can you vish?

 Recently I came across a reel on social media that featured a glimpse from a Michael Jackson music video. Several users had commented under the video, of which one caught my eye. 'No disrespect to any other artists, but Michael Jackson is the greatest artist to have lived, ever,' - said the comment, which had gained validation in the form of likes from thousands of others by then. The comment got me thinking, was it truly the case? Michael Jackson is undoubtedly an artist of legendary status with millions of followers who grew up tapping their feet to the catchy beats of his songs - there is no donut about that. The controversies that surrounded his personal life in his last days disregarding, he would continue to be remembered as one of the world's greatest artists. But, is he really the world's greatest? Or, more importantly - is it possible to determine who the greatest artist ever was? Before I lay down my reasons to contest the aforementioned claim, let me admit t

Context: Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, recently announced a "Pure Veg Mode" with a dedicated "Pure Veg Fleet" identified by green boxes. This fleet will only deliver from vegetarian restaurants and won't handle meat products at all. While Zomato claims this caters to strict vegetarians concerned about food origin and handling, existing packaging already keeps orders from different restauarants separate. So, does this new green fleet solve a problem? India is grappling with increasing societal polarization, a kind of dark age. Introducing a color-coded system might create further division. People who already discriminate against meat-eaters could use this to target them. Furthermore, housing societies with existing, illegal vegetarian-only food bans might extend them to red Zomato deliveries. I would not be surprised if a mob attacks a delivery person, alleging they placed meat in the "holier than thou" green boxes. When that day comes, let us rem

  “Hey, I don’t see you around these days!” “Ohh hi! Well, I have been quite busy you know…now with the new job and all” “Even on weekends? You know I got a place quite close to your work right? I handle all these spots so that you can hang out whenever you want.” “Umm yea I guess. Maybe next week?” “Next week is what you promised me three months ago.” “Ugh…I will…try to come! My parents are coming every week anyway right?” “Your parents are good people but I care about you as well. Don’t you get it? Is there something you wanna tell me? I have seen you sharing some pretty controversial stuff about me online.” “Wait a minute. I do not think we follow each other on social media. How do you see my posts?” “Come on, you know I work in mysterious ways!” “I am not sure if I am entirely comfortable with that invasion of my privacy” “For my sake do not fret about it! Here, I have a gift for you. Wear this when you come to my place next week.” “What is this? A headscarf? Why? You know I don’t

Covid brought a major upheaval to people’s lives all across the world. Lives, livelihoods, and future plans were all lost in the deadly pandemic that hasn’t died down even though a couple of years have passed by. The losses have been humongous that I do not even attempt to compare the same with the minor setbacks that we faced while planning our wedding, and a subsequent trip to an exotic foreign location. It would be fair to say that our lives were also impacted by the same. After foiled plannings, some refunded and some non-refunded flight tickets, and countless email conversations with airlines, booking agents, and insurance companies, we went over the process all over again and the travel plan was finally set in motion in the August of 2022 - a good two years after our scaled-down wedding during the lockdown days. There are numerous decisions to be made while planning a vacation, the foremost one being the destination. The destination sets the tone of the holidays I believe. Many o

I do have mixed opinions about this latest Rakshit Shetty outing, impressing at times and faltering at others, but I am not here to talk about that. Indian Cinema is going through an unprecedented time, where the cinema industries across regions are exploring multiple territories, and viewers are also receiving cross-cultural content with open arms. Many movies, especially from the regional industries of Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam are getting released with the new tag of ‘Pan-Indian’ cinema, dubbing them in various languages in order to reach more people. The most common and practical approach adopted is to shoot the movie in the native language (KGF in Kannada, RRR in Telugu, Vikram in Tamil, or Jana Gana Mana in Malayalam) and then dub them into three or four other languages. However, while doing this, what happens in only the dialogues get dubbed while several other linguistic indicators, for example, the billboard in the local language, are often lost in translation. Her

Most of the film festivals around us were conceived before a time when the numerous OTT platforms or even the Internet was a thing. Those days, we could only watch the movies that were screened in the cinemas near us. Film festivals were probably the only way to get a taste of cinema from around the world. Now, of course, times have changed so much that a South Korean TV show was the biggest hit of the past year worldwide. We have digital platforms offering carefully curated, critically acclaimed movies. Content has never been more accessible.  In such a time, have film festivals lost their relevance? One look at the huge crowds who turned up for this year’s IFFK would tell you the answer is a big, loud NO. Film festivals are all about movies, and yet not only about watching them. The feeling of a community action that you get when you see co-delegates with their clothe-bags and id tags, the adrenaline rush from the careful scrutiny of the screening schedule to pick the films matching