Queen is Dead - A Film, TV and Culture Podcast

Hello Hello Hello! Overcoming the righteous elitism that plagues the day-to-day operations of Queen is Dead, Amartya, Cris, and Varun convene to discuss the evolution/regression of one of Bombay’s most significant production houses: Yash Raj Films. More precisely, the decline in YRF’s output is examined through their two major franchises – the  Dhoom  series and the  Spy Universe . A broad discuss...

In our final episode of this year's Pride series, Cris, Dhruv & Ashwin talk about English-language queer films as outsider "trash" art (John Waters' "Pink Flamingos"), genre-subversive art (The Wachowski Sisters' "Bound") & poetic melodramas (Terence Davies' "Benediction"). Much like the previous two eps, this final episode is another...

In this second episode (of three) of this year's Pride special series, Cris, Dhruv, Ashwin, and returning guest Prakhar engage with European Queer Cinema through Chantal Akerman's 'The Meetings of Anna', Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 'Querelle', and Alain Guiraudie's 'Stranger by the Lake' and how they navigate asceticism and excess in the landscape of queer mi...

Amartya, Varun, Cris, and Arjun conclude the Spielberg Sci-Fi series with the release of "Disclosure Day". This final (spoiler-filled) episode looks at how the film exists in conversation with his filmography, whether expectations were met, and how honest the message at its heart is. Divergent opinions are shared, along with equal parts of admiration and frustration. One of them (sorry,...

Amartya, Varun, and Cris (re)convene in a divergent manel to tackle Steven Spielberg's association with science fiction. This second in a series of three episodes looks at "Minority Report", "War of the Worlds", and "Ready Player One", and how Spielberg (paired here with cinematographer Janusz Kamiński) uses them to tackle real-world politics. References to Bollyw...

In our second ever Pride special series, Cris is joined by fellow Queer Cinema enthusiasts Dhruv and Ashwin to discuss how different filmmakers from different backgrounds and in different eras render queerness on screen. They explore what makes a film "queer" in the first place and how formally, narratively, and stylistically diverse they can be. This first episode (of three) engages wit...

Resident Star Wars Nerd Amartya introduces Resident Star Wars Noob Cris to the wonders(?) of the series as they discuss its latest addition: 'The Mandalorian and Grogu'. Insert obligatory lecture on the franchise and how much (if any) of it is relevant here. Much of this (technically spoiler-filled, though there's not much to spoil) conversation revolves around Grogu and how the three-...

Ashwin, Amartya, Dhruv, Varun, and Cris convene in a divergent manel to tackle Steven Spielberg's association with science fiction. This first in a series of three episodes looks at "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence". Minor digressions to address the cinematic spectacles known as "Jaani Dushm...

Why pick team Mammootty or team Mohanlal when you can have both? The first all-Mallu panel of QID—Cris, Ashwin, Arjun, and Devi—discuss Mahesh Narayanan's latest multi-starrer action thriller 'Patriot'. First, they talk about Narayanan's craft as an editor and director. Then they debate his writing skills. Unavoidable references are made to "L2: Empuraan" and star culture...

The girls who get it -- Cris, Ashwin, and Vik -- get it ("it" being the girls-and-gays-classic 'The Devil Wears Prada,' and its brand new sequel) and the girls who don't -- the rest of QID -- don't (they're not allowed on this episode). In this uncharacteristically civil conversation, the "girls who get it" discuss why "The Devil Wears Prada" has h...

Dhruv, Cris, Aryan, Srilekha & Varun (correctly pronounced, as per Srilekha, as "Borun") are discussing a(nother) A24 Film that's been the talk of the town since it released in cinemas last month. Since most of them were relatively cold on the film itself, they've decided to dedicate at least half of this episode to discussing the drama surrounding not only the film but also...

Dhruv's internet is down (and he despised the film everyone seems to love), so Varun takes over hosting duties of our latest episode. You know what you're in for then. For about an hour of this two-hour spoiler-filled episode on "Project Hail Mary," Varun manages to steer the (space) ship rather competently -- encouraging all our participants, including himself, of course, to sha...

Hello, Hello, Hello! This final(?) English and International Language Features Round-Up focuses on 7 features — 5 and 2 respectively. One took a big Academy Award home ("Hamnet"); while two others didn't ("Marty Supreme," and "The Voice of Hind Rajab"); three feature morally complex explorations of abuse ("The Chronology of Water," "On Becoming a Gu...

Hello, Hello, Hello! This second International Language Features Round-Up focuses on 5 features — 4 from Europe, and 1 from South America. Three of these are up for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards ("Sentimental Value," "Sirāt," and "The Secret Agent"); one is our performative appreciation for a film made by a woman filmmaker ("Sound of Falling&qu...

Hello, Hello, Hello! This first International Language Features Round-Up focuses on 5 features -- 4 from Asia, and 1 from the Middle East (technically, a European production, but we're counting it as Middle Eastern because of its setting, language spoken, and director). One of these is up for awards-season consideration ("It Was Just An Accident"); others probably ought to have been...

Hello, Hello, Hello! This third and final (for the time being) English-Language Features Round-Up is mainly focused on covering films featuring ensemble casts (look we needed a category for the remaining films we had to cover, okay). This includes fairly in-depth discussions on James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash," Rian Johnson's "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,&qu...

Hello, Hello, Hello! This episode is courtesy of PPC (Purush Pradhan Committee), a QID initiative. This second (of three) English-Language Features Round-Up is mainly focused on covering films about men, for(?) men, by* men (except when it is not). This includes fairly in-depth discussions on Clint Bentley's "Train Dreams," Richard Linklater's "Blue Moon," Derek Cianfra...

Hello, Hello, Hello! We're back after a month-long hiatus with our podcast episodes -- which will be coming regularly to you from now on, at least until the end of 2025's Awards Season. Rather than doing our annual "Best of" & "Oscar Season Movie Catch-Ups", we've decided to do a series of Year-end Round-ups of some of the most talked about films in 2025. These...

We know we're late to the party, but we had to talk about Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" and all of the discourse surrounding it, or at least try to. Dhruv is joined by (much to his dismay) Varun and his "crime-in-partner" Cris in this endeavour as they tackle one wonder after another (sorry, the title is just unendingly pun-able) that the filmmaking...

We recorded an episode about our favorite Paul Thomas Anderson films before the theatrical release of his new film, "One Battle After Another," but are only now releasing it post its online release as a "pre-game" discussion to our episode on OBAA. We track his auteurist trajectory — from the bombastic and tightly constructed "Magnolia" to a more loose-limbed work lik...

We're [now] 4 months late to the BEST OF (SO FAR) party because, well, just. The format we've been using for the past two years is as follows: rather than simply listing our favorite films of the year, we categorize them in the same way [insert any Award show name] categorizes them. Part 2, which was meant to be an hour long but also ended up being over 2 hours, will include discussions on our cho...

Hello Hello Hello! Bond fan(atics) - Varun, Amartya and Sanjeet get together to discuss Timothy Dalton's interpretation of James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). Timothy Dalton has often been noted for bringing a darker, more serious, and gritty portrayal of the character that emphasized the realism from Ian Fleming's novels; a departure from the more lighthearted st...

Dhruv and Cris meet Devarsi again outside the industrial hellscape of "Eraserhead" -- this time travelling alongside two new (hopefully recurring!) podcast guests, Rushnan and Vani -- on Lynch's "Lost Highway" to psychosexual hell. Listen to the full episode to hear us not only discuss Lynch's film in detail but also explore the myriad of seemingly oppositional ways -- from deeply subjective to al...

August and September were the lucky months for some Indian cinephiles who crave an alternate form of cinema (i.e., indie) to the mainstream one they have to endure for the rest of the time in cinemas. In this episode, Sanjeet, Amartya, Cris & Dhruv (in a not-so-special appearance) catch up to 4 of these films that released in limited cinemas between these two months. Since Neeraj Ghaywan's "Ho...

We're 3 months late to the BEST OF (SO FAR) party because, well, just. The format we've been using for the past two years is as follows: rather than simply listing our favorite films of the year, we categorize them in the same way [insert any Award show name] categorizes them. Because we like to ramble a lot, Part 1 of the Best of 2025 (So Far) focuses on our in-depth discussions of film technique...