Very sweet film that is out on #Zee5 today: #ChintuKaBirthday starring #TillotamaShome, #VinayPathak and #SeemaPahwa. It's about an Indian family stuck in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Life-affirming story. A reminder that basic human goodness is alive and well ♥️
(Cont'd) Of course there is more to it than one tweet can say - the role of the local boy, his tiny female friend, the US soldiers, the climax, the overall optimism all call for a discussion. But what can be said in one tweet is that #ChintuKaBirthday left me with a smile.
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My cousin just lost her son to #COVID that he contracted in 2020 and never recovered from. He had been terribly ill and declining for 2 years. He was a doctor, a father, a husband, a son. Before he got #COVID, he was also a healthy man in his 40s. (1/6)
I'm sharing this here because I see people getting careless as the authorities in India gradually ease #COVID-related curbs, even as cases rise in some countries. How fast the Indian public has forgotten the devastation caused by the 2nd wave last year! #CovidIsNotOver (2/6)
Wearing masks, staying physically distanced wherever possible & avoiding crowds are not favours we're granting to the government. Be sensible. Do this for yourself. Is life really worth less than a farmhouse wedding, a religious procession or a fair? #CovidIsNotOver (3/6)
Since I posted this video here, I've been touched by the warm responses from so many good people, but also startled by the storm of Sanghi spammers though I thought I was habituated to online misinformation and hate after so many years of facing organised trolling. (1/n)
Communal profiling, personal attacks, defamatory comments are all par for the course on Twitter. I'm tired of speaking up about this for myself since @Twitter@TwitterIndia@TwitterSupport do nothing. So today, I wish to address another aspect of this strategic trolling. (2/n)
Apart from aiming to mess with your head, troll bosses know that even if the targeted person doesn't amplify their tweets, some members of the public will see them when clicking on the original tweet. So they flood your mentions with the very propaganda you seek to refute. (3/n)
"Wherever #Muslims live, they don’t like to live in co-existence with others" - #AtalBihariVajpayee as PM said this in 2002 in which the Gujarat 'riots' were followed by attacks on Muslims across the state for a year. Full text of his speech👇(Contd) thewire.in/communalism/va…
As this profile says, "#Vajpayee reached a new low with the Gujarat pogrom that took place under Modi’s CMship. ..Not only did he not remove #Modi from his post; he emulated him by presenting the carnage as an understandable reaction by #Hindus." (Contd) thewire.in/politics/atal-…
Vajpayee's mask of genteelness was carefully constructed to fool most of the liberal media, public & politicians, who either fell for it or used it to mask their own opportunism when aligning with him, despite knowing his commitment to #RSS' hate politics. #AtalTunnel (Contd)
"There will come a day when the rotten mess of majoritarian & misogynist evil decays to its very core, collapses, and becomes the manure for living things." - A letter from feminist & historian #JDevika to Kerala's @WCC_Cinema. #Avalkoppam#Metoo (Contd) kafila.online/2020/10/01/how…
#JDevika: "There is no hubris in human history that has not collapsed under its own weight. There is a saying in Malayalam: adiyolam cheenjhaale valam aakoo – only if it rots to its very core can it become manure." #WomenSupportingWomen#MeToo (Contd) kafila.online/2020/10/01/how…
#JDevika's words to @WCC_Cinema should be read by every women, every activist, every member of a marginalised social group who speaks up for equality. It is a long and tiring road, and when you raise your voice, the backlash is inevitable. (Contd) kafila.online/2020/10/01/how…
Just reading that some members of the #Malayalam film industry have gone back on statements given in the 2017 actor assault case. I understand that #Dileep is powerful but whatever happened to doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do? (H/T @rimakallingal) (Contd)
People ask so casually, "why don't you complain?" even when a woman highlights something comparatively less grievous like misogynistic trolling. Here is a survivor of physical assault who courageously filed a police complaint, & look what it has got her in almost 4 years. (Contd)
Risk-taking #Malayalam cinema has got gr8 audience support in #Kerala in recent yrs. Streaming sites are taking it to audiences outside Kerala who were earlier deterred by poor show timings at theatres,theatres skipping subs etc. This is democratisation we must fight to preserve.
"The Kumbalangi Nights Phenomenon: One small step for Mollywood, a giant leap for Indian cinema" - I wrote this for @firstpost in 2019 on the confluence of changing circumstances that allowed a #KumbalangiNights to become a pan-India hit. Do read ICYMI
(Cont'd) The lesson: next time a producer/distributor/exhibitor/newspaper editor says, "only Mallus watch Malayalam cinema", "Hindi belt wallahs will not see Tamil/Telugu films", "Dalit/LGBT/women-centric films have a limited audience" etc, call them out on their bullshit.(Contd)