaks of the state of Hindi cinema that Aamir Khan is said to be the best actor we have around. I would put my bet on Manoj Bajpai as one of the more interesting, underused actors we have around (it doesn’t hurt that you hear Hindi the way it should be spoken either). But I don’t think he’s likely to be on the Outlook cover anytime soon...
Anuradha Moulee, Sydney, Australia
Aamir Khan is one of the most over-rated actors in the Indian film industry. Maybe it is due to a genuine lack of talent in Bollywood where even Hrithik’s pathetic acting in Koi Mil Gaya is passed off as brilliant. By shrouding himself in secrecy, Aamir has successfully managed to build an aura around him.
Varun Venkateswaran, Michigan, US
Certainly, Aamir is one of our finest. Even his short takes in ad films are worth your time. He remains our one and only star who dictates both reel and real life on his own terms.
Dhirendra Mishra, Allahabad
The myth of pan-Indian unity has again been busted (Kanchi Conquered, May 30). The so-called Pope of Hinduism could not muster support in his own turf as evidenced by the fact that the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha’s S. Chidamabaram—the only candidate to contest the Kanchi by-election to the assembly solely on the Shankaracharya plank—polled a paltry 409 votes. He lost his deposit.
Sunil K.G., Mumbai
Though Clinton’s trip to Nagapattinam is to be welcomed, one wishes former leaders and senior bureaucrats would display such altruism while in power. During the Clinton years, the number of those deprived of medical insurance in the US rose by nearly 8 million and tax retrievals from the rich fell by 12 per cent. This is to say nothing of the tens of thousands of Iraqi children killed thanks to the US sanctions which continued to be imposed on Iraq while Clinton was US President.
Nagraj Adve, New Delhi
My three-year subscription ends this month amidst a number of seductive renewal offers from Vinod Mehta & Co. Goodbye Outlook, goodbye to Jha’s armchair absurdities, goodbye to Mr Mehta’s feeble attempts to obtain a Congress ticket and project a liberal image on issues which do not affect him personally, to your stupid movie reviews and motivated political stories, to a tabloid which should never have been allowed to run in the first place. Goodbye, goodbye...
Subhasini Singh, on e-mail
Economic reforms are the very soul of the present-day progressive world as Amulya Ganguli points out in his column Into a Blind Left Corner (May 30). Unfortunately, the Leftist parties, which are giving support to the upa government from outside with no stake or responsibility, are pouring scorn on reforms. Old habits die hard. They are worshippers of Red to the exclusion of any other hue, be it their own country’s pride. The PM must thus keep in mind that the real challenge to his government is from within, that is from those who support it from the outside.
Tarlok Singh, New Delhi
The dubious logic Amulya Ganguli uses in his attempt to prove that there is a consensus in India on the neo-liberal policies of the present and past governments shows the desperation among the proponents of these policies. He writes that the combined vote percentage of the bjp and the Congress crosses the 50 per cent mark forgetting that in most LS seats, candidates stand against each other and people vote for either. And every government that has pursued neo-liberal economic policies have been thrown out of subsequent elections. The consensus Ganguli sees is only among industrialists who have benefited from the reckless and corrupt divestment policies of the nda.
Partho Sarothi Ray, Cleveland, US
The Communists should know that Indians can see and perceive the growing opportunities that can be grabbed with individual initiative rather than waiting for the government to create and provide them.
Giri Girishankar, Marlton, US
Apropos Srivatsa Krishna’s column Wanted: Men with Guts (May 23), a handful of officers like Chandrakant Anil and B.S. Meena are responsible today for the country’s upgradation from "underdeveloped" to "developing", however cosmetic. However, all efforts of these few good men are brought to nought by our nation-building "leaders" whose vision has only led to a worsening health, law and order scenario. Even our erudite, scholar prime minister, with his carefully projected clean image is no different. Just after we read your article, the two extremely efficient and duty-bound officers were duly transferred, and the PM took pains to explain the reasons for such transfer on television. That he did so is proof of the fact that he and his brethren realise that the citizens would not see the transfer as normal or routine. Why couldn’t these efficient officers have been retained for another term, to ensure further betterment of the law and order situation begun by them in Shahabuddin’s Siwan? No wonder we live in a country where a human life’s as valuable as of a cow, or even less.
Sushanta Mukherjee, on e-mail
Delhi has never been a safe city for women (My Distant Cousin, India, May 23) and every fresh incident goes to confirm that. While the entire city of Mumbai came forward to voice its opinion on a recent crime against a woman, Delhi kept its mouth firmly shut. Proving once again that Delhiites are insensitive when it comes to such issues, all that matters here is your contacts and your money.
Abhinav Vats, Gurgaon
Dayanidhi Maran sounds sincere and honest in his interview (‘Reliance had wrongly interpreted the law’, May 30). Wish we could have more ministers like him.
Zulfiquar Ali Khan, Bangalore
