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 Disney workers walk out over ‘don’t say gay’ bill as company sends mixed messages Even though only a small percentage of Walt Disney Co workers participated in a walkout Tuesday, organizers felt they had won a moral victory with the company issuing a statement denouncing the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that sparked employee outrage. Throughout the day, pockets of employees staged demonstrations at various sites across the US, including near Orlando’s Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Studios. According to a Disney official, there had been no interruptions in any operations as of midday Tuesday. Disney employed 190,000 workers last October, with roughly three-quarters working in its theme parks division. The debate forced the company into a balancing act between the expectations of a diverse workforce and demands from an increasingly polarized, politicized marketplace. On one side are LGBTQ advocates and Disney employees calling for the walkout in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s slow respo...

Telugu superstar Ram Charan couldn’t have hoped for a better birthday gift than Rajamouli’s RRR. The letter ‘R’ has played an important part in Ram Charan's career. In RRR his turn as a cop during the British Raj who changes loyalties with a sweeping smooth celerity is one of the film’s highlights. The hard work that has gone into the performance is evident in every frame. Ram Charan is not a great actor. But he has worked hard to prove he is more than the legendary Chiranjeevi’s son. Remember in 2013 when he made his disastrous debut in Hindi with Zanjeer, Ram was not fluent in Hindi, the actor took rigorous Hindi classes. Transforming himself in front of the audience is a special skill that Ram Charan has nurtured. In his career’s best performance in Rangasthalam, there was something enormously endearing about the Telugu superstar trying to shed his image, to get into the skin of his character the way, say, Uttam Kumar did in Satyajit Ray’s Nayak or Rajesh Khanna in Basu Bhattach...

The Berlin film festival used to be an oddly contradictory affair. It was known for elaborately kitsch opening and closing ceremonies and competition films heavy on social conscience: champagne on the red carpet, kale juice on the screen. This year’s Berlin was differently strange. The February 2021 festival was online only, but offered the best crop of titles in recent memory. This year, a slightly shorter festival went live again – and if only its selections had been in the same league, it might have offset the event’s strangely desolate feel. The festival’s distribution market had gone online, meaning fewer delegates, partly because of Germany’s still tough Covid restrictions, which insisted on daily tests as a requirement for access to press screenings. All this made the unusually quiet Palast area feel like an art installation tribute to the bygone days of Checkpoint Charlie. As for the films, much of the competition selection had the glum earnestness of the old Berlinale, with li...

 The Boys Presents: Diabolical and Star Wars: Visions underline boundless potential of animated spin-off shows When done right, the animated anthology allows us to both zoom in [look at specific, smaller stories] and zoom out, allowing a wider exploration of the far corners of these worlds in a way their live-action counterparts just haven't. In this, the golden age of geekdom, Sounds Geek To Me is a column that seeks to discuss and dissect the latest from the various fandom universes, new and old. From Marvel to Middle Earth to The Matrix, sci-fi sensations to superheroes, galaxies far far away to wizarding worlds, the column aims to inform, opine and take fantasy storytelling far too seriously. For all us nerds who frequently find ourselves falling into one fandom universe or another, it has become increasingly clear that these days, animation is where it is at. Some of the richest, most mature geekdom storytelling has always existed in animation, and the last year alone has give...

Bachchhan Paandey is a problematic gangster comedy peppered with insouciant lunacy The six screenwriters of Bachchhan Paandey are united in their belief that the 2017 Tamil blockbuster Jigarthanda is worth a stab (and a gunshot) at a rollicking remake. But this one just breaks your heart If I were a Bachchan (with or without an extra ‘h’) or a Paandey (give or take an extra ‘a’) I would be exceedingly insulted by this ‘gangster comedy’, to coin a new name for a genre that thinks gore and giggles are blood brothers, and that a hero with a glass eye who proudly says he loves to kill, is the height of hilarity. But then for any individual or community to feel affronted by this insanely iconoclastic ode to the cult of gangsterism, would be an over-reaction. Bachchhan Paandey (BP) insults any and every species of mankind, from stammerers to spitters. From Smita Patil to Marlon Brando (the Brando jokes shows much later in the plot when the audience has stopped listening). Sanjay Mishra, who ...

BAFTA 2022 highlights: Dune leads winners list; organisers, host Rebel Wilson send messages of support for Ukraine Jane Campion was named best director for The Power of the Dog, becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards’ seven-decade history. Sci-fi epic Dune won five prizes and brooding Western The Power of the Dog was named best picture as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021. New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for The Power of the Dog, becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards’ seven-decade history. Lead acting trophies went to Hollywood star Will Smith and British performer Joanna Scanlan, as an event that has worked to overcome a historic lack of diversity recognised a wide range of talents — including its first deaf acting winner in Troy Kotsur for CODA. Last year’s awards ceremony was largely conducted online, with only the hosts and p...

Love Hostel movie review: A chilling representation of India’s war against love In the present political atmosphere pervading the country, where the reprehensible concepts of ‘love jihad’ and ‘honour killings’ have prominence in the public discourse, Shanker Raman has made a thought-provoking film about a bleak real-life scenario. Social relevance and good intentions cannot guarantee quality cinema. Shanker Raman’s sardonically titled Love Hostel does not rely merely on its brave theme. Instead, without equivocation or apologies to dominant communities, it tells a chilling story of a young couple in today’s Haryana, and the destructive familial, societal and political opposition to their love.   Sanya Malhotra plays Love Hostel’s Jyoti Dilawar, the feisty granddaughter of a powerful politician. She is educated, gutsy, spirited and in love.   Jyoti’s boyfriend, Ashu Shokeen (Vikrant Massey), fits certain prevailing stereotypes. It takes a while to realise that this is...