13 Screen Divas

5 Actress I Like:

Waheeda Rahman
Shabana Azmi
Meryl Streep
Cate Blanchett
Kate Winslet

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Indian Cinema in Transition — Part II: The New Myopia of OTT, Algorithms, and Audience Fatigue

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This article continues from the earlier piece,  “ Cinema in Transition: Marketing Myopia, Technology, and the Shifting Cultural Core, ” which examined how Indian cinema moved through multiple waves of disruption — from single-screen decline and multiplex corporatization to OTT fragmentation, rising ticket prices, piracy, and changing audience behaviour. The first part Argued that cinema stakeholders often suffer from marketing myopia when they see themselves merely as producers, exhibitors, distributors, or platforms, rather than as part of a wider cultural and emotional experience economy.  This second part takes that argument forward by looking at Bollywood’s creative disconnect: its weakening relationship with real India, real emotions, rooted storytelling, music, actors, and audiences.  Why Bollywood Has Lost Touch with Real India and Real Emotions Bollywood films today feel uprooted from lived Indian realities, chasing generic global aesthetics over grounded cultur...
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Book Review - The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass

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The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass | Goodreads ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly Recommended Gary J. Bass’s The Blood Telegram tells the story of 1971 not merely as a war between India and Pakistan, but as a moral failure inside the highest offices of the United States government. It shows India standing as a democratic bulwark, bearing nearly millions of refugees while the Nixon administration ignored, minimized, and at times enabled the crisis. For American readers, this is an uncomfortable book. It challenges the familiar portrayal of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger as hard-headed strategists guided by America’s larger interests. Bass reveals geopolitical calculation mixed with personal prejudice, institutional cowardice, and a willingness to disregard mass suffering. The crisis began with the Pakistani military establishment’s refusal to accept the democratic mandate delivered by the people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). It then attempted to solve a dem...
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Lyrics of Title Song from Bharat Ek Khoj

सृष्टी से पहले सत्य नहीं था, असत्य भी नहीं अंतरिक्ष भी नहीं, आकाश भीं नहीं था छिपा था क्या कहाँ, किसने देखा था उस पल तो अगम, अटल जल भी कहाँ था सृष्टी का कौन हैं कर्ता कर्ता हैं यह वा अकर्ता ऊंचे आसमान में रहता सदा अध्यक्ष बना रहता वोहीं सच मुच में जानता. या नहीं भी जानता हैं किसी को नहीं पता नहीं पता नहीं है पता, नहीं है पता........... वोह था हिरान्य गर्भ सृष्टी से पहले विद्यमान वोही तो सारे भूत जात का स्वामी महान जो है अस्तित्वमाना धरती आसमान धारण कर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर जिस के बल पर तेजोमय है अम्बर पृथ्वी हरी भरी स्थापित स्थिर स्वर्ग ओर सूरज भी स्थिर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर गर्भ में अपने अग्नी धारण कर पैदा कर्व्यपा था जल इधर उधर नीचे ऊपर जगह चुके वो का एकमेव प्रान बंकर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर ॐ ! सृष्टी निर्माता स्वर्ग रचायता पूर्वज रख्सा कर सत्य धर्मं पलक अतुल जल नियामक रक्षा कर फैली हैं दिशाएं बहु जैसी उसकी सब में सब पर ऐसी ही देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर ऐसी ही देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर......
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Kanpur Coaching Gurus

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Memories of coaching days at Kanpur are inseparable from me. I have done a separate post on Kanpur coaching mandi only. The most remembered image of my coaching days was the advertisement of Ankush Bhatia by Pran classes, and it was pasted on each wall of Kanpur. His photo was spread at distant corners of the city, showing All India Rank 51. Never seen any local marketing campaign like this. Sometimes, I recall the rush of students from one coaching center to another for seat capture, xerox copying of assignments, and 'out-of-course' study material. The JEE course was never completed on time in the Kanpur coaching mandi. At the end of March, the mad rush to complete the course began with various test series taking place simultaneously. I could not forget that pressure till now. I will never forgive Anish, Pankaj, and Vishnoi sir for combining their individual treats into 1 party for JEE-qualified students. For information on the pre-2000 AD days of coaching mandi, check this l...
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Beyond the Usual Canon: 30 Outstanding Global Science-Fiction Books and Series from Around the World

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Science fiction has never belonged to one country or literary tradition. Writers from Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America and Central Asia have used the genre to explore alien intelligence, political control, ecological destruction, cultural memory, posthuman identity and the limits of scientific knowledge. This list is intended for readers who already know the familiar North American and British canon. For translated series, only volumes available in English are listed. Each series occupies one numbered position and has one Goodreads series link. Solaris by Stanisław Lem -   Goodreads Region: Poland Format: Standalone novel Reading level: Complex English translation: Available Scientists studying an apparently conscious ocean confront manifestations drawn from their memories. The novel examines grief, scientific arrogance and the limits of contact with a genuinely alien intelligence. Roads...
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