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[Ray Stings @Purba_Ray]

By calling Gen Z protestors and critics “Dimagi Naxals,” PM Modi may have accidentally confirmed that Aandh Bhakts have no dimag.

[Gaurav Pandhi @GauravPandhi]

Modi has started behaving like a toxic old drunk uncle who gets drunk at night and posts videos on social media calling youngsters "my fraands," then, during the day, when he is slightly sober, he turns emotionally abusive and calls them "Dimaagi Naxals."

[PunsterX @PunsterX]

Modi's use of the term "dimaagi naxal" wasn't random. Neither was it an original idea.

In his satirical book titled 1984, George Orwell coined the term "thought criminals."

They were people who hold personal, political, or moral ideas that go against the rules made by those in power.

Thought criminals were punished just for thinking the ‘wrong things.’

[Alex Veremeyenko @alex_verem]

This might be the most disturbing AI paper of 2025 ☠️

Scientists just proved that large language models can literally rot their own brains the same way humans get brain rot from scrolling junk content online.

They fed models months of viral Twitter data short, high-engagement posts and watched their cognition collapse:

- Reasoning fell by 23%
- Long-context memory dropped 30%
- Personality tests showed spikes in narcissism & psychopathy

And get this even after retraining on clean, high-quality data, the damage didn’t fully heal.

The representational “rot” persisted.

It’s not just bad data → bad output.
It’s bad data → permanent cognitive drift.

The AI equivalent of doomscrolling is real. And it’s already happening.

Full study: llm-brain-rot. github. io

[The Protagonist @protagonist_xi]

And 10 years later a decision was taken-

[Vaidehi Murthy @ButVai]

Not sure if sulabh or complex.

[Pradeep E @epradeep98]

Nice ad by Kerala Tourism.

#JohnLennon

[Mohammed Zubair @zoo_bear]

The Indian comedian Kunal Kamra was forced offstage after a political joke led to a mob attack. Unlike Jimmy Kimmel, he is unlikely to return anytime soon.
https://t.co/MxBxqgBH4u

[Aakar Patel @Aakar__Patel]

latest disco has come

[Raja Sen @RajaSen]

My review of #TheBadsOfBollywood.

--

Farah Khan for dummies
Stream Of Stories | Raja Sen

Back in 2007 when Farah Khan made Om Shanti Om, I had described the film as an award ceremony minus the awards: a series of in-jokes and celebrity-heavy sketches stitched around a reincarnation plot. Channelling entertainers like Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai and even Bimal Roy, Khan deftly and hilariously spun a reincarnation spoof that — thanks to the blinding wattage of its leading man Shah Rukh Khan — worked even as a straight romance. The moment that title track plays? Goosebumps.

The new Netflix series The Ba****ds Of Bollywood borrows a lot from Farah Khan’s playbook, but lacks her storytelling finesse. Watching these 7 uneven episodes is like sitting through a school play: it’s not ideal by any standard, but you indulgently give it your time because you want to be there for your kid, hoot at the right moment, click a photograph to prove you were there. With this series directed and co-created by Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, many of us may initially be tuning into this show in parental proxy. In support of the ultimate outsider.

The Ba****ds Of Bollywood is an insider story about the film industry, about a rough-around-the-edges debutant actor from Delhi finding his footing in a cruel and shallow industry. If that sounds reminiscent of Shah Rukh, wait till the actor within the show raises a trophy to the skies the way SRK had done with his very first Filmfare award in 1992. “This one’s for you, Ma,” Khan had said about the mother he had lost, the one who could not see him start to rule the world.

That is many episodes later. Meanwhile, that prescribed indulgence comes in handy during the lousy opening episode. The gags are feeble, the language is humourlessly crass, the characters not worth rooting for. (Would I have given up if I weren’t reviewing it? Yes, midway through episode one.) For me, the show kicked in only by episode 3 — either that, or my mind had given up and succumbed to the brainrot grammar of this slapdash satire. The Ba****ds Of Bollywood is like the ‘BollyBlindsNGossip’ subreddit come to life, all rumours and snark and pointing at celebrities. As the show rolls on, it is clear that the metatext becomes more important than the text itself, that meme potential takes precedence over screenwriting and story. The blindness means more than the item.

Created by Khan with Bilal Siddiqi and Manav Chauhan, the show winks so much it can barely see straight. Some of these winks — like a cameo featuring an actor known for on-screen kissing — are genuinely funny, but there aren’t as many memorable or insightful moments. It’s like watching an episode of Koffee With Karan. You don’t remember (or mind) the interminable chatter throughout the overlong episode as long as the rapid-fire round gives you enough. Khan and his gang may not be making a show as smart as it could have been, but they know how to light up a rapid-fire.

If you are an incorrigible film fan, you’ll find something to enjoy. Karan Johar is in entertaining form as the head of the movie mafia. There are references to actor roundtables, to newschannel owners so wealthy they don’t know they own the channels, and many, many references to Shah Rukh Khan’s films and to his life. From the Delhi paanwala celebrated on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai to the Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum funeral pyre, this one really is for Aryan’s dad. King Khan — inevitably — gets my top line of the series. “Oh, what a cliché,” he laughs, the real outsider acknowledging the fictional outsider. “What a nice cliché, no?”

That, to me, is the mission statement. The Ba****ds Of Bollywood wants to be a nice cliché.

Everything is familiar. The bonding between the boys is straight out of Luv Ranjan’s Punchnama movies, the industry machinations have a Madhur Bhandarkar hangover, and the use of cameos is reminiscent of Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance. The show overemphasises constantly, leaning on too many reaction shots, and flashbacks even to things we have seen moments before, like jewelry the hero gifts to the heroine. This spoonfeeding — or silver-spoonfeeding — betrays the creators’ lack of faith toward their Gen-Z audience. This may not be ‘Farah Khan by dummies’ but it certainly feels like ‘Farah Khan for dummies.’

As a director, Aryan is visibly skilled with fight scenes, this ridiculous farce switching to full-tilt action every time someone throws a kick or lands a punch. Perhaps those are simply the bits the debutant director enjoys the most. Either way, the way the show gets better as it goes along almost implies it was filmed chronologically. I’d therefore love to see what this young man makes after this.

Lakshya, who broke out with the action film Kill (JioHotstar), is too bland as the series lead Aasmaan. Raghav Juyal is more colourful as his spunky buddy Parvaiz, though the best (non-celebrity) performance comes from Sahher Bambba as the nepo-kid Karishma Talwar. Every character is one-note, but Bambba’s ease and softness allows the romantic bits to work. Manoj Pahwa as a disgruntled musician and Mona Singh as Aasmaan’s mother, a former background dancer, are predictably super. I was most surprised by a smashing Bobby Deol, playing the superstar who doesn’t want his daughter to debut with an outsider.

What is behind the asterisks in the title? The word ‘star.’

That may be the dirtiest word in film. Om Shanti Om told us that no matter how good you are and how much you want it, the best way to be a star in India is to be born — or reborn — into a film family. What Aryan Khan seems to be saying with The Ba****ds Of Bollywood is that the film industry might well be an incestuous petridish of foulmouthed incompetence, but that outsiders can indeed become insiders overnight. For all its savagery and potshots, that is unadulterated filmi optimism. So what if the celebrities always snipe at each other? That’s just… Star Wars.

--

(First published Mint Lounge, September 24, 2025)

[Does it even matter? @CookyDoh]

Has anyone ever told folks at LinkedIn that their UX for the like/celebrate/whatever-the-fuck button on mobile web is PATHETIC? I've had to clear my "activities" every few months because I've been liking and celebrating shit that people I don't even know have fucking written!

[Jeet @jeet561942]

Nepal’s youth obstructing India’s godi media ft. Aditya Raj Kaul of Adani’s NDTV

[Samar Halarnkar @samar11]

We are making a joke of ourselves

[Does it even matter? @CookyDoh]

@vip_nair

[Dr.Medusa @ms_medusssa]

Dukhdarshan: ft. Phytosaur to Bullet rides to Putin ki Potty

[Opinion Bakery @IndiaSpeaksPR]

Major breakthrough for the Bengali community

[churumuri @churumuri]

Different strokes for different folks.

In 2016, a "MODIfied Indian" filed an RTI with HRD ministry to dig into @ArvindKejriwal's admission into IIT.

In its reply, IIT Kharagpur revealed his all India rank in JEE (563), and provided his CGPA score (8.42) in an annexure.

[Chirag Barjatya @chiragbarjatya]

Thank you for leaving. Your core audience, the guy who tries to “win” 49₹ thinking aaj petrol ka kharcha bach jayega, they will do something better in life.

[T. Prashant Reddy @Preddy85]

Honestly, the dog issue attracted more outrage (and a 50 word edit from Guptaji) than the entire Opposition being detained and bussed away. Also an entirely new Income Tax law was passed in Parliament without any debate. Just another day in India.