Yo @ZEE5India seriously sucky experience on your app ! Started watching a movie and 4 ads showed up back to back (all 4 of @policybazaar !) every 5 minutes!!! Completely spoiled the experience, switched it off after 15 minutes
Will the #worldcup be like this too???? 🤦🏻♂️
@DineshKarthik VK getting out in a very similar manner now twice in a row. Something to focus on and tweak maybe?
Yours faithfully
Armchair cricket enthusiast
I have a favourite Aamir Khan story that should have absolutely been the crown jewel of my Bollywood book, if I ever get around to writing one. And given that I spent 12 years in the trenches as a Hindi film journalist and critic for The Telegraph, believe me, I have quite a few stories.
But this one. This one is different.
Dhobi Ghat had just released. I reviewed it for t2, the entertainment supplement of The Telegraph. I wrote that while Monica Dogra, Prateik Babbar, and Kriti Malhotra slipped into their characters like second skin — effortlessly, organically, exactly what Kiran Rao's debut needed — Aamir Khan stuck out like a sore thumb. He hadn't found the sur of the film. He was, in my honest critical opinion, miscast.
The review ran on Saturday.
Monday evening. Late. My phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number.
"Hi Pratim, when can I call? Aamir."
I went cold. I knew what film people do when you don't align with them creatively. They get vengeful. They get vindictive. They have long memories and longer grudges. And this wasn't just any film person. This was Aamir Khan. The perfectionist. The man who doesn't do anything without a reason.
With slightly unsteady fingers, I typed back: "Hi Aamir, we can speak now."
He called immediately.
In that inimitable style of his — measured, unhurried, punctuated with those trademark pauses that make you hang on every single word — he said he had read my review.
I braced myself.
He said he completely agreed with me.
I'm sorry — what?
Aamir Khan had called me, a film critic, to say I was right about his performance being off. I couldn't process it. Here was one of the biggest stars in Indian cinema, a man with nothing to prove to anyone, voluntarily picking up the phone to validate a critic's assessment of his own shortcomings. The silence on my end must have been deafening.
And then he said it. The line I will never forget: "I was the worst of the four."
He ended the call with four words that have stayed with me ever since: "Keep writing what you feel."
Years later, when I heard that he had auditioned for Kiran Rao's second film — Lapataa Ladies, which he was producing — and that she had ultimately gone with Ravi Kishen for the role instead, something clicked into place quietly inside me.
No ego. No entitlement. Just a man who understood his own limitations well enough to let go.
Nothing had changed. He was still that guy.
Guys, very useful advice for potential visitors to South India in general and Hampi in particular:
1. Locals speak the local language there - imagine that?!!
2. Locals don't know how to cook local food - you are going to be totally disappointed.
3. Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of a ruined 500-year old Hindu capital city located in a rural area only has ruined architecture and most shockingly has no nightlife. Unbelievable right? Yes, I don't know how the locals get by.
Follow @Dhimahi11 for more such Social Media agricultural (farming) nuggets
delhi doesn’t know how to celebrate festivals 🙏🏼
i stepped out now at 10am and don’t see a single house with maavina ele? no kids dressed in new clothes? not even bevu bella offered on yugadi in temples.
why is this city so boring
Are these folks really sports journalists?
He’s saying he had a bad day on court, couldn’t move freely after a gruelling game which would’ve brought any one of those neanderthal nincompoops to their knees.
But inane questions MUST come! Not one appreciated his effort 😞
#WATCH | Indian Open 2025 | Delhi: After his loss in the round-1 match today, Indian Badminton player Lakshya Sen says, "I couldn't really play my game. Overall, the movements were a bit slow today and not getting under the shuttle to connect with but credit to him, he (Chun-Yi Lin) played a really good game...I was prepared for a really good match but today was the day I couldn't find my grip on the court..."
Lin Chun Yi takes it 21–15, 22–20.
Never easy to come back and play a final less than 24 hours after a brutal semifinal. Those matches really stay in the legs.
I remember the 2021 All England Open Badminton Championships. I had a really long quarterfinal against Akane Yamaguchi, and the very next day had to step back on court for the semifinal against Pornpawee Chochuwong. Let me tell you, it’s brutal.
Lakshya still had a phenomenal week. Beating Shi Yuqi and Li Shifeng in the same tournament says a lot about the level he’s playing at.
And Lin Chun Yi’s attack at times really reminds you of his namesake Lin Dan. Very decisive and explosive.
Tough loss, but smile Lakshya. For the general public, the All England Open Badminton Championships is often seen as the pinnacle because of its history and aura. But on the tour it is one of the four Super 1000 events we play every year, and opportunities keep coming.
With the kind of skill Lakshya has, weeks like this will keep repeating. Hopefully this momentum carries through the rest of the Super 1000s this season as well 💪
Not every inspiring sporting story ends with a trophy. Over the last few days, Lakshya Sen has shown India what courage, resilience and belief truly look like. His run to another All England final, through extraordinary wins and immense physical pain, has been about far more than a result. He has reminded young India that greatness lies not only in winning, but in the honesty of effort, the dignity of the fight and the strength to keep believing. I am Proud of you, @lakshya_sen . Very, very proud.
Throw back pic from my first film, Masoom.
On the first day of release, I went to the main theatre … and there were only two people in the whole cinema hall.. and one of them was me !
Those days ‘black marketing’ of cinema tickets was really prelavent .. young men, or even gangs, would bulk by cinema tickets and then sell them at higher prices on the day of the show.. of course if the hall was full ..
Except the first show on the first day for Masoom, the hall was completely empty !
Outside I got surrounded by some pretty angry looking young boys when they discovered I was the director .. they had lost their money that day ..
I must have looked pretty crestfallen. So one of them actually took pity on me, and said ..
‘Sir .. the problem is you’ve made an ‘article’ film’ .. if you want a career , don’t do that ‘
Article film ?? I kept wondering .. article film .. I realized he meant an ‘artistic film’ .. Don’t ever make an artistic film this young black marketeer was trying to warn me ..
Well, the Friday of release .. all the cinema halls were empty .. as they were on Saturday, Sunday , Monday , Tuesday ..
The Distributors of the film gave up trying to support the film. It was too expensive to keep the film showing to empty halls ..
I remember the feeling that day .. when they told me they had decided to give up trying to hold the theatres .. I walked the streets of Mumbai and thought about what I was going to do next in my life , for making films was certainly no longer an option.
Something strange happened on Thursday. A friend called me and asked if I could help him get tickets to Masoom. I told him that was a bad joke. But then ..
On Thursday one cinema hall had filled up .. then on Friday there were lines of people waiting to buy tickets .. and over the weekend the distributors were scrambling to get back the halls they had given up, and my ‘Article’ film was declared a hit ..
What happened that weekend ? People say in retrospect it was ‘Word of mouth’ .. but how could it be, when hardly anyone saw the film ?
What happened that Thursday ? .. I still wonder as am about to go into making ‘Masoom, the next generation’ .. years after Masoom the original became a cult film ..
Is ‘Masoom, the next generation’ another ‘Article film’ ?
#film #Masoom #throwback #directing #FilmDirecting #Career
That journalist needs too take a long hard look at himself in the mirror. Most probably won’t find a soul there, but he should at least put himself in the other person’s shoes to truly answer whether that was harassment or not.
I still can't get over this video.
How do they get away with degrading and pestering our national treasures?
These two bit vermins, these non-achievers, these Sanghi low-lifes.
There must be some moral retribution.
Goosebumps! People often ask, is Shakespeare still relevant? Here is a great example, from the Steven Colbert Show, in which Sir Ian McKellen delivers an extraordinary speech. Shakespeare’s words are timeless, urgent and important.
#Shakespeare#ianmckellen#stevencolbert
Congratulations to Mrs Ranjani Balasubramanian avl and Mrs Gayatri Balasubramanian avl on receiving the Padma Shri, a recognition for their extraordinary contributions to Carnatic music.
As the illustrious duo “Ranjani–Gayatri”, they have elevated India’s classical heritage with soulful renditions and a deep spiritual connect to every note they sing.
They stand as torchbearers of tradition, taking Carnatic music from Chennai’s sabhas to global stages. This national honour will inspire many young musicians, especially women, to pursue classical music with pride and devotion.