e Magus

Call it peer pressure, FOMO, curiosity, or whatever you will—last weekend, I succumbed to the temptation of watching the Malayalam movie Marco on OTT. After a lot of fast-forwarding and watching mostly on mute, I survived the ordeal. What surprised me was that this was one of the biggest box office hits in the Malayalam film industry! The fact that it became a hit, while surprising, isn’t entirely unexpected. There have been numerous movies across languages that have followed the same template—hyper-masculine, ultra-violent, larger-than-life spectacles with slick production. A few that come to mind: Animal, Jawan, KGF, Pushpa, and so on. Cinema has always been a mirror. The smouldering angst of the Angry Young Man in the ’70s reflected a generation’s disillusionment. The Yash Chopra-fied romances of the ’90s were love letters to an aspirational, globalised India. Even earlier, post-independence films explored a society in transition—grappling with socialism, poverty, and change. This...

  In the North-East corner of the ‘kolai’ (portico/veranda) in my parent’s house in Kerala, there is a furniture that is most in demand for every generation of the family members. The easy chair - Charu Kasera. It was once an ubiquitous furniture in most houses in Kerala… however, now-a-days, I find it at few homes. The disappearance of the easy chair isn’t just about furniture—it’s about changing family dynamics, the evolution of leisure, and the way our lives have become structured differently. The easy chair, often a cane or wooden recliner, or a foldable one with cloth,   with an extended leg rest, was once a fixture in Kerala, and also in maybe many other homes in India. It was more than just a piece of furniture—it was a throne of authority and relaxation, usually reserved for the eldest in the household. There was an unwritten rule: this was karnavar’s chair (an Hindi equivalent would be Dadaji’s Chair) , and its occupation by anyone else was a transgression of hierarch...

I was watching The Dark Knight with my kid the other night on Netflix. My 13-year-old got totally engrossed in the epic battle between Batman and the Joker. But as the story unfolded, I couldn’t help but think (in the backdrop of BJP’s sweeping victory in Delhi elections after 24 years): Is this movie, in some weird way, about the rise of the right in politics? The character of Harvey Dent in the movie is a perfect example. He starts off as the “White Knight” of Gotham, representing justice and order, much like what we see in societies that lean towards left-wing ideals—social justice, equality, and fairness. But, as his character unravels, it’s clear he’s not as infallible as he seemed. His descent into chaos, after the Joker pushes him past his breaking point, is like a metaphor for how ideologies can get twisted when they push too far. There’s always a breaking point, a moment when something radical takes over. And suddenly, Dent—the good guy—becomes the villain. This descent into ...