We all have that one movie that made us believe that there are great & marvelous worlds beyond our own that we haven’t discovered yet. Which one was it for you? 

Friendly aliens, humanoid robots, whimsical cowboys, sharp witted assassins, magical children, vigilante rooftop enthusiasts, talking animals & dancing nannies. This was my world. It was a world my mother carefully created for me since she wanted me to learn to use my imagination.

I remember the first time I watched Amitabh Bachchan shake his head in fury as they tried to spray gas on him in Hum. I remember the funny faces Jim Carrey would pulled as he frightened gangsters while dancing his way around them in – The Mask. I also can’t forget Marty McFly’s skateboard from the Back to the Future movies. 

The moment I saw the DeLorean car fly as a 9 year old, I knew that my life would never be the same again. I always wondered how many cardboard boxes & electrical poles would Jackie chan succumb himself to before he can do no more. 

I loved film. I lived film. 

In the recent years, TV storytelling has become cinematic as well. If my decade long stint in the business of TV (in Mumbai, Singapore & Malaysia) taught me one thing, it’s that a good story can come from anywhere. I worked with brands like Discovery Channel, MTV, UTV, Start TV & Sony Pictures & learnt everything I could about the content business. 

Good instinct for catchy tales got replaced by machine learning & algorithms. However, the passion for a riveting tale stays largely unchanged. Everything about our life is a ‘good old fashioned story’ that we like to rejoice & sometimes deafeningly repeat to ourselves. Religions & languages were first transmitted as stories too. 

The stories we tell ourselves about our lives are mysteriously connected with the stories we wish to tell ourselves about our triumph against the odds & victory against adversity. 

My dreams of dodging bullets after watching Neo in the Matrix in 1999 (incidentally the first DVD I ever saw) – stay incomplete till this day. However, in the time that lapsed – I’ve dodged a few unexpected things. I’ve dodged hostile work environments, dodged manipulative relationships & even dodged fruit cart vendors as I write this. 

The internet is filled with blogs & websites that review film & teach you even how to make films. This blog isn’t about that. My dearly departed friend Persis lovingly titled me – The Movie Rogue. I used to write reviews for her website Tomboy Tarts before she left us a few years ago.

My writing on Cinema, Film & TV are an extension of a life & career – that I fondly remember & a passion that follows me to this very day. Through this blog, I hope to scratch beneath the surface of this pervasive & marvelous medium through which our exposure to the world is so often funneled. I’ll talk about themes, archetypes & my personal observations from the stories that excite me the most. 

We live in the most democratized era for content creation. Youtube would have seemed like a utopian dream in the 1970’s. Even your cat, dog or parrot can now be the next Tom Cruise! It’s only fair that a discussion follows & that’s what this Film blog is all about. 

Movies healed & molded me in ways that no person ever has. Some stories spoke to me & some shook me. Some stories informed me & some gave me vision. Film no doubt is a force of cultural change that cannot be ignored & through this blog, I plan to share my thoughts about the medium & about what truly touches me & provokes me as I watch on & invite you to join me. 

Welcome to my – Film & TV Blog