The week saw the passing away of veteran actress Manorama. The condolences poured in, and the odes were deservingly conferred. “A legendary comedian.” “An acting stalwart.” “A peerless character artiste.” That last compliment, richly deserved no doubt, however, got me wondering. Why is she peerless? Where are all the female character artistes? Where are the…

You know you like a movie but you can’t quite figure why. Your friend, who dislikes it, is meanwhile making all the perfect points. He’s talking about the flimsiness of the storyline, the subpar acting, the bad screenplay, but it’s all you can do to not get up and ask him to go shove it….

A hundred mouths opened in awe as the camera swirled around Mount Everest, and then descended to show a group of seasoned trekkers taking tentative, trembling steps across the precarious suspension bridge, in their quest to conquer the peak. Suddenly, the friend, with whom I was watching the recently-released Everest, told me how “awesome it…