News and Views

With several of his shows cancelled due to threats of violence, vandalism and even murder, Munawar Faruqui is a comedian who seems to be in the perennial line of fire of right-wing trolls and Hindutva outfits.

In this freewheeling chat with The Quint, Munawar opens up about the toll this is taking on his work, his physical safety and his mental health. Is he seriously considering quitting standup comedy? Does he feel he's being targeted more because of his Muslim identity? Catch all that, and much more, in this interview.

Host: Meghnad Bose

Munawar Faruqui is a stand-up comedian

Balraj Ghai is owner of The Habitat, a popular venue for standup comedy in Mumbai.

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After subjecting oneself to the banality of a completely uncalled for sequel, this exercise of then writing about it is even more tiresome. Fatigue has already set in.

Is it possible to talk about Bunty Aur Babli 2 without speaking of its predecessor? No! If anything, this new instalment makes us yearn for the original even more. Especially when a forgettable tune plays onscreen and we reminisce about the old soundtrack which is still fresh in our heads. Tune in for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Hello, I am Dia Mirza and all through my pregnancy, I smoked. Actually, I didn’t, but it doesn’t really matter, because my unborn child and I are a part of the 90% of the world that breathes polluted air. Breathing in Indian cities has been equated to being a regular smoker.

WHO tells us that air pollution kills about 7 million people worldwide each year. In India alone, there were as many as 980,000 deaths in 2019 because of particulate matter.

But these are numbers. Statistics don’t touch us. Data doesn’t shake us. We hear numbers, but we are moved by stories.

Tune in to listen to a true story — my story about my own pregnancy which was complicated by a bacterial infection leading to my extremely prematurely born baby staying away from me in a Neonatal ICU for months from birth.

VO: Dia Mirza

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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Amitav Ghosh, celebrated author and Jnanpith awardee, says it’s not him or his body of work that is changing, but it’s the planet that has changed. Climate change effects that are being observed around the world can no longer be escaped. “There’s nowhere else,” he says.

In this special podcast, The Quint’s Opinion Editor, Nishtha Gautam, catches up with Amitav Ghosh to discuss his new book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, which is based on climate change, the history of colonialism and how society has changed over centuries. In the book, Ghosh traces the trajectory of the spread of nutmeg from the Banda Islands to the rest of the world, which is symbolic of the wider sweep of the colonial mindset across the globe that brought both human and environmental devastation.

From starting as a weaver of tales of the history of people to almost straddling the world of climate action today, Ghosh has come a long way. He says it’s what one would expect.

The Hungry Tide (2004) author recalls visiting the Sundarbans in the early 2000s to research for the book. “The climate effect was ever-present. Saltwater intrusion, change in species, it was all very visible there. That’s when I started to take the [issue] seriously,” he says.

On the rich shirking their climate responsibility and blaming the poor, he says it’s a classic case of blaming the victim.

He remarks, for example, “There’s this brainwashing that someone will buy a Tesla and [it will] shrink their carbon footprint. The embodied emission in producing a Tesla is enormous... it has a huge footprint not just in terms of carbon, but other elements as well.”

According to Ghosh, ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ is the way forward for nations. The US, the United Kingdom, Russia, and European nations that developed fast have huge historic emissions. In contrast, China and India’s per capita emissions currently are smaller. “But again, we have to remember that the middle class and wealthy Indians' carbon footprint is just as big as that of Americans,” he says.

On the ongoing COP26 Summit, Ghosh says it may not be very different from any of the other meetings. “Already now we can see the huge roadblocks it has run into,” he says, referring to Jair Bolsonaro’s demand that Brazil be paid for preserving the Amazon, Saudi Arabia’s diluting of the language, and India’s possible brainwashing given its opening up of forests and coal mines.

Tune in to listen to the whole conversation!

 

Host: Nishtha Gautam is the Oped Editor at The Quint

Guest: Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer and the winner of the Jnanpith award

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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“Hum do hamare do” generally refers to a couple and their two kids, who help complete a family. However, in the movie Hum Do Hamare Do, the hero is in dire need of parents to have a happily ever after. Dhruv (Rajkummar Rao) is a self-made man. 

It’s this need to conjure up a family that then becomes the raison d’etre for everyone involved and we have no option but trudge along.

There is nothing in Hum Do Hamare Do we haven't seen or expected. In fact, even the actors have played similar roles in the past. No wonder Rajkummar sleeps-walks through the film. There isn’t a single stand-out moment for him. But Ratna Pathak shah and Paresh Rawal bring in so much credible potency to their roles that one can’t help but be invested despite the fact that they have precious little to work with.

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It’s for a noble cause after all. BellBottom becomes the first major Bollywood film to release in cinemas after the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also one of the first Indian films to start shoot during the pandemic. It's set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a number of Indian Airlines hijackings by forces hostile to India.

This has to be a separate genre- the “Akshay Kumar” genre- where all other characters can literally laze on a hammock and that would have no bearing on the story because our man Akshay Kumar is the only one who can do anything of consequence anyway. Also, we know how such endeavours are destined to end – with a national anthem, Tricolor et al.

Couple of minutes set aside for Kumar’s entry, then Kumar’s dare devilry and since its on the big screen even the interval ad will have Kumar telling Nandu off and then ends with Kumar sorting the mess. There is just a lot of Akshay Kumar! 

Tune in for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee Ghosh

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It’s been 22 years since the Kargil war. Shershaah is based on the life of Captain Vikram Batra who bravely fought for the nation and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. Now without this context if we were told the story of a young man who grew up wanting to join the Army, and is so fearless that he charges towards the enemies without a second’s thought for his own safety, a guy so dramatic that when his girlfriend feels a little insecure he cuts his finger with a blade and fills her maang with his own blood, we’d be tempted to find it all so 'filmy ' and unreal. But that’s not be coz this is the life our swashbuckling real life lead hero.

Sidharth Malhotra who feels more at home in the “peace time” scenes with Kiara Advani does a fairly decent job too as a man in uniform given the limitations of the script.

Simplistic storytelling aside there is a certain honesty about Shershaah that touches us. It could have been so much more evocative and compelling but still definitely watchable.

VO: RJ Stutee Ghosh

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"Vagueness of the law allows prosecution agencies to charge people. Even 70 years after Independence, our judges don't seem to realise what is sedition, what is terrorism," said former Supreme Court judge Deepak Gupta, who, along with four other former judges, called out the stringent UAPA and sedition laws at a recent public webinar.

The webinar titled “Democracy, Dissent and Draconian laws – Should the UAPA and sedition have a place in our statute books?" was organised by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms and the Human Rights Defenders Alert.

The panelists included former SC judges – Justice Aftab Alam, Justice Madan Lokur, Justice Deepak Gupta, Justice Gopala Gowda – and former Patna high court judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash.

Tune in to the podcast for more!

Audio Source: Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) and Human Rights Defenders Alert (HRDA).

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Mimi, streaming on Netflix, is a film that deals with surrogacy. It's full of dialogues and scenes that are a little on the nose, talking about the pious relationship between a child and its mother. However, the dominant presence is that of melodrama. Mimi is as filmy as it gets, and I don’t mean this as a compliment.

Tune in for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

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The last time Farhan Akhtar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra came together was for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, a well intentioned but tiresomely told story based on the great Milkha Singh’s life. In Toofaan, all the trappings of a commercial sports biopic are again summoned and a few minutes into the film the fatigue has already set in.

An underdog pulsating with passion, finds direction and purpose in life under the watchful eyes of his coach. All roads then lead to a nail-biting climax where his victory is inevitable. In Toofaan this trajectory remains unchanged. Ajju bhai (Farhan Akhtar) is the Dongri ka gangster who redeems himself as the skilful boxer Aziz Ali.

However, in its eagerness to impress all, the film simply abandons this narrative track and dilutes its own message thereby making Toofaan feel bloated and even unnecessary. Trapped by the requirements of formula filmmaking, Toofaan is more gas than a raging storm that it was intended to be.

VO: RJ Stutee

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