Elon Musk once sold us dreams that we weren't capable of dreaming. Now he is unable to tell the difference between free speech and hate speech. — Going to Mars has been a dream for astronauts, physicists, cosmology tutors, and of course, dreamers. And Elon Musk, the Technoking of the revolutionary electric car company Tesla, with the help of his billion-dollar startup SpaceX, made everyone believe that such a leap for humanity is possible in our lifetimes…

Just how Joseph K, without having done anything wrong, was arrested by the court in Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Munawar Faruqui is regularly being throttled by the Hindutva extremists for crimes he never committed. “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning…

Somewhere in the 1990’s, Richard Williams, an unconventional father who was often unbearable to be around, announced to the world that his two daughters were the best in the sport. And Tennis was changed forever. — I was skeptical while booking the tickets to Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard at BFI’s London Film Festival 2021. There was no palpable reason apart from the fact that I didn’t follow Tennis. I only dive into films and shows after researching about them, reading premises, watching trailers (yes, its…

Contrasts are beautiful, in photographs, in cloudy sky, in the green-themed burger chain, and in this year’s best picture winner at the oscars, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland. — While there were so many good nominees at the 93rd Academy awards for the best picture category including Florian Zeller’s The Father and Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, it was Nomadland which took the award back home. There’s a palpable noise in Chloé Zhao’s film. …

India is gasping for oxygen, but the power-hungry narcissist is probably more worried about his monuments, the US$2.8 billion Central Vista project, than the burning pyres in the crematorium. — I am anguished to see the state of India while it chokes from the deadly second wave of COVID-19. When you log-on to any of your socials, all you see is thousands of people in need of oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and necessary medications. People aren’t getting space at the…

Stay home and save lives. As easy as this possible world-saving slogan sounds on the surface, it is probably the biggest scam pulled off by the governments around the world. Because for autocrats, crisis is a chance to grab even more power. — It was 8 Pm on 25th of March, 2020, when the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, addressed the nation with a caution. He was quick enough to sense the dangers of a new virus doing rounds in China (barring from the fact that Trump was invited to India with…

In Shakespearean world, love was bounded by society, status and class. In Orwellian world, citizens were withdrawn from freedom of expression, freedom of press and freedom to live. Astonishingly, Hindutva world possesses all the above qualities, just it lacks the beautiful literature. — India, currently, is dealing with a moral crisis. Bestowed upon by the governing party, the Hindutva nationalist BJP, it is almost toxic to love, live and succeed amidst the growing intolerance on the grounds of religion. In the Shakespearean world, love was bounded by society, status and class. In the…

Consider the screenwriting process as that of architecture. Without a proper floor plan and design, there won’t be any building. It is the genesis, origin and the spiritual department of films. — Cinema is hailed as the most expensive art-form in the world. It is also amongst few of the youngest industries, with its roots going back to early 20th century. Over the years, cinema has evolved extensively. Many auteurs came who redefined the language of films. From popcorn entertainment to intellectual…

Netflix’s latest docu-drama, The Social Dilemma, barring from its unusual narrative, has only one ironic flaw. It exists in the same system that it despises. So is this article. — It was a cloudy Sunday. I was working on a long-pending script all day long. The screen time; mobile and laptop, had just increased exponentially over the past few weeks. I don’t know if that was a pandemic thing, or work-load, or just the enticing nature of screens. Not that…