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Barely an hour into Elden Ring From Software

Barely an hour into Elden Ring, the latest furiously difficult fantasy adventure by the Japanese studio From Software, I made a vital discovery: enemy warriors can be tricked into falling down lift shafts. Or off cliffs. I even managed to tempt one skilled and deadly knight to walk out of his castle and into the path of a giant boulder – a trap that had been meant for me. It killed him instantly, saving me an intense battle that would have probably involved multiple deaths and restarts. I knew that I had crossed an important, almost forbidden Rubicon – I was now cheesing one of the most critically acclaimed games of the year. Cheesing is video-game slang for beating tasks or enemies through tactics that while not exactly cheating, are certainly not following Queensbury rules. When you cheese a game, you’re exploiting systemic quirks or apparent design oversights to gain maximum advantage for minimum skill or effort. Players have always cheesed. It’s something I discovered via the 1985
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Kahaani never resorts to italicized emotions to get our attention

Enthralling, absorbing and engaging, #Kahaani never resorts to italicized emotions to get our attention. We are hooked unconditionally from Scene 1. Not many know this. But after Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh and his leading lady Vidya Balan were at loggerheads. Neither has spoken on why they stopped speaking to each other. But the truth is, Sujoy wanted Vidya to do Badlaa (which he eventually made with Taapsee Pannu). But she had other commitments. Sujoy told me, “It happens in all close relationships. We start having unreasonable expectations from one another. Balan (yes, that’s what he calls her) and I faced the same situation.” For four years after Kahaani, Ghosh and Balan did not speak. He offered the “spiritual sequel” to Kangana Ranaut and Kareena Khan and then returned to Vidya who said yes. The sequel about child abuse is best remembered today for the most absurd casting ever: Jugal Hansraj the heartbreaking moppet from Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom as a paedophile. In all other aspe
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What makes Flee, Danish International Feature

 Oscars 2022: What makes Flee, Danish International Feature, a watershed in LGBTQ+ representation Flee does not make a song and dance about self-disclosure and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen leans into it with quietly, and with dignity. As the Taliban seized Kabul in 2021, and the future of Afghanistan became a matter for all and sundry to discuss on television panels, the safety of LGBTQ+ people was rarely taken up as a topic of concern. It is befitting, therefore, that one of the most powerful films nominated for the Oscars this year – Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee – is about a gay man in his 30s narrating how he fled from Afghanistan as a child, and sought asylum in Denmark. This film has made international cinematic history with nominations in three categories – Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature. Rasmussen is a Danish filmmaker, and his film is based on the story of his friend’s life. It opens with a note cla
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Here is looking at the dialogues of The Godfather

Here is looking at the dialogues of The Godfather films that have inspired similar lines in numerous films across the globe. We choose not to rank these. Never let anyone know what you are thinking, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone declares with trademark dash in The Godfather Part III [1990]. The line is one of countless unforgettable dialogues in the trilogy, defining the essence of the character that delivers it. The world of the Corleones, however, would not quite be the same if the protagonists did not occasionally let the world know what they were thinking. Dialogues of The Godfather trilogy are definitely among the most powerful narrative tools Francis Ford Coppola uses to carry forward the gripping gangster drama across three films, which continue to mesmerise legions of fans decades after release. To recreate the spirit of Mario Puzo’s original novel of the same name, Coppola roped in the author to collaborate on the writing of all three films, Apart from replicating the mafia mi
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When food shows have become conten

When food shows have become content, the unassuming simplicity of Somebody Feed Phill got me hooked In an era, where simplicity has been traded for excesses, Somebody Feed Phil reminds us about getting the basics right. During the 25 years that I’ve been receptive to [and later obsessed with] films, I’ve picked up on some of the most inane things on screen. How Rahul Bose elegantly rolls his roti before tearing one end of it in Dil Dhadakne Do to suggest his royal lineage, or the way Abhishek Bachchan rips up a paratha, and smothers it with palak paneer in one of his least known films Shararat to underline his devil-may-care attitude. The cute gadget in Spy Kids, where one only needs to insert tokens into a microwave-like machine, close the door, and in the span of a second, they’re served Happy Meals, replete with crispy looking fries. Sometimes, I also reminisce about the time Farida Jalal swooped into Shah Rukh Khan’s kitchen in Duplicate, and ‘corrected’ the Japanese dishes by addi
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Sundance Film Festival 2022

 Sundance Film Festival 2022 brings in renewed hopes for movies, both that challenge and comfort The best thing about Sundance Film Festival is that I do not have to choose. The 2022 line-up includes movies that reflect the miserable realities of contemporary life or movies that conjure alternative realities. There was a time not so long ago when the Sundance Film Festival was in danger of being overwhelmed by swag, hype, and other extra-cinematic preoccupations. One year, if I remember right, there were stickers all over its Park City, Utah, home reminding those of us in attendance to “focus on films” rather than parties, celebrity sightings, industry buzz, and tabloid gossip. That is not much of a problem now. For the second year in a row, Sundance is not in Park City at all. Instead of traipsing up and down Main Street or piling into shuttle buses, the audience is exactly where it has been for most of the past two years: at home, in front of a screen, scrolling through a menu in sea
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It’s time we stopped telling 50 percent

It’s time we stopped telling 50 percent of our population that they are not required to operate in the ‘real’ outer world after 18 In a democratic country as large and heavily populated as ours, there are bound to be many levels of knowledge, understanding, cultural differences, societal attitudes and, most of all, opinions. Collectively, we can be counted as one of the countries in which patriarchal attitudes prevail strongly in certain areas. It is well accepted that organised religions are largely patriarchal, and India is proud of its many practising religions since its people are deeply spiritual when rooted in their civilisational values. These tend to affect society’s practices ranging from food, clothes, rituals and particularly beliefs about personal matters like marriage. However, when a republic, under a firmly egalitarian and secular Constitution assures equal rights and freedoms to all citizens regardless of caste, creed, race, religion or gender, it is for its people, thr
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