can you vish?

 If you know me personally, you might also know that I am a regular at the International Film Festval of Kerala, held annually in December at Thiruvananthapuram (and if you don’t know me personally, just read the first sentence). A habit that started during my Thiruvananthapuram days in 2016, I look forward and try to attend the week long celebration of cinema - unless life or a killer virus gets in the way. Prologue Since the dates for the next fest are officially announced during the conclusion of the current fest, what follows is an year long wait. Nothing significant happens for the most part of the year, so let us skip ahead to November - when the registration opens for delegates. Yes, we know that there are over ten thousand delegate passes and registration window usually lasts days - still most of my friends (and I) hit the servers with a passion  until our registrations go through. Once that is done, the wait begins for the schedule to be released - where we would come...

Last day, I had the misfortune of interacting with the husband of one of my cousins at a family event. Since we’ve already established my feelings toward him, let me clarify that he is not an evil person. It’s just that our ideologies and outlooks toward life could poetically be described as Yin-Yang—completely opposite, with no common ground. That’s fine; everyone is entitled to their vision, as long as they don’t try to claim their vision as the only correct one and attempt to shove it on others who haven’t asked for advice. After exchanging pleasantries, we got down to the “real talk.” He started by asking me why I am still sticking around here (India) and not moving abroad. To set the context, he has been working in the Middle East ever since I first met him at my cousin’s wedding, around fourteen years ago. His wife and kids, who used to live with him, recently moved to Canada, possibly to settle there once he retires. Of course, moving abroad seems to be the trend (or even the no...

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 match...

  This is what happened. A youngster shot a girl dead in Kerala, and then killed himself. The police are investigating the case, and prominent theories suggest that the two were in a relationship, she ended the relationship for reasons unknown and he committed the crime as an act of revenge. Most people reacted to the news with utter disbelief, and anger. But let us talk about the people in the screen-shot and their disgusting comments. I will give a sense of the comments for those who don't know Malayalam. The first comment is a textbook example of victim blaming. The person says that the girl might have dumped him which was why he got enraged. “Equal blame on both”, the comment say. The second comment goes on to empathize with the killer, highlighting the pain he must have gone through to take such a drastic step. And there are many other comments conveying similar sentiments. In a society where the term dating is largely unheard of, many people believe ending a relationship is s...