News and Views

Rani Mukerji reprises her role of Inspector Shivani Roy. In her previous outing, she uncovered a child-trafficking racket. Years later, Inspector Shivani is now posted as SP in Kota. Still as fierce and a no-nonsense cop, this time around she is being challenged by a psychotic serial killer who rapes and then tortures his female victims . The misogyny mouthed by him is nauseous and the attack carefully planned.

We dive into this barbaric world where director Gopi Puthran doesn’t waste much time in telling us about a killer on the loose. It’s a relentless battle of wits, the crime committed is barbaric and the attacker always a step ahead of the police.

Tune into this podcast for the full review!

Let’s just call it Ashutosh Gowariker’s version of history, but even then Panipat: The Great Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow. The action starts from Shaniwarwada in Pune, the capital of the Maratha empire and moves on to Panipat - where the epic battle was fought. At 173 minutes, with an army of writers responsible for the dreary screenplay, Gowariker’s Panipat seemed to have lasted as long as the war.

Tune in to this podcast to listen to the full review!

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Let’s just call it Ashutosh Gowariker’s version of history, but even then Panipat: The Great Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow. The action starts from Shaniwarwada in Pune, the capital of the Maratha empire and moves on to Panipat - where the epic battle was fought. At 173 minutes, with an army of writers responsible for the dreary screenplay, Gowariker’s Panipat seemed to have lasted as long as the war.

Tune in to this podcast to listen to the full review!

The problem with films based on real life events is that one is already aware of how things will pan out. And so, the challenge lies in keeping us invested in the story.

In this respect, Hotel Mumbai excels. We plunge headlong into the events that led to the dastardly terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008, and director Anthony Maras – who has also written the screenplay along with John Collee – keeps his hold on the narrative steady and focused.

The cold efficiency with which violence is depicted and how it disrupts the rhythm of everyday life in the busy lanes of Mumbai has an accompanying foreboding tone that is hard to ignore.

Even as the background music is kept to the minimum, the unmissable sound of ricocheting bullets keeps us at the edge of our seats. A casual conversation between two people is suddenly disrupted as one of them drops dead.

For most of us, the memories of 26/11 are still fresh in our minds even 11 years on. We were glued to our TV sets as we followed the tense moments of the crisis; and so the use of real-time footage is both clever and hugely impactful.

In fact, the film even manages to astutely show the many lapses in security that happened due to the live coverage of the attack by media. The gaze is democratic.

Listen to the podcast for the full review.

Host: Stutee Ghosh

The problem with films based on real life events is that one is already aware of how things will pan out. And so, the challenge lies in keeping us invested in the story.

In this respect, Hotel Mumbai excels. We plunge headlong into the events that led to the dastardly terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008, and director Anthony Maras – who has also written the screenplay along with John Collee – keeps his hold on the narrative steady and focused.

The cold efficiency with which violence is depicted and how it disrupts the rhythm of everyday life in the busy lanes of Mumbai has an accompanying foreboding tone that is hard to ignore.

Even as the background music is kept to the minimum, the unmissable sound of ricocheting bullets keeps us at the edge of our seats. A casual conversation between two people is suddenly disrupted as one of them drops dead.

For most of us, the memories of 26/11 are still fresh in our minds even 11 years on. We were glued to our TV sets as we followed the tense moments of the crisis; and so the use of real-time footage is both clever and hugely impactful.

In fact, the film even manages to astutely show the many lapses in security that happened due to the live coverage of the attack by media. The gaze is democratic.

Listen to the podcast for the full review.

Host: Stutee Ghosh

Delhi of the early seventies. A woman appears, almost out of nowhere, and declares herself to be a queen – Begum of Awadh to be more specific.

She comes with an entourage of servants, around 15 hounds and her two children - Princess Sakina and Prince Cyrus. What she is looking for is a palace befitting of a royal family.

It takes her around eight years to get the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to accept her claim. That she had been wronged. That she deserved the dignity of a royal.

And a palace she is given finally not exactly what she had in mind but this would have to be it — Malcha Mahal.

If the name suggest any sense of grandeur, the place is devoid of it. Because well, Malcha Mahal is not exactly a palace but a 14th Century hunting lodge made of stone tucked away in the middle of a jungle in central Delhi. Over the next handful of decades, the mystery that the Begum brought with her would pique everybody's interests.

They were a lonesome lot, living in the middle of civilization yet so far away from it. They shooed away visitors, rarely appeared in public like the other erstwhile royals. They'd continue to live in Malcha Mahal uncared for, unkempt, in abject poverty like ghosts, unable to come to terms with the present till the last of them Prince Cyrus would pass away in 2017. And then comes an interesting twist. These royal descendants of Awadh were not royals after all.

There was an inkling that something was amiss about the whole charade of royalty- but what exactly was it? That was story that journalists here were trying to crack for decades unsuccessfully until very recently when the mystery was disentangled by Ellen Barry a journalist for New York Times.

Tune in to this podcast where journalists recount their visits to Malcha Mahal and their encounters with the recluse prince.

In Photos: The ‘Danse Macabre’ in Malcha Mahal

Editor and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha

Guests: Jaskirat Singh Bawa, Senior Editor, The Quint

Rupinder Kaur, Former Journalist

Producer: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delhi of the early seventies. A woman appears, almost out of nowhere, and declares herself to be a queen – Begum of Awadh to be more specific.

She comes with an entourage of servants, around 15 hounds and her two children - Princess Sakina and Prince Cyrus. What she is looking for is a palace befitting of a royal family.

It takes her around eight years to get the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to accept her claim. That she had been wronged. That she deserved the dignity of a royal.

And a palace she is given finally not exactly what she had in mind but this would have to be it — Malcha Mahal.

If the name suggest any sense of grandeur, the place is devoid of it. Because well, Malcha Mahal is not exactly a palace but a 14th Century hunting lodge made of stone tucked away in the middle of a jungle in central Delhi. Over the next handful of decades, the mystery that the Begum brought with her would pique everybody's interests.

They were a lonesome lot, living in the middle of civilization yet so far away from it. They shooed away visitors, rarely appeared in public like the other erstwhile royals. They'd continue to live in Malcha Mahal uncared for, unkempt, in abject poverty like ghosts, unable to come to terms with the present till the last of them Prince Cyrus would pass away in 2017. And then comes an interesting twist. These royal descendants of Awadh were not royals after all.

There was an inkling that something was amiss about the whole charade of royalty- but what exactly was it? That was story that journalists here were trying to crack for decades unsuccessfully until very recently when the mystery was disentangled by Ellen Barry a journalist for New York Times.

Tune in to this podcast where journalists recount their visits to Malcha Mahal and their encounters with the recluse prince.

In Photos: The ‘Danse Macabre’ in Malcha Mahal

Editor and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha

Guests: Jaskirat Singh Bawa, Senior Editor, The Quint

Rupinder Kaur, Former Journalist

Producer: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

10 LeT terrorists launched coordinated attacks on several prime locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Many innocent lives were lost and some survived to tell the tale. The physical wounds may have healed for these survivors, but the memories of the fateful night are still etched in their minds.

On the anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, some survivors rewind to the gruesome night. Tune in to the podcast!

Reporter: Divya Talwar

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 LeT terrorists launched coordinated attacks on several prime locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Many innocent lives were lost and some survived to tell the tale. The physical wounds may have healed for these survivors, but the memories of the fateful night are still etched in their minds.

On the anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, some survivors rewind to the gruesome night. Tune in to the podcast!

Reporter: Divya Talwar

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

Hemant Karkare was eating dinner with his family on the night of 26 November 2008 when Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists orchestrated 12 attacks in Mumbai that would last for four days.

Being the Joint Commissioner of Police and the chief of the Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorist Squad Karkare left the dinner only to be killed in action outside Cama hospital.

Eleven years since Jui Karkare lost her father Hemant Karkare to the 26/11 attacks, she is releasing a book 'Hemant Karkare — A Daughter’s Memoir'. Jui who is the eldest amongst her three siblings spoke to The Quint about her book and her father. 

Editor and VO: Shorbori Purkayastha

Reporter: Ankita Sinha

Producer: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices