iamadarshbadri

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Sookshmadarshini’ is a Malayalam psychological thriller

In every neighbourhood, there are detectives and the supposed mysterious characters. Every family holds that one character who tends to get sceptical of everything and does not and will not accept anyone’s word for it. There are also those who are on their bandwagons: those who follow their scepticism—curiosity even—into the abyss. There are also those who are extremely suspicious—they shield…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’ skillfully narrates emotions and suspense

Dinjith Ayyathan’s ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’, a 2024 Malayalam thriller, enmeshes emotions, familial relations, and mystery in his storytelling. Monikered after Ramayana’s Kishkindha Kaandam, where Lord Rama allies with the monkey gods Hanuman and Sugriva on his quest to bring Sita back from Raavana’s Lanka, the movie peals together layered narration of the search for the truth and the suspense that…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Santosh’ is a tense police procedural layered in social disparities

The Indian state works interestingly; it is powerful and powerless simultaneously. Take the police as a state institution, for instance. Even to this day, after seventy-five years of Indian independence, police procedures are deeply implicated in an individual’s caste, class, religion, and gender positions in society. Police stations, similarly, work to benefit the rich at the expense of the…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Manjummel Boys’ is a beautiful ode to friendship

We all go on trips with friends. Those car rides. Those stops on the roadside to sip a cup of chai. That loud music and too much noise huddling between soothing classical tunes and the nuisance-induced drama. That adrenaline rush. Everything seems fabulous with friends. But much for the bravado of one or two, things could get adventurous—and sometimes, go wrong in the blink of an eye. Manjummel…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s The Burden of Democracy

The birth of a new nation-state at the end of British colonial rule enabled sovereignty to be restored to the people for the first time in its history. People, who were, until then, mere subjects, could now be known as citizens—with social, political, and economic rights. They could exercise their vote now. However, seventy-odd years after this historical moment, India’s democracy is mired by the…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review of Avinash Paliwal's India's Near East: A New History

When a journalist once asked Jawaharlal Nehru how he would stop the ‘contagion’ of military coups across India’s neighbourhood [here: India’s near east], Nehru remarked that the ‘contagion [of democracy]’ from India would spread towards the other South Asian states. Since then, many things have happened, but India’s northeastern neighbourhood seems to be far ‘less connected in 2024 than it was…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Adolescence’ Brilliantly Captures Andrew Tate-style Masculine Misogyny They say adulting is hard. And just as I finished watching this Netflix drama series, ‘Adolescence’, the transitional phase from a child to becoming an adult—the process of adulting—definitely feels difficult.

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: “The Great Indian Kitchen” is a Wholesome Commentary on an Indian Household

Kitchen—one place in Indian households delineated as a space for women. Men, by free will or forced socialisation into patriarchy, are placed far away from all spaces near the great Indian kitchen. Since I was a young child growing up in a village household, I have only seen the kitchen occupied by women in my household. Now, every once in a while, when I go back home on vacations, which last…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Conclave’ is a Brilliant Narration of Vatican’s Papal Ambitions

I recently went with a friend to the cinema to watch ‘Conclave’. I thoroughly enjoyed both the cinematic experience, the frames and the colours in the movie. Until watching this movie, I did not truly know or understand how popes are elected. So, in a way, it was also an education. Edward Berger’s directional film, ‘Conclave’ has been nominated for the 2025 Oscars in eight categories, including…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘Dabba Cartel’ is Chaotic but a Gripping Thriller

What starts off as a dabbawalla home business in Thane’s suburbs spirals into a drug operation in this new thriller ‘Dabba Cartel’, monikered ‘Narcos Thane’. A homemaker, Raji (Shalini Pandey), her house help, Mala (Nimisha Sajayan), Raji’s mother-in-law, Sheela (Shabana Azmi), a former corporate employee and now a failed business owner, Varuna (Jyotika), and house broker agent, Shahida (Anjali…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: The 8 Show is Just Too Grotesque to be Good

In the Netflix series The 8 Show, eight participants, all in financial hardship—perhaps who have already decided to die by suicide—take part in a Money Game. They are trapped in different floors, with each floor increasing both in size and value. The person opting for the top floor (eighth floor) has both her money double quicker than the one below and so on. A Fibonacci sequence of…

[iamadarshbadri]

To Brush or Not to Brush Your Teeth

Many battles have been fought in the world over the years—and nothing comes nearly close to the one where thousands of Redditors come head-on against one another every year. And then, the following year. And so on. With each individual penning hundreds of words in anticipation of another thousand words in response, these battles are difficult to fathom. The climate change hoaxers come nowhere…

[iamadarshbadri]

How Emily Herring Brought Henri Bergson to the People

I had only come across Henri Bergson recently—a friend had fleetingly mentioned that his text on memory was difficult to grasp, perhaps. Thanks to Emily Herring, I now know that Bergson was once the most famous philosopher in the world. His popularity peaked at the height of the start of the 20th century. It had once caused a traffic jam on Broadway Street. People flocked in numbers across all…

[iamadarshbadri]

Things China's DeepSeek Does Not—And Will Not—Tell You About Politics

When Sam Altman’s OpenAI released ChatGPT, I was clearly amazed. ChatGPT did most of everything that Google did before it, calculators did before Google, and humans did before calculators. In the last twenty years, the internet has just gone crazy. Everything—almost everything—was now at the grasp of AI. ChatGPT told better stories, wrote better essays, explained better scientific nuances,…

[iamadarshbadri]

'Traffic Signal' is an Creative Cultural Artefact

It may seem odd to propose traffic signals can tell us so much about our culture. But, in reality, traffic signals are the gateway to one’s culture. In traffic signals, the young and the elderly alike cross paths—huddling through, juggling between, and striding forth—zebra crossing, meeting strangers, falling in love, reeling through heartbreaks, sobbing every now and then, laughing with (and at)…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: ‘All We Imagine as Light’, a kaleidoscopic view on life, belonging, and intimacy

Payal Kapadia’s directorial feature debut, All We Imagine as Light, is a poetic film about millions of invisible immigrants and their lives in Mumbai. Migrants from all over the country move to Mumbai city in search of a better life but struggle to belong in all its colours, fast-paced routine, loneliness and alienation therein. Kapadia’s storytelling in All We Imagine as Light is one of a kind.…

[iamadarshbadri]

Review: Squid Game season 2 lives up to the hype and expectation

Squid Game, a South Korean dystopian thriller TV series written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix, had become a cultural phenomenon overnight. Everyone talked about Squid Game during the initial days of its release. The series itself consisted of a secret contest between 456 players who are reeling through financial distress and poverty. They have to play children’s games—a zero-sum…