Around three decades ago, Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah kickstarted their journeys as television actors. It was the early 1990s when cassette players and recorders ruled the roost. Doordarshan, back then, had popular television serials that would bring families together at prime time.
Balan and Shah tasted their first years of glory through popular television shows that got them noticed and eventually gave them the entry ticket to Bollywood. While Balan began her career with Ekta Kapoor’s television show Hum Paanch (1996) as Radhika Mathur before joining Bollywood, Shah started her journey around the same time with Campus (1993), which revolved around college life of the 1990s and enjoyed quite a fan following. Over the years, both women—self-made professionals, married, and in their 40s—have successfully delivered powerful and moving roles across genres with stories that have touched upon gender, power, masculinity, ambition, and more. Yet, they never met, professionally; except for some chance meet-ups at events. And that is why in the latest Instagram reels doing the rounds the bonhomie between the two women—dressed in flowing saris and hair buns—as they go about promoting their first-ever film together, Jalsa, a drama-thriller, is especially striking. Incidentally, the two have very few scenes together, even though they play parallel leads in the Suresh Triveni directed film, which revolves around the death of a young girl and a news channel investigating it. Balan essays the role of an investigative journalist, Maya Menon, while Shah is a mother to a teenager who works in Menon’s house. But, what if the two roles could be swapped?
Denne historien er fra March 27, 2022-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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Denne historien er fra March 27, 2022-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
