“Who’s there?” “Nay, and answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.” The two opening lines of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy, delivered by two palace guards, actually set the tone for the rest of the play. Who *is* there? Yes, we know the characters, most notably the play’s central figure, Hamlet, the…
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Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) lives with her grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet Khreiba) in the Mesopotamian Marshes, a wetland in the south of Iraq, where people must get around using boats. One day, as Bibi is rowing them home, she tells Lamia a story from the Epic of Gilgamesh. God told…
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Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni) sits by himself at his sister’s wedding, glumly eating samosas while everyone around him dances and celebrates to the song “Badtameez Dil”. It’s the perfect choice to watch Naveen ponder what the expectations are of him – that his wedding will be next, that he’ll marry…
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I was just thinking last week about how many police procedural films I’d seen recently. They range from the very over-the-top masala films where a policeman is seen to be above the law, larger than life and meting out a kind of extra-judicial justice, something writer Jinoy Jose P. called…
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“In the darkness, you try to imagine light. But you cannot.” Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) all work at a city hospital in Mumbai. Prabha is a head nurse, Anu is a recent nurse hire, and Parvaty is a cook. Prabha and Anu are Malayalees…
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I’ll admit to feeling a little – no, let’s be honest, a LOT – of trepidation about watching Kill. I’m very squeamish when it comes to violence and genre films are generally not my thing. But I was curious because the film comes from a partnership of production houses Dharma…
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Once upon a time, there was Zoe (Lily James), an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and Kaz (Shazad Latif), a doctor. Zoe and Kaz are childhood friends, with their families are neighbours. But one day, Kaz tells Zoe that he has decided to get married – that is, that he has decided…
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“I am the Fury,” growls Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) as she looks into the camera being held by her sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), and then attempts a 540 kick that she hopes will be her signature move in the career she’s aiming at: stuntwoman. Ria fails, and will continue to…
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Saim Sadiq’s Joyland opens with a figure covered in a sheet, almost like a ghost, unable to see – this is Haider (Ali Junejo), the youngest son of Abba (Salmaan Peerzada) the patriarch of this conservative, traditional family in Lahore. But Haider is anything but conservative and traditional. He is…
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