4th Dimension

I was discussing a research topic with a colleague. The name of a movie popped up in conversation , Ankush (1986), itni shakti hume dena data…wali movie…I decided to watch Ankush this weekend with bollywood drama expectations, assuming I would encounter a dated cinematic narrative whose relevance had long faded. But, film did not feel like a historical artefact; it felt like a diagnostic lens through which I could reinterpret many of the anxieties I observe among Indian youth today. This realisation complex me to inquire into how certain structural tensions persist across time, even as their outward forms change. The first striking continuity lies in the representation of suspended aspiration. The four young men in the film, frequently dismissed as idle, occupy a social position that is neither fully excluded nor meaningfully integrated. This condition finds a contemporary analogue, albeit in transformed spaces. Today’s “street corner” is often digital rather than physical. It appears...

After reading my previous post on joke outrage on a YouTube show, a reader informed me that the outrage happens because of the internet…I said, No!! it's not medium or even content, it's people and culture!!! If there is one thing India loves more than Bollywood, it’s being outraged by Bollywood. It’s a national sport, right up there with cricket and arguing with relatives about politics. Every few years, a film comes along that sends the moral guardians of the nation into a collective meltdown. The offense? Maybe a hint of cleavage, an actor uttering a forbidden word, or—heaven forbid—a woman experiencing sexual pleasure without looking guilty about it. The response is as predictable as a Salman Khan movie: protests, vandalism, court cases, and the inevitable PIL (Public Interest Litigation, or, as it should be called, Public Interference Lunacy). Before Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Raj Kapoor had already scandalised India with Bobby (1973) and Mera Naam Joker (1970). Bobby had pa...