"...I am willing to go out on a limb to assert that the second season (of the Sacred Games), scheduled to coincide with the 2019 elections, will be aimed at the end-game of showing the ruling dispensation in a negative light..." For someone resuming writing after a hiatus, predicting the story arcs to be crafted by one of India’s most skilful bunch of film-makers was a bold little assertion made on this very portal earlier this month. Thankfully, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, et al. didn’t make this writer wait an entire year to feel vindicated and returned to spew their toxic leftist propaganda within a month. Only this time, any pretence of a primary plot to ship the propaganda with appears to be gone. At the outset, I would begin by clarifying that horror is not my cup of tea. Pennywise the clown, who was beaten (literally) by a bunch of fumbling kids, haunted my nights for weeks after I watched IT, and a friend has had to pester me for days to agree to...
How media brands a fact based feature film as jingoism, while remaining blissfully oblivious to real propaganda based on lies and manufactured guilt. Having finished watching Netflix's new sensation in Indian — Sacred Games — the other day, I was in search for something less intense to unwind on a lazy weekend, when I chanced upon the thumbnail for John Abraham's Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran. The movie, to this writer, appeared to be the latest in a list of movies inspired from the most up-voted answers on Quora to the questions like “What are some of the most fascinating stories about India?”. Any Quora visitor would attest that the platform introduced thousands to the Dashrath Manjhis and Neerja Bhanots before their inspiring lives were lapped up by Bollywood and turned into (well-made) blockbusters. It was Quora where people first read about the struggles of field hockey star Sandeep Singh, felt proud about the Indian evacuation from Kuwait, or read about the ...