News and Views

Delhi of the early seventies. A woman appears, almost out of nowhere, and declares herself to be a queen – Begum of Awadh to be more specific. She comes with an entourage of servants, around 15 hounds and her two children - Princess Sakina and Prince Cyrus. What she is looking for is a palace befitting of a royal family. It takes her around eight years to get the then Prime Minister of India, Indi...

10 LeT terrorists launched coordinated attacks on several prime locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Many innocent lives were lost and some survived to tell the tale. The physical wounds may have healed for these survivors, but the memories of the fateful night are still etched in their minds. On the anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, some survivors rewind to the gruesome night. Tune in to the...

Hemant Karkare was eating dinner with his family on the night of 26 November 2008 when Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists orchestrated 12 attacks in Mumbai that would last for four days. Being the Joint Commissioner of Police and the chief of the Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorist Squad Karkare left the dinner only to be killed in action outside Cama hospital. Eleven years since Jui Karkare lost her...

How much can one really say about a film that doesn’t have anything to say itself? A character called Neeraj Modi (Inaamulhaq) - even with the last letter of the first name changed, it does bring to mind a certain fugitive diamond merchant named Mr Modi. He is the bad man here and as our leading men make a mincemeat of him, patriotism becomes the last refuge of Pagalpanti. “Desh ke liye ise aur de...

Hazrat Tipu Sultan — the 18th century ruler of Mysore who's long gone but he still can’t shake off controversies in modern Indian politics. He's perhaps one of those historical figures of India with an identity crisis. Different aspects of his rule have been highlighted by different people for political reasons... and there's really no consensus yet on how we should see his life and work in modern...

Indian cricket will finally embrace the pink revolution after initial reluctance when Virat Kohli's seemingly infallible side lock horns with a deflated Bangladesh in their maiden Day/Night Test starting in Kolkata on Friday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev recently courted controversy when he called followers of BR Ambedkar and Periyar “ideological terrorists” in an interview with TV anchor Arnab Goswami. Followers of the Indian reformers and social icons from across the country reacted sharply to Ramdev’s remarks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The sexual assault case involving former union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, grabbed headlines in August 2019 after the 23-year-old law student who accused him went missing after she posted a video on Facebook alleging a ‘sant samaj’ leader was threatening to kill her and has ruined many girls’ lives. Ironically, as the case caught nation's attention and was talked about all across,...

Former India batsman Yuvraj Singh, who bid adieu to international cricket earlier this year, has said that he is currently enjoying his life post-retirement. After announcing his retirement in June this year, Yuvraj, who represented India in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is, participated in the Global T20 tournament in Canada and is currently plying his trade in the Abu Dhabi T10 league. Learn more...

She is a tall, fair and pretty woman in her 20s who dreams of getting married and settling down abroad . He, on the other hand, is a 36-year-old shy and average-looking man burdened with family responsibilities and desperate to get married. Motichoor Chaknachoor tells the story of Annie (Athiya Shetty) and Pushpinder Tyagi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who come together despite having completely opposite...

Marjaavaan translates to “I will die” and one can easily come to this fatal conclusion after having been numbed by 135 minutes of the film. I was wondering what the problem with the film really is and then it struck me - director Milap Zaveri takes himself too seriously and so does the film. And that’s the problem, because Marjaavaan is actually a closet comedy. It does not mean to be hilarious, b...

There’s bad news on the economic front – GDP rate has slipped drastically to 5 percent and inflation rate has soared. Despite the bold steps taken by the government to revive the economy of late, the desired results haven’t been achieved owing to a rather complex situation. A few economists discern clear signs of a slowdown while other think it’s the beginning of an economic contraction – begging...

The date is 30 January, 1948. A little over five months have passed since India's independence from the British Raj. As the sun sets, the air is electric in Delhi's Birla House. The reason - Mahatma Gandhi is about to address a prayer meeting. Gandhi walks to the stage from his room, supported by Manuben and Abha, his two grand-nieces. As he nears the stage, a man wearing khaki breaks loose from t...

A dispute that began in 1949 and stretched right upto 2019 will hopefully get closure soon. The Supreme Court is set to deliver a verdict on the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid title dispute case before 17 November, and calling the case complex would be an understatement. Will Ayodhya finally see the end of the tunnel?   This is part two of The Quint's special explainer podcast on the Ayodhya dispute. Irr...

Here's what Oxford University professor and Punjab expert Dr Pritam Singh had to say about the political, cultural and diplomatic significance of Kartarpur Corridor's opening for both India and Pakistan, against the backdrop of Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birth anniversary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 16th Century mosque, the mythological birthplace of Ram and modern politics –these are the three elements that brought about a new chapter in Indian society and politics. The more we talk about the Ayodhya dispute, the longer the discussion stretches, after all, the legal dispute has been going on for 70 whole years. And whatever has transpired in these years changed its people, their society an...

Are you suddenly feeling tired? Getting headaches? Feeling that something’s wrong with your digestion? It’s probably not work, or food. At this time of the year if you're in the Delhi-NCR region, it’s probably pollution. How do we stay safe and positive in the time of toxic conditions?  You’re listening to The Quint. Pollution easily becomes the most used word in Delhi every winter - and it’s here...

The Virat Kohli that we see today leads the Indian cricket team in all formats, breaks year-old records with the bat, and inspires generations of young cricketers in the country.  But what was he like before he became an under-19 World Cup-winning captain, before he carried Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulders after India’s 2011 World Cup triumph, and before he made his senior international debut?  V...

Chaman Kohli is in need of a bride! A Hindi lecturer by profession who stays with his parents and younger brother in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, he religiously devotes his weekends to the pursuit of acquiring a wife. The only problem - his receding hairline that exposes him to unimaginable, often quite exaggerated ridicule at the hands of all prospective brides and their families! His students make fu...

On 31 October, 1984, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. In the three days that followed, anti-Sikh riots gripped Delhi and other parts of the nation. Sikhs in Delhi and other parts were targeted and attacked by mobs.   Official estimates put the death toll at more than 3,000.    Unofficial estimates place the number much higher. F...

In this special podcast on Begum Akhtar, The Quint’s Fabeha Syed caught up with writer Yatinder Mishra who has compiled his research on classical singer Begum Akhtar in a book called ‘Akhtari’. He also explains that how tawaifs or courtesans played a huge part in teaching mannerisms to children of their elite neighborhood, how the stigma of being a tawaif was washed away when she married an Oxford...

The Housefull franchise that birthed in the year 2010 has been consistent with its brand of humour. Frankly if you already subscribe to its brand of childish word play, WhatsApp-forward jokes, casual sexism, objectification of women and random bizarre plot lines, there is little in Housefull 4 that can change your perception. In fact there is precious little that can be achieved by going through t...

Made in China is a film that till it’s last scene doesn’t know what it wants to be . It starts off as a thriller when a Chinese diplomat on a trip to Gujarat dies mysteriously overdosing on what appears to be a killer aphrodisiac. Then one character speaks about how Indians might want better roads but what they really need is better sex! Raghu aka Rajkumar Rao is a harmless young man who spends ti...

Happy Diwali! The year’s almost over and Diwali is here again. I don’t burst crackers but what I do is talk a lot, so on Diwali I went around asking people some IMPORTANT questions. What does Diwali mean to you? What do you LIKE about Diwali? What do you dislike about Diwali? Spoiler alert: Most people don’t like the pollution. Anyway that’s the basic premise here, so listen to the podcast for the...

Saand ki Aankh literally translates to “bull’s eye”, and this comes naturally to Chandro and Prakashi Tomar. Having discovered their flair for shooting and hitting the bull’s eye well past their prime, these dupatta-clad grandmothers earned themselves the sobriquet of “shooter daadis”! Debutant director Tushar Hiranandani’s film Saand ki Aankh draws inspiration from their lives. The film begins in...