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Mayank Shekhar

Mayank Shekhar

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Fact-checking Gabbar; why not?

Fact-checking Gabbar; why not?

Looking at the GOAT villain as Sholay turned 50. For, if you notice, Gabbar was ageless; not just metaphorically, also, literally!

yesterday 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Top Rao, Reddy, Naidu of politics

Top Rao, Reddy, Naidu of politics

The series Mayasabha mixes fact and fiction so wonderfully, even the Andhra titans it’s based on won’t endorse it openly!

14.08.2025 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

So, how far will you go for a film?

So, how far will you go for a film?

Drove 300 kilometres to watch a movie that I could catch at a theatre near me. What happened next kinda blew my mind

07.08.2025 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

On Ctrl-ALT-delete of ‘obscenity’

Spoke to Shakespeare, the sultan of smut, about what he thinks of the sarkar shooting down Ullu!; consider that he once simply posted an Instagram...

30.07.2025 7

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

How do you say, Ilya Naishuller?

Somehow, we associate European directors’ names with art-house cinema; how about a mini czar of crazy actioner, yo!

23.07.2025 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Say, are your choices immaterial?

Surveying those who’ve watched Celine Song’s beautifully lit, minimalist Materialists — dying to discuss this conversation-starter of a movie...

17.07.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Where did Nagesh disappear to?

Kukunoor’s series, The Hunt, on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination probe, is the sort of comeback he deserves!

09.07.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

BOM-BKK: Kya mangta hai, boss?

Isn’t there so much more to Bangkok, Thailand, than a bunch of frisky desi men gallivanting after a sales conference!

02.07.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Randeep, so not random, of course!

Handsome Hooda knows when to take himself seriously (onscreen), and not (in life, in general)

25.06.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Ishleen Kaur unravels motive behind Moose Wala’s murder

Barring the turban, and the language of expression, it’s equally a mystery to me how so much of current Punjabi hop-hop stardom fits so seamlessly...

18.06.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

The year’s greatest thriller, already?

There’s something about Karan Tejpal’s Stolen, that premiered at Venice, which has got film buffs and some of Bombay’s top filmmakers buzzing over it…

12.06.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Why Gajraj sets a great example!

As with films, in life too, the ‘second half’ matters far more than the first. Actor Rao is a case study for why!

05.06.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Pune highway via top ad pun-dit!

What is it about Rahul daCunha’s minimalist murder-mystery, now playing at a movie theatre near you, that keeps viewers hooked to its meaty plot,...

28.05.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

So, you all agree with Aamir Khan?

Superstar-producer opts for online pay-per-view for his next theatrical release, instead of going OTT. Isn’t that similar to DVD; only you can’t...

22.05.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

On atheism, alcoholism, with Akhtar

Ideally, you don’t argue with writer, conversationalist Javed Akhtar; you discuss, listen, and save the gems forever!

14.05.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Masala mayo with touch of wasabi…

If YouTube is indeed the new TV, who then is the new Mihir Virani? Hey, how about Mayo, the ‘Japani’!

08.05.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

So deliciously dumb that it’s fun!

What about the Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively sequel, Another Simple Favor (drops May 1), that makes us drown in such guilty pleasure?

01.05.2025 40

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Write the hell out of a horror film?

Going back-to-back from Khauf (Prime Video) to Sinners (theatrical release), you figure there can certainly be spook with substance!

24.04.2025 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Cellphone as cinema’s top villain!

Hardly a coincidence that everywhere you look, you find smartphones and social media as protagonists, if not the onscreen anti-heroes

17.04.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Salman hit/flop depends on script?

Got Bhai withdrawal symptoms, watched Sikander, tried to make sense, of the phenomenon, not the movie, of course!

10.04.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

So, still talking about Adolescence?

Hence, spoke to one-take artiste, director Philip Barantini, on his Netflix mini-series, that’s instantly captured global imagination

03.04.2025 30

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

All the world’s a phase; films too!

Hits and flops come and go, as they will. So do notions about Bollywood’s decline. Could the way a movie industry functions be worth a relook, if...

27.03.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Brilliance in the ‘Belgium of Bihar’!

Almost 70 percent Indians live in villages. Almost none in mainstream series. Gen Z comedy, Dupahiya, addresses misbalance beautifully

19.03.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

The fandom of the opera!

Can you watch the same stand-up comedy gig twice? No. The same, great musical, though? Again, and again! Why?

13.03.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Wading through Jallianwala Bagh...

The Waking of a Nation is more a dry, albeit fictionalised document on Hunter Commission, investigating Amritsar massacre, than a sprightly series....

05.03.2025 6

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

What’s it that Boman can’t do?

Film acting debut at 42, directorial debut at 65… I ask the indefatigable Irani: Is there an age to fulfill your dream?

27.02.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Big film moment to be happy, gay?

Chatted up Mumbai filmmaker, who’s done more for LGBTQ rights than anyone I know; now that his new movie is out in theatres too!

20.02.2025 50

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Getting to know King Uncle better

What they didn’t tell you in the Netflix documentary series, The Roshans? Went over to meet Mr Nagrath at his office to figure!

13.02.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Lyrical ode to a father no more!

Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda, a gentle Marathi romantic film won big at the world’s top (Sundance) festival. Here’s why we should be...

06.02.2025 20

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

How Ahmeda-bad got so good!

What makes Coldplay such a pan-India phenomenon that they just performed the world’s largest ticketed concert, in history—let alone their own, or...

30.01.2025 7

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Ploughing deeper into Paatal Lok

How this Hathi Ram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) heartbreaker wholly defies the ‘curse of the (crappy) second season’!

23.01.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Show that warrants full applause

Why Vikramaditya Motwane’s Black Warrant is sheer masterclass on how you can pick a book and dive even deeper into a series with it!

15.01.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Few things on our man Manoj!

Satya is up for re-release on Jan 17. Despatch is his last film. Both, 26 years apart, dive into this city as a crime scene. Thought must reconnect...

08.01.2025 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

‘Chadhi mujhe aisi, jaise daru desi’

Making a new year prediction: Sooner or later, the world will discover mahua as the first indigenous, tequila-like drink to savour from India...

01.01.2025 9

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Kani, so not from a cookie-cutter

Felt like saying hi to the actor, who’s delivered All We Imagine As Light, Girls Will Be Girls, Poacher, Killer Soup, Maharani; all in one year!...

26.12.2024 30

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Adorable delulu of being Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Went over to watch the BTS/making of 12th Fail, wondering aloud, “What am I doing in a frickin’ theatre?” A still from the film Zero Se Restart, a...

19.12.2024 6

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Can a series get bigger than this?

Spoke to writers with the toughest job in Colombia, or Latin America, even the world—adapting Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred of Solitude...

12.12.2024 6

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

What’s up with OTT industry?

Hung out with blokes working in entertainment to figure what they believe is ailing with a relatively new industry that was once pegged as the...

05.12.2024 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

For all we imagine as Mumbai

What can one say about Payal Kapadia’s Cannes-winning debut feature, except that you probably haven’t seen it yet, because top awards often...

28.11.2024 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Negotiating freedom, at midnight

If the web-series is indeed the new novel, then history as narrative non-fiction got seriously interesting for everyone A still from Freedom At...

20.11.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Mere pyare Vijay Matthew, 69

With all the darkness around, glad that the worst that can happen in a movie is an old man who may not complete a triathlon! Stills from the film...

14.11.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Saturday ‘sannaata’ on Bandstand!

Think it’s a good time to take you on a super-quick Bollywood tour of Mumbai’s coolest street; at any rate, among the most popular Bandstand at...

06.11.2024 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Dhamaka, on the making of Don

I’m one of 100-odd people to have watched the unreleased, uncensored Trump biopic in India. Not a brag. That’s a bloody shame! Jeremy Strong and...

31.10.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Just days in the life of J Dey? No!

There’s an unflinching nakedness, even literally, about Manoj Bajpayee, in Kanu Behl’s Despatch, that’s to be observed to believe Manoj Bajpayee...

24.10.2024 6

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Wasn’t Vettaiyan worth the wait?

It’s a Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Fahadh Faasil, Rana Dagubatti super-starrer: why haven’t you watched the film yet? Amitabh Bachchan and...

16.10.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Kehta hai Joker, saara zamana...

Think Warner pulled a joke, hyping up a two-location, art-house pic, for a global, mainstream, blockbuster max! A still from Joker: Folie à Deux,...

09.10.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

The CM as the angry young man

No more just a biopic, Dharmaveer 2 has no precedence, let alone in Maharashtra, for popular cinema as one-sided commentary/polemic on current,...

03.10.2024 3

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Among India’s most viewed actors

Taken me a while to find Bhopal’s Nandu, the smoker; just had to figure how he’s friends with Akshay! Actor Ajay Singh Pal plays Nandu Women...

25.09.2024 4

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Looking Kashmir, thinking Gaza!

Observing Srinagar shoot of Tanaav sequel, that’s dropped on Sony LIV, you’ve gotta ponder over the original Fauda, no? The Srinagar shoot of the...

12.09.2024 6

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Okay, IC 814—what do you see?

Twenty-five years after an avertable Indian aviation tragedy, a Netflix series that plays it safe, lands in trouble still! A still from the Netflix...

05.09.2024 9

Midday

Mayank Shekhar