Shilajit Mitra

Jan 15, 2025 | thehindu.com | Shilajit Mitra

Paatal Lok was a landmark show of the first wave of Indian streaming. A violent, many-splendoured police thriller, it debuted during the pandemic and blew up instantly, marrying the allure of binge television to blistering social critique. Along with Sacred Games, it was among a handful of titles that got away—streaming platforms, hounded by FIRs and summons, soon bowed to self-censorship. After a puzzlingly long gap, the returning season of Paatal Lok premieres on January 17 on Prime Video.

Jan 13, 2025 | thehindu.com | Shilajit Mitra

It was a moment of national swooning. The Bollywood film Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai released on January 14, 2000. At the dawn of the new millennium, it put the country into overdrive. Bolstered by an aggressive publicity blitz, word had already spread about its otherworldly star. He had hazel eyes and a silvery smile. His Stallone-like build betrayed a schoolboy’s charm. He was 27 years old. And, it was rumoured, he could dance.

Jan 10, 2025 | thehindu.com | Shilajit Mitra

In the 1920s, a young George Orwell was posted in Burma, as part of the Indian Imperial Police. In a famous essay titled A Hanging — written, in all likelihood, from lived experience — Orwell describes the morning of a prison execution. His unnamed narrator contrasts the minutiae of prison life with the moral shock of capital punishment. “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man,” he writes.

Jan 9, 2025 | thehindu.com | Shilajit Mitra

Pritish Nandy, poet, producer, magazine editor and parliamentarian, died of a cardiac arrest in Mumbai on Wednesday (January 8, 2025). He was 73. Nandy was one of those unique bridge-builders in Indian arts and letters. If a path seemed to present itself, Nandy forged ahead, decisive and undaunted. In a dizzyingly diverse career, he offered a synthesis between poetry and prose, between print and television, between highbrow artistic endeavour and popular taste.

Nov 29, 2024 | thehindu.com | Shilajit Mitra

Whistles and hoots replaced the post-lunch somnolence as Telugu star Allu Arjun arrived at a Mumbai venue to promote Pushpa 2: The Rule. After his stops in Patna and Kochi, Arjun, dressed in his hallmark black, greeted the national media and urged audiences to witness the much-anticipated sequel in theatres. One of the biggest pan-India releases of the year, the film is set to open in 12,500 screens worldwide in six languages.