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Mayank Shekhar

Mayank Shekhar

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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

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 4

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 20

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 5

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 3

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 3

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 4

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

There’s a li’l India everywhere, no?

Hung out in the ‘Matunga’ of Singapore to figure out how the desis here are different from desis everywhere The Little India neighbourhood in...

28.08.2024 2

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Who the hell is Dinesh Pandit?

The beauty of sequel being better than original is with expectations low, the rewards seem surprisingly high! A still from Phir Aayi Haseen Dilruba...

15.08.2024 10

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

What it took Noah to sail on Ark!

How the Netflix doc series Sprint gets you into spirit of the track, at Olympics, that we experience only once in four years A still from the...

07.08.2024 30

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Sex, lies, & the desi woman client!

Called up my go-to guy for all things ‘gigolo’, to make better sense of the Netflix series CA Topper! Manav Kaul in a still from the Netflix series...

01.08.2024 2

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

Series of ‘reveals’ that never end

You’ve got to do a double-bill with Korangu Bommai (Zee5), Maharaja (Netflix), to say hello to filmmaker Nithilan! Stills from the Tamil-language...

25.07.2024 8

Midday

Mayank Shekhar

What to make of Ambani wedding?

Like you, I’ve been wondering about Bombay’s big, fat ‘begaani shaadi’; come on, let’s wonder together here then! The Bachchan family during Anant...

18.07.2024 3

Midday

Mayank Shekhar