Ritika Ruminates

Image Source- BookMyShow Recently, Kiran Rao's Laapata Ladies was released on Netflix, and it is worth every appreciation and hype there is for the movie on social media. My Instagram is filled with it, and many reels end up being shared on my Instagram stories (gonna be obsessing over the movie for some time now). It is a movie that rightly depicts feminism. Laapataa Ladies explore and respect the choices of both the lead female characters, along with Manju Mai (dadi). The feminist dialogues are on point. The only problematic statement was from Mai that women don't need men. Maybe not husbands, as marriage should be out of choice, but surely progressive fathers and brothers who are not threatened by women's independence, opinions, and professional work. The movie proved that feminism isn't about drinking, smoking, and cheating alone, as portrayed in a series on Amazon Prime and partly in Lipstick Under My Burkha. Feminism, as a concept/movement, is simple and aims for ...

Image Source- BookMyShow Last week, I watched the movie Maidaan in theatre. No doubt, it was entertaining, with heartbeat fluctutaing every few seconds during match scenes (much like a good game of football). Unfortunately, the movie tanked at box office as of now, despite its good content and overall acting.  Afterwards, while ruminating on it, I realized the right timing when the movie got launched in theatres. Initial part of the movie had the Indian football team struggling badly, and even in midst of the movie, where people did not have any faith in the team to win. This is the exact scenario currently with our Indian football team as well, where we are mostly on a losing streak and suffering badly. This one year is not going really well for our country. The team, coach and AIFF is facing backlash for losing against Afghanistan as well, a country that is under the rule of Taliban and isn't doing well in socio-political realm. Some of the football fans are demanding resignation...

Image Source - Medium Recently, Sandeep Reddy Vanga, director of the 'Animal,' gave a statement that if one can't slap, kiss or use cuss words towards their partner whenever one wants to, it is not love, that is he "doesn't see emotions there." It is uncertain whether it was his personal beliefs or he said it for negative publicity, but going by his past movies, I'd say he really means it. This brings us to the question - is love supposed to be unconditional? Does there not exist boundaries in love, especially for people with a mindset similar to this director? I don't believe that love can be unconditional, surely not between friends or a couple. Some say a mother's love for her child is unconditional, maybe. But don't these mothers (let us include fathers too) expect respectful behaviour from their kids once they are old enough to understand mannerisms? Respect is the foundation of love of any kind. If you don't respect them, you can'...

Disclaimer- This post is a product of random thoughts and my opinion and not backed by any research. The books and movies/series are mentioned only for examples and I have no intention of condemning them. Image Source - IMDb With the humongous collection of books and movies & series, it's evident that similar narratives will be observed and followed in many books, especially contemporary works. While some may be looked down upon, many other tropes are even admired and recommended.  Tropes here refers to elements in a story or relationship dyamics which is similar in many works of fiction across different authors and screenwriters. Example of tropes include grumpy × sunshine , fake dating,   enemies to lovers,   friends to lovers , marriage of convenience , ex-lovers runiting after long time etc. As a reader & viwer of mostly comedy and romantic genre, I can only mention similar narratives found in these genres. Here are examples of other tropes from various genr...

Image source- Hindustan Times   I recently watched the movie Maja Ma on Amazon Prime Video. A movie about how the lead's (Madhuri Dixit) smoothly going life gets interrupted by her secret getting out in public, affecting her's and her family's life. The caste includes Madhuri Dixit, Gajraj Rao, Ritwik Bhowmik, Barkha Singh, and Sheeba Chaddha among many others. This review contains some spoilers. So you can watch a movie and come back to this blog post 😀. Phobia against homosexuality still very much exists in our society, be it within India or western countries. This is even more in small towns or rural areas of India, where knowledge is not enough and incorrect, and so prejudice and shame around homosexuality is more. The myth and phobia against homosexuality are often based on incorrect and incomplete information we receive about homosexuality (and everything in the LGBTQIA+ community). I have written about it in my other blog post, which you can read here . ...