By Nivriti Butalia

Here’s a confession: I sneak stuff into movie halls all the time — to eat, that is. Roasted foxnut (makhana) is my favourite. Either I roast it in the oven (I add kadi pata, ghee, salt or just zaatar and lemon olive oil), or I empty packets (bought from you-know-which-Indian-store) into the largest clean pan I can find. I then oversee the foxnut turn brown, but not too brown, because unwatched makhana burns fast, and the burn smell lingers, and then for 24 hours in the apartment you’re stuck with air that reeks of defeat.

Continue reading Why I sneak munchies into the movies all the time →

By Anamika Chatterjee and  Dhanusha Gokulan

“The gimmickery reminded me of  Zee Horror Show”

Horror entered my life when I was 12 years old. Back then, it was a forbidden genre in our house. My grandmother felt watching ghosts could wreak havoc on my brain. There were many things wreaking havoc on my 12-year-old brain, and a ghost on television couldn’t possibly have made a difference. Or so I thought until one day my mother reluctantly agreed to watch Bees Saal Baad (the 1962 Bollywood thriller) with me. The black-and-white macabre film, coupled with Lata Mangeshkar’s haunting rendition of Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil was enough to send a chill down my spine. What the film instilled in me, however, was an appetite for horror. As I aged, the cinephile in me signed a pact with the virtual devil — bring on the horror and I’d deal with it.

Continue reading Does the horror show Ghoul live up to the hype? →