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My Chemical Reaction's newly released The Foundations of Decay prima facie appears to be a return to their emo roots but is a sonically mature outing. In TheMusicThatMadeUs, senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri chronicles the impact that musicians and their art have on our lives, how they mould the industry by rewriting its rules and how they shape us into the people we become: their greatest legacies My Chemical Romance’s delayed comeback is, in fact, a blessing in disguise. Returning to a post-lockdown world that is embroiled in multiple hues of personal transformations, MCR’s postponed reunion tour couldn’t have been timed better. After announcing their comeback gig in 2019, their plans—much likes ours—hadn’t factored a pandemic that forced people to stay home, lose jobs, home-school their children and grapple with a spiralling sense of hopelessness. In short, the perfect breeding ground for the manifestation of a new generation of the emo experience. While vocalist Gera...

Aditya Chopra worked on his first project at the age of 23 and directed Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ). The film became an instant hit and created a landmark in Indian cinema. The film won every possible award and is still a fan favourite. Filmmaker Aditya Chopra turns 51 today, 21 May. Born to veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra and Pamela Chopra, Aditya Chopra was an ardent movie buff since his childhood. The director kickstarted his career by working as an assistant to his father Yash Chopra in films like Chandni (1989), Lamhe (1991), and Darr (1993). After working with his father, Chopra worked on his first project at the age of 23 and directed Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ). The film became an instant hit and created a landmark in Indian cinema. The film won every possible award and is still a fan favourite. Following DDLJ, Chopra directed Mohabbatein in 2000, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and others. On the occasion of Aditya Chopra's ...

Johar, who heads one of the biggest Hindi film banners Dharma Productions and has been a director for over two decades, said successful films across languages only give a push to Indian cinema as a collective unit Filmmaker Karan Johar on Sunday said the massive success of south films such as "RRR", "KGF: Chapter 2" and "Pushpa" has "raised the bar for Indian films" and taught the industry to aim higher. Johar, who heads one of the biggest Hindi film banners Dharma Productions and has been a director for over two decades, said successful films across languages only give a push to Indian cinema as a collective unit. "We can say with a lot of pride that we are a part of Indian cinema. We are proud of 'RRR', 'KGF' and 'Pushpa' which did phenomenal business. These films have raised the bar for Indian films, told us that our standards can be so massive and we can reach so far ahead," Johar told reporters during the tr...

If you die, what’s the plan for the next life?” This is the question posed in the opening scene of the recent BBC adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s 2013 novel Life After Life, in which the protagonist, Ursula, repeatedly dies and starts over from birth. It’s a fascinating idea: what would you do differently, and what would remain the same? It is one explored in another hit TV show that has just returned for a second season, Russian Doll, the first season of which saw the main character, Nadia, return endlessly to the night of her 36th birthday party, suffering a different death each time. Mainstream film and television have a long history of playing with time loops. But while Groundhog Day was a huge success in the early 1990s, narratives about ordinary people caught in this speculative twist have been harder to pull off in literature. Perhaps this is because there tends to be an earnestness to such stories that doesn’t translate into fiction, and a tendency towards repetition that readers...

'Marvel Universe is ridden with a climate of an out-of-control carnival, driven by a sense of aimless urgency that pushes the boundaries of the imagination dangerously close to a drugged haze,' says Subhash Jha I sat through the very strange Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness in rapt attention, trying to make head or tail of what was unfolding in front of me. To get a better peek into the peaks of purported profundity in Dr Strange’s world I had selected the 2D screening of the film instead of 3D which my friends preferred. But I feel the 3D technique is gimmicky distracting and distancing. I wanted to penetrate Doctor Strange’s universe without any obstacles. I have to confess, it was a losing battle. Not much of what I saw made sense to me. This, according to the Marvel-ophiles is proof that I am intellectually unequipped to enter the Marvel universe and also that I am ageing. However, when I question the ostensible fans of the Marvel superhero genre I am amused to n...

Saani Kaayidham and Thar bear an uncanny eerie resemblance to one another in mood and theme. This week’s two major OTT releases, director Arun Matheswaran’s Saani Kaayidham in Tamil and Raj Singh Chaudhary’s Thar in Hindi and Rajasthani, bear an uncanny eerie resemblance to one another in mood and theme. In both, the wronged protagonist sets off on an accelerated sanguinary vendetta spree after they are robbed of all that’s precious to them. The ensuing bloodbath that is not meant for the squeamish at all. In fact, Saani Kaayidham starts with a warning about the volume of violence in the content, and then quickly moves to one of the most savage prologues I’ve ever seen, with a drastically deglamorized Keerthy Suresh and her accomplice played by accomplished Selvaraghavan, gruesomely torturing a woman and then calmly setting her on fire. Heroines don’t do such things in our film, do they! At least not until recently. And Keerthy after a very impressive National-award winning performance...

Amber Heard said that Johnny Depp had repeatedly hit her, threw bottles at her and choked her against a refrigerator, before finally getting her on top of a countertop and penetrating her with a bottle. Actor Amber Heard tearfully told jurors that Johnny Depp sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle in an alcohol-fuelled rage. The March 2015 incident in Australia, where Depp was filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, is sharply disputed and has been a focal point of the four-week civil trial in Fairfax, Virginia. The night ended with the tip of Depp's middle finger cut off, and him writing vulgar messages in blood on the walls of the house. Depp denies assaulting her in any way and says his finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him; Heard said she'd taken sleeping pills after she was attacked and was not awake when the finger was severed. The graphic description of the sexual assault left Heard fighting for her composure as she described it to juro...

Arun Vijay says working on Sarov Shanmugham's Oh My Dog taught him the 'value of patience' Arun Vijay talks about his experience on Oh My Dog: 'You can still instruct kids, but dogs dance to their own beat. You have to be patient to get them in that zone' Serendipity is the one word that links all the people who are a part of Oh My Dog, the 2D Entertainment film that released on Amazon Prime on 21 April. Three members of one family who love dogs — Vijayakumar, his son Arun Vijay and grandson Arnav — play important roles, and it all began with an Instagram video that actor Suriya sent first-time director Sarov Shanmugham. Sarov, who has always wanted to make a film for children, has been trying to strike out as a director for long. No producer was willing to back a story for children and no one was willing to give him even a decent budget. One day, he faintly remembered reading somewhere that actor-producer Suriya was keen to make films for children. “I waited for a ...

Shweta Tripathi Sharma's Escaype Live also stars Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, Swastika Mukherjee, Plabita Borthakur, Waluscha D Souza, Ritvik Sahore, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Jagjeet Sandhu, Rohit Chandel and Aadyaa Sharma in pivotal roles. Actress Shweta Tripathi Sharma, who impressed audiences with her performances in films like Masaan, Haraamkhor and others, will be next seen in Disney + Hotstar's Escaype Live. While the makers have not revealed anything about her character, she recently shared her reasons to be a part of this show. The actress said, “I am drawn towards drama. I like stories that have interesting characters and the emotional quotient, that for me is the hook, how I emotionally respond when I listen to a story, how I connect to a character. These are things which are extremely important, besides the script. It is the makers, the people who are making it because no matter how good your story is but if your chef isn't good and no matter what be...

The news of Naomi Judd's demise came the day before the Judds were set to be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame at a medallion ceremony in Nashville. Naomi Judd, whose family harmonies with daughter Wynonna turned them into the Grammy-winning country stars The Judds, has died. She was 76. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, announced her death on Saturday in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the statement said. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.” Naomi Judd died near Nashville, Tennessee, said a statement on behalf of her husband and fellow singer, Larry Strickland. It said no further details about her death would be released and asked for privacy as the family grieves. The Country Music Hall of Fame will continue with a planned induction ceremo...