BLTR

 There is a certain narrative arc a sports movie or a period drama can adhere to. And yet, their limitations of late have been compensated for with their capacity to generate a feeling of nationalism. The opening scene of Saina, a biopic of the celebrated Badminton icon that released in March this year, unravels with the protagonist’s racing thoughts as she is in the middle of a crucial game — about patriarchy and all the barriers faced by women to date, their fate often sealed at the age of 18. And yet, her next line is, "Main Saina.. Bharat ki beti." Despite all the prejudice and adversities, the legendary player cannot disassociate herself from her nation — how she sees herself in relation to her country’s pride remains the leading thought. Even though director Amole Gupte does well to steer clear of jingoistic clichés later on in the narrative, this two-minute stretch pretty much sums up the biggest mission undertaken by popular Hindi cinema in the last couple of years — ...

Jean-Marc Vallee’s women are that rare breed that flirt with the idea of avenging trauma with a sense of self-consuming depravity. In a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2019, Jean-Marc Vallee claimed he fought with his producers for ‘9 AM to 6 PM’ shoots. “I also fight for the music budget, to put music at the centre of my stories," the director added. Vallee’s penchant for using music as an iconic quotation rather than serviceable backdrop was a keen aspect of his work that many will remember for not just how it looked, but also how it sounded. For Sharp Objects, Vallee pushed HBO to use Led Zepplin as the basis for a deeply grim series. The director had also claimed on record that he wanted to be a rockstar for his ear for music and its crescendos, evident in his use of Michael Kiwanuka’s ‘Cold Little Heart’ for Big Little Lies. But more than his musical eccentricities, Vallee, who died aged 58 today, knew how to cautiously illuminate some of the darkest place...