Queen is Dead - A Film, TV and Culture Podcast

Hello, Hello, Hello!   In this very special, if slightly delayed episode, Dhruv & Amartya are joined by returning guest Cris (now " not the token queer representation for QID"), reincarnated host-cum-guest Aryan (from America), and first-time-but-hopefully-recurring-guest Prakhar Patidar, to talk about the film every Indie Awards Circuit talk show and Indian cinephile is currently talking abou...

Hello Hello Hello! In this new episode, we discuss two films -- "Gladiator 2" and "Megalopolis" -- directed by two stalwarts of Hollywood cinema -- Ridley Scott and Francis Ford Coppola -- that embody two different filmmaking ethos. Gladiator 2 is the quintessential Hollywood sequel to the 2000 film "Gladiator," winner of the "Best Picture" Academy Award that year. It's bigger, safer, and same-r -...

It's no longer Halloween Month because we're one day late in uploading this, but regardless, here's our penultimate ep on Kubrick (one more for Noirvember!) and the final episode for Spooky Season! Hemant and Amartya have ditched Dhruv on his much-anticipated trip to the Overlook Hotel, but he's joined by two returning guests -- the perpetually disgruntled Varun and the perpetually enthusiastic Ar...

In our third Halloween-themed episode this month, Varun (playing podcast host) and Dhruv discuss a sub-genre of British horror films best characterized as a cross between classy and exploitation horror. (Think, as Varun says, "somewhere between the B-movie camp classics made by the Ramsay Brothers and Edgar Wright's "Last Night in Soho"). Treating this episode as our introduction to this sub-genre...

In our second Halloween-themed episode this month, Dhruv and Amartya are joined by returning guest Arijit (last heard in our “Elevated” Horror film discussion!) to talk about a LOT of 2024 horror films that have already been released and are available to watch online. We first go through a lot of titles we have already discussed in other episodes, asking Arijit to share his non-spoilery thoughts o...

In the first (of four!) episodes planned for Halloween month, we're entering not the King-sized American genre worlds populated by slasher killers, raging alcoholics, and traumatized ghosts but a distinctly Greek one. This, as our guest, Panos Liakos (NYU graduate; freelance writer for The New Herald), tells us, is the "Yorgos Cosmos" -- built on exploring the tragi-comic absurdity of human existe...

It's no longer Kubrick Month because we're late recording and uploading this and P4, but regardless, we're here to complete our Kubrickian Odysseys!   Dhruv, Amartya, and Hemant have spent the entirety of July (and will now spend the last week of August and the first week of September) revisiting and discussing 10 (of 13) Kubrick-directed films (the Horror and Noir films will be discussed in Octob...

It's no longer Kubrick Month because we're late recording and uploading this and P4, but regardless, we're here to complete our Kubrickian Odysseys!   Dhruv, Amartya, and Hemant have spent the entirety of July (and will now spend the last week of August and the first week of September) revisiting and discussing 10 (of 13) Kubrick-directed films (the Horror and Noir films will be discussed in Octob...

In this episode, Dhruv and Amartya invite Devi (@film.trance) and Adithiyan (@curioseradithiyan) to discuss their favorite films of the year (up to and including July) in a new format! Each of them selects not only their favorite film but also their favorite direction, cinematography, score, screenplay, editing, and performance of the year (so far). Like before, this discussion is not limited to a...

Tis' Kubrick Month! Dhruv, Amartya, and Hemant will spend the entirety of July revisiting and discussing 10 (of 13) Kubrick-directed films (the Horror and Noir films will be discussed in October and November, respectively!) plus 1 conceptualized and obsessed over by him but eventually directed by his dear friend, Steven Spielberg. In Part 2 (of 4), we focus on Kubrick's historical epics, which fee...

Tis' Kubrick Month! Dhruv, Amartya, and Hemant will spend the entirety of July revisiting and discussing 10 (of 13) Kubrick-directed films (the Horror and Noir films will be discussed in October and November, respectively!) plus 1 conceptualized and obsessed over by him but eventually directed by his dear friend, Steven Spielberg. In Part 1 (of 4), we focus entirely on the one genre he repeatedly...

Hello, Hello, Hello! In our third (of three!) episodes on Queerness in Film this month, Dhruv invites Queer Academic & SRK and KJo Fanboy Cris Patrick (@limjaeseven) to discuss the one thing he wanted to talk about most, the thing that in many ways defines his Twitter Page - QUEER CODING, READING & CAMP SENSIBILITY IN BOLLYWOOD . We emphasize the words "Coding, Reading, and Camp Sensibilit...

In the second of three (or maybe even four!) episodes on Queer Cinema this month, Dhruv and Cris rhapsodize about Claire Denis' formally groundbreaking masterwork of queer and post-colonial cinema, "Beau Travail" (1999). Initially, we planned to make this a 25-30 minute "extra" episode because Cris' recent obsession with the film matched Dhruv's unwavering love for it. But the film, loosely based...

Hello, Hello, Hello! In our first (of three!) episodes on Queerness in Film this month, Dhruv invites Queer Academic & SRK and KJo Fanboy Cris Patrick (@limjaeseven) to discuss the one thing he "avoided like the plague for the longest time as he himself came to terms with his identity" -- Queer REPRESENTATION in Bollywood. We emphasize the word "representation" because our focus for this episo...

Hello, Hello, Hello! In our latest episode, Sanjeet, Dhruv, and Hemant discuss Alex Garland's Civil War , which is now available to buy/rent on all OTT platforms. Using the film's increasingly divisive reception as a jumping point, we try to reason out its potential explanations; then, we center our main discussion on what we thought about the film itself. Listen to the full episode for a spoiler-...

In another long-overdue episode, Dhruv welcomes Sanket back to discuss two underseen films (both premiered at Cannes but got lost in the mix) that provide a depressing diagnosis of Europe and England's rapidly multiplying racism and xenophobia. Ken Loach's "The Old Oak" (2023) provides potential solutions to it; Cristian Mungiu's "R.M.N." (2022) leaves the decision up to us. Listen to the full epi...

In this episode, Sanjeet and Amartya welcome Devi (@film.trance) back to talk about two new Malayalam movies recently released on OTT: Jithu Madhavan's high-voltage action-comedy "Aavesham" (on Amazon Prime Video) and Girish AD's tender rom-com-drama "Premalu" (on Hotstar). Both films serve up narratives that are largely popular in the Indian cinematic landscape but fee...

Looking for your jidaigeki fix after the finale of FX's "Shōgun" (2024)? Travel back to the 1960s and watch the jidaigeki phase of one of the most celebrated (and yet still somehow not as widely known) Japanese filmmakers, Masaki Kobayashi. All these films -- "Harakiri" (1962), "Kwaidan" (1964), and "Samurai Rebellion" (1967) -- take place in the Edo per...

In what is undoubtedly our most publicized episode, we -- Dhruv, Sanjeet (!), Varun, Aryan, and Prithwish -- discuss the three Imtiaz Ali - A.R. Rahman collaborations that make up the most “sufiyana” phase of the director’s filmography. We first discuss the exhilaration and exasperation of glorifying Ruminess in “Rockstar” (2011); then the exhilaration and exhaustion of Indianizing Stockholm Syndr...

In what is undoubtedly our most publicized episode, we -- Dhruv, Sanjeet (!), Varun, Aryan, and Prithwish -- discuss half of the peculiar filmography of Imtiaz Ali. The first half of this first part episode on the director is dedicated to "Jab We Met" (2007) and "Jab Harry Met Sejal" (2017) -- two films that share titles and character traits but tap into their respective romant...

In this very special episode, Dhruv and Srilekha celebrate the thoroughly depressing and despairing films of Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, who turned 82 a week ago on March 23rd. We first discuss his exacting style that has inspired several high-profile European filmmakers (Ruben Östlund and Yorgos Lanthimos, the most famously known amongst them) to address themes of colonial guilt, fascism,...

In this episode, Dhruv and Amartya welcome Devi (@film.trance) back to talk about two Malayalam movies recently released on OTT: Anand Ekarshi's morally complex drama/thriller "Aattam" (on Amazon Prime Video) and Rahul Sadasivan's folk horror film "Bramayugam" (on Sony Liv). Both films serve up narratives and, especially, aesthetic styles largely underexplored by contem...

In our buildup to discussing Homi Adajania's "Murder Mubarak" on Monday (March 18, 2024), we -- Dhruv, Amartya & Varun -- discuss two similarly high-profile Hollywood whodunnits that have influenced Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" movies, which have subsequently become the template for any modern-day whodunnit mysteries. The rules of these game narratives may vary: if H...

In our latest episode, Dhruv, Amartya, Hemant, and Prithwish talk about Denis Villeneuve's latest science-fiction blockbuster, "Dune: Part Two" -- a film that Dhruv and Amartya were skeptical about because they disliked "Part One," and Hemant and Prithwish were excited for because they loved "Part One." Is there going to be a similar disagreement over "Part T...

In this very special episode, Amartya, Aryan, and Dhruv discuss the different styles of the Hollywood Western from its "birth" in 1939 to its "death" in 1968. We begin by discussing John Ford's 1939 film, "Stagecoach," singlehandedly responsible for resuscitating the A-Movie Western for the talkies in Hollywood's Pre-War Era. It provides us with a broad template for archetypes and narratives that...