Category: Archive & Comment

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Naseem Banu

    She was billed as ‘pari chehra’, the fairy-faced one. Her picture was in every paper. She was indeed young and lovely, her most remarkable feature being her large, magnetic eyes . . . (p. 169).  . . . thus wrote, Saadat Hasan Manto about the woman who was considered as the first female superstar of […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Noor Jehan

    The bittersweet relationship between India and Pakistan has always been sweetened by the countries’ shared tastes in music, and we’ve always (until the last 5/6 years) exchanged our musical talents since the partition in 1947. It pioneered with Mubarak Begum, Geeta Dutt, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Nazia Hassan — to name a few — […]

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    Rhianna Saglani

    Nepotism: A Catalyst For an Easier Legacy?

    Picture this: a young Indian girl brought up on Bollywood films and Indian TV and music. She sees the same faces and voices over and over again in almost everything she watches or hears.  But she doesn’t think anything of it. As she grows up, she looks at Western culture and sees a lot more […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Baburao Patel

    Film journalism has always been an integral concomitant within film paraphernalia. It has existed since the socio-technological upheaval caused by the rise of motion pictures and allowed cinephiles to refine their understandings of their favourite cinemas — what goes behind the scenes, directorial and cinematographic art, or just another list of fresh, upcoming productions — […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Mubarak Begum

    Since the release of India’s first talkie, Alam Ara (1931), music has perpetually sustained its position as an outstanding candidate for entertainment and refined aesthetics. It has witnessed several revolutions within Indian Cinema and – as a dynamic element of the Indian film language – has been subject to countless transformations, with the first-ever occurrence […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Madhubala

    ‘The biggest star in the world . . . and she’s not in Beverly Hills’, as David Cort titled his celebratory dedication in Theatre Arts Magazine (1952) to prophesise the superstardom of this dedicatee: a vivacious, versatile actor from Bombay, India, who would go to become one of the most iconic and cherished actors/superstars India […]

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    Laura Carpenter

    Laura’s FaceOfTheMonth: Ana de Armas

    Anybody witnessing Ana de Armas’ talent for the first time in the upcoming chronicle-film, Blonde, in which she is set to star as Norma Jeane/Marilyn Monroe, is late to the party – she’s already one of Hollywood’s most successful actors. Miss de Armas has been the lead actress in several American box-office hits, such as […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Ashish’s FaceoftheMonth: Bharat Bhushan

    Stories of great kings, warriors, demigods, and the paranormal heavily influenced the beginnings of Indian Cinema, soon becoming one of its endemic and prevalent thematic trope/subject. The release of Raja Harishchandra (1913) paved the way for the coalescence of similar narratives that soon were categorised as mythologicals and historicals, simultaneously inspiring an upsurge of individuals […]

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    Laura Carpenter

    The Sea Beast is more than a How to Train Your Dragon-styled pirate film

    The Sea Beast (2022) is Netflix’s latest animated film, and the fourth directorial effort from Chris Williams, following his work on Bolt, Big Hero 6, and co-directing Moana. The film, co-written with Nell Benjamin, feels like a spiritual successor to Williams’ Moana due to the stunning seafaring setting, clever emphasis on exploration, and yet another […]

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    Ashish Dwivedi

    Global via the Local: 5 Films from Early Popular Indian Cinema

    Indian cinema is humongous. With more than 20 regional industries, it has transformed its global reputation as an enthralling entertainment industry both within and off the shores of India. Amid these variations within cinemas, three particular forms of cinema have stood apart in terms of gross film production and thematic experimentation: the film-industries of Bombay, […]

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    Christian Wise

    In Defence of Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi

    Christian Wise re-evaluates Rian Johnson’s depiction of the iconic hero of the Star Wars saga.

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    David Mitchell-Baker

    The new wave of films championing diversity

    The Edge writers come together to profile some of the the most significant diverse films of the century thus far.

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    Rehana Nurmahi

    Hidden Gem: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

    Delving deep into the forgotten era of Disney, Rehana Nurmahi brings attention to a forgotten should-be classic.

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    Pascal Ezeabasili

    Black Panther, Science Fiction and the issue of representation

    Writer Pascal examines the newest Marvel release and its role in the remoulding of a genre.